Disney's Galaxy Edge is a missed opportunity for interactive experiences

Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge is a must-see for many Star Wars fans. It was for me. With fan-favorite characters wandering the area and rumors of incredible rides, I knew I needed to visit "Star Wars Land" for myself. Upon my visit, the biggest stand-out was Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, one of the best rides I have ever been on.

Of course it was amazing to see life-sized AT-ATs and zoom around an Imperial Ship, but what stood out to me was the experience of waiting in line. The story is that guests board a shuttle and have their ship captured by the First Order. All before stepping foot on the real ride, guests are arrested, interrogated by Kylo Ren, and rescued by the rebels. The immersion of the line experience and the way they merged it into the ride itself was genius.

However, after riding something so revolutionary, when I returned to the park environment of Galaxy's Edge, I couldn't help but feel like something was missing. Sure, I wanted to take my picture next to the Millennium Falcon and finding the Stormtroopers in the crowd sounded fun. However, nothing about the environment really made me want to explore. When I compare the park environment to something like the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios, it is clear which one made me feel immersed.

The Wizarding World park is so different from Galaxy's Edge because it is not just the rides that are meant to be fun. There are so many little details from the franchise in shop windows and down alleyways. It is a place where you can wander around for hours, even if a lot of the details and experiences are just an excuse to sell more Harry Potter merchandise. One big gamechanger was the introduction of interactive wands which let guests to perform spells at specific locations around the parks.

The interactive wands allow fans to use specific spell motions to unlock effects, including spraying water from a fountain and summoning fire from a chimney. Although it is not a perfect system, it is a wonderful opportunity to try spells people have only read about or seen in the films. Compared with the Wizarding World, Galaxy's Edge looks a little empty. Aside from the big-ticket items, there's not as much to see.

The thing about the interactive wand experience is that this feature did not exist when the parks first opened. It was added several years after they first opened. Why can't the Black Spire Outpost get an upgrade, as well? Like the wand experience at Universal Studios, Imagineers could create an interactive object affecting the park environment. The closest I can picture to the wand system would be selling kyber crystals with internal sensors. They could invent a story explaining how people can connect to the Force via these crystals and then set up stations around the park for guests to try it for themselves. Force Pushes/Pulls, Deflection, or even Force Lightening could be feasible practical effects.

If they made changes to the park, it would not be Disney's first foray into interactive park experiences. In fact, Galaxy's Edge already has an interactive experience that many people don't know about... and for good reason. Through a Disney app, guests can scan QR codes found around the park and play mini-games. The goal of each game includes missions like hacking panels or discovering smuggled items inside crates. But as many have found, the game is little more than simple puzzles with little to no payoff in the park environment. After completing a puzzle, fans might count themselves lucky even to see blinking lights, as many of the puzzles cause no outward changes in the park itself.

This is clearly a missed opportunity to encourage fans to explore the park and encounter experiences they have always wanted to see in the real world. However, hope is not lost for an app system. Disney has succeeded in interactive park games before. The World Showcase Adventure is an Epcot game that can easily be translated for Galaxy's Edge. Through a mobile device, guests are able to explore a country in Epcot by following along with characters from Disney Channel shows on an adventure. Gameplay is similar to a scavenger hunt, but when guests reach the intended location, practical effects are triggered in the park environment that connects to the game's story. Every few years, Disney changes which characters are the stars of the game and they alter the game effects to go along with it. The game could potentially be reinvented for many years without getting stale.

To adapt the systems from the World Showcase Adventure, Disney could use elements from their former hotel, the Galactic Starcruiser. Although many of the experiences in the hotel were unsuccessful, they created a model for what the interactive park games could look like. At the hotel, guests were divided into three storylines: Resistance ally, First Order ally, or smuggler/rogue. Just as games take place in individual countries in Epcot for the Showcase Adventure, guests can decide what story they want to play and explore the park on one of three unique missions.

Resistance allies can complete puzzles to help Rey send a vital message to the Resistance. Along the way, they might use the Force to lift a data pad in a shop window, presumably passing it to Rey. Maybe smugglers stop outside Oga's Cantina at the end of their mission and are rewarded with a view of the elusive Oga peaking an animatronic head through a window to congratulate them. They don't have to be the most impressive effects to make a Star Wars fan's day, but practical effects in the park will always win over gameplay restricted entirely to an app.

Any way that Disney decides to evolve their Star Wars park is sure to cause lots of excitement, but fans deserve more than lackluster app games. When the possibilities of interactive experiences are endless, fans have the right to demand more out of the parks and the right to create Star Wars memories that will last a lifetime.