Back in September 2009, Universal Studios Japan announced that is would spend some 4-5 billion yen (around $55 million) on a new indoor ride to replace E.T. Adventure. It soon became clear that the ride would be Universal's answer to Tokyo Disneyland's Space Mountain - with a spinning roller coaster taking guests on a 1,920-feet-long ride through the solar system.

Space Fantasy: The Ride's insane plot is uniquely Japanese and unlikely to make it across to any of Universal's US parks, but it does lead to a truly innovative ride experience. Riders are asked by Solar Princess Kosuma, "Princess of the Sun", to collect "stardust" to help save the sun. Using stunning gesture-recognition technology developed by GestureTek, guests are able to collect "clouds" of stardust from screens that line the ride's queue and its 98-feet lift hill. The spinning action of the coaster trains is then said to release the energy from the stardust, restoring the sun to health.