Before someone says Nintendo should make a theme park on their own, I think we need to understand, theme parks are massively expensive. The new Universal Studios opening in China is reportedly going to cost $3.3 billion to build alone (yikes). So Nintendo partnering with Universal is absolutely the right way to go for lage scale attractions. 

But what about smaller scale attractions? Something bigger/nicer than a Chuck E. Cheese, perhaps along the lines of a Madame Trussards in size (the wax museum with celebrity statues)?

You could maybe have some scaled down versions of the Universal Ride + an arcade area + restaurant + a Nintendo museum + Nintendo store. Maybe a physical Mario Kart go-kart area or a Splatoon paintball area too.

Locations in major cities, but not so many that it's unmangable or becomes a huge strain on Nintendo financially. 

New York, Las Vegas, Tokyo, Shanghai, London, Paris, Toronto, Sydney. This way they would have access to more people that can't get to the Universal Parks and not every parent wants to spend a ton of money on Disneyland/Universal. This can be a happy alternative. 

Wouldn't be a bad idea, perhaps the Universal deal is just a start to get their feet wet.

I can't help but think that's Nintendo's goal. To become Disney, not to absorb Disney, but rather be the next Disney, they're already associated with that magical feeling of childhood innocence. We've heard many comparisons to Disney over the years, but I can't shake the feeling that Nintendo wants to surpass Disney. Of course a Company's main manifesto is always the business side of it, but I'm sure Nintendo as a whole wants to be redefine what Disney has done. Perhaps in the next 20 years, we'll see nintendo get it's feet wetter with other business ventures that see them be more than a videogame company.

I think you'd have a lot of guys in their 30s shoving little kids off the Pikachu ride.

This is a good first step, but Nintendo should absolutely make having its own theme park an end goal. No doubt about that.

I was planning to make a massive five thread series last year about how Nintendo could remain relevant and expand in the future. I'm seriously upset now that I procrastinated to long, because one full thread was goin to be dedicated to building a theme park to raise brand awareness, and I was going to talk about how partnering with Disney wouldn't be the best course of action and how going solo or partnering with Universal at first would be the best first step.

Now I can't say that I said it first. Don't procrastinate, kids.

As for what they'll do, they're definitely planning something along the lines of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.