The only official Nintendo museum opens in Japan – a tour

“Super Mario”, “Donkey Kong”, “The Legend of Zelda” – just the sound of these names makes millions of video game fans in Germany and all over the world feel their hearts pounding. From October 2nd, fans can admire how it all began and how Nintendo managed to become a global video game giant in the world’s only Nintendo Museum near Japan’s old imperial city of Kyoto – a mixture of company history, product exhibition and interactive gaming paradise.

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In a video tour (see below), Nintendo’s legendary video game developer Shigeru Miyamoto leads through the museum. He met international groups of journalists on site and also provided a look behind the scenes of the new mega-attraction for Nintendo fans.

Video shows oversized consoles

The journey through the company’s 135-year history – from its beginnings in the 19th century to today – begins with an escalator to the second floor. What immediately catches the eye are oversized consoles from various Nintendo eras hanging from the ceiling.

The giant models of legendary consoles and controllers can also be seen in the video tour, from the Nintendo Entertainment System to the current Nintendo Switch:

Travel into the past

The individual consoles including accessories and the associated games are presented in their original packaging. The respective games can be seen in action on monitors above and heard over loudspeakers. “It’s also very surprising to me to know that all of these characters are more than 20 years old,” says Miyamoto, who played a key role in developing titles such as “Super Mario Bros.” and “The Legend of Zelda” in the 1980s. Fans will also find out how the graphics of the Nintendo consoles are developing.

The visitor immediately awakens memories of their own past. The idea was to create a place where three generations of a family could look back with joy on their own video game experiences and visitors could exchange ideas, says Nintendo’s legendary video game developer Shigeru Miyamoto. “Every person can have their own place here where they can reminisce about beautiful memories,” says Miyamoto, describing the concept in an interview with selected foreign journalists.

From playing cards to video game consoles

The circular exhibition ranges from Hanafuda playing cards, with which Nintendo’s company history began in 1889, to board games and other toys from the 1950s to 1970s and video game consoles. Initially the concept was to show Nintendo’s products.

“But when I put myself in the perspective of the visitors, I would like to at least look a little behind the scenes, something that we have not made possible so far,” says Miyamoto. That’s why there is also an area with prototypes in which, for example, various concepts of the Wii Balance Board are shown.

Visitors can also play themselves

But what would a Nintendo Museum be if you weren’t allowed to play there? After the tour through the many exhibits, eight games await visitors on the ground floor, depicting the diversity of the Nintendo world and at the same time creating new experiences.

In a modern twist on the Game & Watch, the first portable, pocket-sized console released by Nintendo in the 1980s, visitors interacted with a game projected on the wall using the shadows of their arms. There are two games for this: “Ball”, the first Game & Watch game at the time, and “Manhole”.

Use Zapper and Super Scope against Mario’s opponents

In a kind of digital version of the traditional card game Hanafuda, visitors can also use smart devices to search for motifs projected on the floor. A blast is Zapper & Scope, a light-based shooting game that is intended to be reminiscent of the bowling alleys that Nintendo converted into shooting ranges in the 1970s. On a huge, cinema-like screen you can shoot at Mario’s opponents with Zapper and Super Scope and compete with other visitors.

But be careful: each entry ticket is loaded with only ten digital coins. They get lost quickly. There is no option to buy coins in the museum. If you want to play more, you also have to register for a new ticket on another day. These are only available by lottery on the museum’s official website. It is said that no more than 1,500 to 2,000 visitors should be allowed in per day.

Things get really nostalgic in the Nintendo Classics area, where visitors can – for a limited time – try out more than 80 NES, Super NES or Nintendo 64 games on consoles, almost like in the old days, including “Mario Kart”, ” Donkey Kong” and “The Legend of Zelda”.

But something is different: “The controllers are huge!” explains Miyamoto in the video tour. Visitors can usually only use the well-known controllers NES, Nintendo 64 and Co. with two people. “By talking to each other while serving, you have a completely different experience,” he says.

The museum building is part of the company’s history

The museum building, located just a few minutes’ walk from the Ogura train station in the city of Uji, is part of Nintendo’s history. The traditional company, founded in 1889 as a manufacturer of playing cards, initially used the Uji Ogura factory, founded in 1969, to produce playing cards and from 2016 also as a warehouse before deciding to set up a museum there. The area in front of the museum building is now amusingly paved with 8-bit motifs from “Super Mario” games.

The aim of the museum is to express “that we are, first and foremost, an entertainment company,” says Miyamoto. And not just a video game manufacturer. Every year new employees come to Nintendo, between 100 and 200. “And every year I give this lecture about what Nintendo is,” said Miyamoto. He talks there for two hours or even longer. “And after doing it for 20 years, I somehow don’t want to do it anymore,” he explains with a laugh, another motivation for the museum.

At the same time, the museum content should continue to develop. Revising, changing and correcting is “exactly the same as with video games,” says the famous developer about the preparations. Even a few days before the opening, changes were made.

“And as Nintendo develops new games and hardware, this museum will grow with that development,” Miyamoto said. The current exhibits in the exhibition would be expanded accordingly. But only there. There are no plans for more museums.

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