‘Big Hero 6’ arcade on new cruise ship evolves DisneyQuest, Epcot’s Play Pavilion: Analysis
Do you miss DisneyQuest? Do you wish Epcot’s Play Pavilion wasn’t canceled? Then you might want to book a trip on the Disney Adventure, where “Big Hero 6” high-tech games echo a defunct Disney favorite and an unbuilt attraction lost to history.
“Big Hero 6” will be represented onboard the upcoming Disney Adventure cruise ship in a big, heroic way: San Fransokyo Street, one of the seven themed areas of the ship, complete with Big Hero Arcade.
Disney describes Big Hero Arcade as “a family arcade reinvented into a dynamic gaming lounge.”
Through imaginative design and special effects, visitors to San Fransokyo Street will be
Disney Cruise Line
completely immersed in the sights, smells, and resonant sounds of a bustling city.
Big Hero Arcade kind of sounds like … hmmm … Let’s rewind for a moment.
Unbuilt Disney: Epcot’s Play Pavilion
In 2019, the Disney Parks Blog announced the long-forlorn Wonders of Life building at Epcot in Walt Disney World would transform into something new called the Play Pavilion.
Disney described the Play pavilion as “the digital city, where playing is a way of life — a place to snap and share — a place to play and win — a place to play and create.” The initial Disney Parks Blog post teased “interactive experiences,” “hands-on activities,” and “engaging entertainment.”
At D23 Expo 2019, then-Disney CEO Bob Chapek further discussed the Play Pavilion: “In this digital metropolis called Play Pavilion, you’ll discover an interactive city bursting with experiences, games, and activities that connect you with your friends, family, and some of your favorite characters,” including a few from “Big Hero 6.”
Construction began for the Play Pavilion in fall 2019, but was later abandoned and never completed. The project remains one of the more elusive Disney mysteries of the past decade. What would this attraction be like? Why was it canceled? Will Disney ever revisit the idea?
Well … Disney may have done just that — only not at Epcot.
The games of Big Hero Arcade
Comparing side by side, the glitzy, somewhat generic language used to describe both the “Big Hero 6” arcade and the Play Pavilion are strikingly similar.
Thanks to a recent press release, we can get a clearer picture of Big Hero Arcade as Disney describes the specific games within its quarters, each hosted by a different member of the Big Hero 6:
Hiro Training Zone: An immersive training simulator built by boy genius Hiro Hamada. The active, full-body experience will allow groups of four to put their hero skills to the test as they run, dodge and block their way across a high-tech gaming floor.
Super Fred Kaiju Chaos: A classic, family-friendly action game that challenges players to virtually don fanboy Fred’s super-jumping, fire-breathing battle suit and race through on-screen city streets in pursuit of a mysterious foe.
Go Go Racers: Mechanical engineer and racing enthusiast Go Go Tomago’s workstation will house the speedster’s personal training simulator that will require guests to use their own body movements to keep in time with an ever-quickening rhythm, challenging them to see how long they can last.
Honey Lemon Chem-Ball Blast: Honey Lemon, the sweet-natured chemist with an explosive streak, will equip her bright pink chemistry lab with beakers, explosive fashion accessories, and a competition where guests race to fire bubbles and create chemical chain reactions.
Wasabi Speed Slice: Super-intelligent and compulsively organized physics wiz Wasabi will ensure guests have plenty of space to try out this active gameplay experience where guests swing their arms to slice and dice obstacles with Wasabi’s laser-induced plasma blades.
Disney Cruise Line
Big Hero Arcade will also feature a meet & greet with Baymax, completing the roster of the “Big Hero 6” super hero squad.
Defunct Disney: DisneyQuest
The idea of a larger-than-life gaming hub created by Walt Disney Imagineering isn’t a new concept, even disregarding the Play Pavilion. While reading through the description of the “Big Hero 6” experiences above, ’90s kids might get flashbacks to DisneyQuest, the five-story “indoor, interactive theme park” (as Disney advertised it) at Downtown Disney (now Disney Springs) in Walt Disney World.
D23 describes DisneyQuest as a “high-tech, indoor recreation site designed for families and children to spend two to three hours playing computer-based, virtual-reality and Internet games.” Sound familiar to what we’ve already discussed?
Hyper-stylized and digital-focused (aka very ’90s), DisneyQuest featured such attractions as Cyber Space Mountain (in which guests build and then ride their own virtual roller coaster with the help of Bill Nye the Science Guy), Aladdin’s Magic Carpet Ride (a VR headset flight above Agrabah, pictured above), and others.
DisneyQuest closed in 2017.
What does this mean for the ‘Big Hero 6’ arcade?
It would be unfounded to assume Big Hero Arcade on the Disney Adventure cruise ship is a copy-and-paste of whatever Disney had planned for the Play Pavilion at Epcot. We know so little about what the Play Pavilion would have been, and equally little about what the upcoming “Big Hero 6” area will be.
What the existence of Big Hero Arcade tells us, then, is that Disney is not content with leaving its game-based themed experiences in its past, even if those experiences failed. The subject is just as relevant to vacation destinations now, maybe more than ever (just ask Super Nintendo World). Despite shuttering DisneyQuest and canceling the Play Pavilion, Walt Disney Imagineering is, after all this time, still very much in the business of gaming.
The Disney Adventure cruise ship sets sail from Singapore in December 2025. Ba-la-la-la-la.
More ‘Big Hero 6’ in Disney parks
“Big Hero 6” debuted in theaters 10 years ago (to the day … Nov. 7, 2014!) from Walt Disney Animation Studios. The film inspired The Happy Ride with Baymax, a Tokyo Disneyland attraction which has become something of a viral sensation as guests dance along to the ride’s music.
In the U.S., Disney reimagined the Pacific Wharf area at Disney California Adventure into San Fransokyo Square in 2023. Take a look through the land:
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