Nintendo new museum with Mario exhibition in Japan

Nintendo the global gaming brand is to open its very first museum in the Japanese city of Kyoto.

The exhibition will revolve around the brand icon Mario as part of a treasure trove of consoles and gaming memorabilia and will be opening on October 2, 2024.

The news was announced as part of a special Nintendo Direct, which sadly did not cover any news about the Nintendo Switch 2, but went into detail about the exhibition space.

The Nintendo Direct was led by gaming icon Shigeru Miyamoto, who walked fans through the history of the show and the features of the new museum. A Mario-themed entranceway will greet visitors to the new location, sporting the verdant pipes and the signature golden blocks of the series.

Nintendo never technically had a museum, but the origins of the gaming giant are wrapped in its early life in the playing card market. Hardcore fans were sometimes admitted to the inner sanctum of the console makers’ early days, but there has never been an exhibition space such as this for fans to walk through the past of the brand that brought Mario, Luigi, and a host of other classic gaming characters to life.

As a touchstone of Nintendo’s past fans who visit can create their own Hanafuda cards. These cards were the bedrock of Nintendo’s early life and the factory where they were produced is on the very same grounds as the museum. Visitors will be able to learn the Hanafuda game and take home their museum-created cards.

Miyamoto’s walkthrough of the space shows fans the consoles and the controllers of the company’s past. Taking time to stop and display the range of classic physical games like a batting practice cage and a showing off a virtual shooting range.

Entry to the museum was mentioned by Miyamoto at 3,300 yen around $22 for visitors. However, the company is running a lottery for lucky winners to visit the museum on the opening day, saying “We are now accepting drawing entries for October and November 2024 tickets. The entry deadline is 23:59 on Saturday, August 31.”

Image: Ideogram

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