Long-awaited Nintendo Museum opens in Kyoto

One of 2024’s most anticipated new attractions, Nintendo Museum, has finally opened in Kyoto, Japan, showcasing play, history and highly creative re-imaginings of historic Nintendo games.

Located on the site of a former Nintendo factory that made playing cards and repaired toys and consoles, the Nintendo Museum finally gives fans a place to discover and learn about the history of the Japanese video game company.

Founded in Kyoto in 1889 when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi began producing handmade hanafuda playing cards, Nintendo entered a partnership with the Walt Disney Company in 1959, opening up the children’s market, and began manufacturing toys and video games in the 1960s and 1970s.

This history is celebrated in the new museum via displays, interactive games and workshops.

“In more than 100 years since the company was founded, Nintendo has created many different forms of entertainment,” said Nintendo game director Shigeru Miyamoto, introducing the museum.

“Although the products we’ve made have changed with the times, our desire to create fun for the whole family remains the same. This museum is a place where you can learn about our commitment to crafting play and creativity – both of which are integral to Nintendo"

Visitors enter the museum via a Mario-themed Plaza. Inside, the museum is split into three sections: Learn, Experience, and Create and Play.

Mixing the old and new

The Experience section, on the first floor, features eight unique interactive games created especially for the museum. These are based on past Nintendo content, creatively reimagined using modern technology.

These experiences include a reinvention of the handheld electronic Game & Watch console on a huge screen operated by visitors’ shadows, classic Nintendo games played via enormous controllers and an experience that allows visitors to explore classic Japanese Hyakunin Isshu poems using smart devices and a giant screen on the floor.

In the 1970s, Nintendo renovated bowling alleys, turning them into commercial shooting galleries called Laser Clay. For the museum, Laser Clay has been reinterpreted using light guns and video walls as a shooting game called Zapper and Scope SP, which can be played by up to 13 people at one time.

More than just video games

The second floor features the Learn section, with displays of products released by Nintendo, from early games and consoles up to its most recent releases, as well as toys, board games and sports and leisure products. Visitors will find some unexpected products among the better-known ones, including baby strollers, photocopiers and an indoor baseball pitching machine.

Gameplay footage is displayed on large screens of the video games on show above the products so that visitors can see them in action.

Getting creative

In the Create and Play section, visitors can make their own Hanafuda playing cards in special workshops, and they can play Hanafuda as part of a specially created experience that uses image recognition and projection technology, allowing even first-timers to play easily.

The museum also features a café, and – of course – a shop, selling official merchandise based on Nintendo games and characters, as well as products only available at Nintendo Museum.