Nintendo Museum opening date announced, October 2, 2024

[razorbeamz]

The opening date for the Nintendo Museum has been announced and it’s been shown off in the Nintendo Museum Direct.

Nintendo Museum Direct

The Nintendo museum will open on October 2, 2024 in Kyoto. Tickets are currently being sold with a lottery system, and you are required to have a Nintendo account to apply for one.

Tickets are currently ¥3,300 for adults, ¥2,200 for youths (12-17) and ¥1,100 for children (6-11). Preschoolers (0-5) can get in free.

There are eight interactive exhibits along with a museum showing some of Nintendo’s history, with every single Nintendo published game on display.

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The interactive exhibits are:

Shigureden SP

Explore Hyakunin Isshu poems using smart devices and the giant screen on the floor.

Zapper & Scope SP

Experience shooting using the Zapper and Super Scope in the world of Mario that spreads out on the giant screen in front of you.

Ultra Machine SP

A batting-cage experience inside a room. Hit the balls pitched by the Ultra Machine.

Ultra Hand SP

Use the Ultra Hand to grab the balls rolling down the lanes, and drop them into the pipes.

Love Tester SP

Two people join hands and work together on tests that measure their Love Level.

Game & Watch SP

Play Game & Watch games using your own shadow.

Nintendo Classics

Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Nintendo 64. Choose from over 80 games to play.

Big Controller

Controllers from past hardware generations made giant. Two people must work together to take on challenges in games released back in the day.

The museum also has a café and a gift shop selling items unique to the museum.

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What do you think? Is it going to be worth the trip to Kyoto and the ticket price?

[Minasu]

Not sure why they bothered, could’ve just used D.Lo’s house.

In all seriousness, the lack of a single CRT is proof of Nintendo’s disdain for history.

The interactive exhibits look great!

[matt]

Don’t forget:

• learn to play Hanafuda
• make your own Hanafuda

I’d love to go.

[D.Lo]

Yeah it looks awesome, the recreations of period Japanese homes is fantastic, recreating some of the context and making it fun.

The light gun stuff seems to be about

@Minasu

Not sure why they bothered, could’ve just used D.Lo’s house.

Lol, in all seriousness I did actually think the ‘Before Mario’ guy could do this

beforemario

I’ve used his resources myself for info on more obscure Nintendo toys I’ve grabbed over the years, like the Nintendo Mini series.

Nintendo Mini Games series (ミニゲームシリーズ) (1971-76)

[harborline_765]

Great thread! Wanted to make one yesterday but never made time for it, but this is much better than what I’d planned!

There are a few concerns I have which could either be addressed by the time it opens, or they were hidden from the Direct because they aren’t as marketable.

The interactive floor looks like a great way to revive Nintendo entertainment from decades past
I was more impressed with this than the product floor. Great to see authentic recreations that are very much of the era of devices like the Ultra Machine, and even the giant controller classic games. There’s scope for them to cover more Nintendo history here as activities get swapped out and added. Seeing the love tester made my day, and it really gets you thinking what Nintendo products could make for exciting interactive experiences that aren’t on their video game systems. A remote controlled Chiritorie garbage suction race perhaps?

The games aren’t being displayed at their prime
Like @Minasu pointed out, the classic games are being displayed on LCD displays, and without appropriate visual filters to display them in an authentic manner. If the purpose of a museum is to archive and recreate culturally significant works, the way these games are presented is doing them a huge disservice.

Exhibit space is being used for information freely constructed online already
Was a bit shocked to see an entire wall being dedicated to the evolution of the ? block in Mario games, something already extensively detailed in painstaking detail on the Mario wiki. If there were development materials we’d never seen before it could be intriguing, but instead it was just some official artwork next to screenshots of the games they appeared in. Why?

Product floor seems to skew toward the most marketable pieces of Nintendo’s history
This could just be because the Direct is a piece of marketing, but the amount of space that’s seemingly dedicated to pre-Famicom era Nintendo seems to be much smaller compared with products that Nintendo would deem as “current” - i.e. anything it sells today, either via full game purchase or a subscription like Nintendo Switch Online. I noticed a giant Virtual Boy controller hanging from the ceiling though, so it’s good that Nintendo is acknowledging the more eccentric side to its gaming history. Let’s just hope it extends beyond what we already know.

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I’m guessing the lack of context next to the product exhibits is because Nintendo chose to move that to smartphones. Hopefully that’s well curated as the exhibits on their own seem to aim too wide without any storytelling behind it all.

On top of my wishlist for the product floor would be the detailing of development materials and hardware, profiling of key staff, as well an attempt to detail the key eras of Nintendo’s history both in and outside games.

[razorbeamz]

By far the most disappointing and underwhelming thing to me in the museum is that they wasted exhibit space on “Nintendo Classics.”

The “Nintendo Classics” interactive exhibit is literally just a showcase of games that are already available on Nintendo Switch Online, according to the website.

So I can play the same games I have on my Switch, but in a crowded noisy museum, and with a timer attached to them?

Absolutely embarrassing that they’d expect museumgoers to spend any of their very limited coins on that one.

[harborline_765]

Yep, both cynical and embarrassing to see Nintendo use the museum to boost services revenue on Switch.

[matt]

When I saw the chunk upscaled pixel displays I died a bit inside.

It’s a safe bet that Switch successor will continue to run all the same software. I don’t think they’d build a museum with this much stuff based on something that was about to be taken out of commission.

[Peltz]

@Minasu

Not sure why they bothered, could’ve just used D.Lo’s house.

Literally my thought as I watched the video

Should’ve had a room full of Nintendo arcade machines rather than emulators+roms on an lcd.

[razorbeamz]

@matt

It’s a safe bet that Switch successor will continue to run all the same software.

You’d be surprised at how good Nintendo is at not doing things people think are obvious “safe bets.”

[matt]

Oh I wouldn’t be surprised! Been putting up with their antics since SNES in 1992.