OSAKA (Kyodo) — Nintendo Co. on Wednesday unveiled its museum ahead of next week’s opening, showcasing iconic video games that have captivated fans over its long history, while offering visitors interactive experiences like playing games using giant controllers.
The Nintendo Museum will open on Oct. 2 in Uji, Kyoto Prefecture, featuring nostalgic video game consoles such as Family Computer, known as Nintendo Entertainment System abroad, and Nintendo DS, as well as packages of past hit game software titles.
The first floor of the building has where visitors can play games using digital coins embedded in entrance tickets. They can maneuver a huge Nintendo 64 controller or take part in a shooting game using electronic guns.
Videos also show game screens of the Mario series and other popular titles to learn their history at the museum housed in an old Nintendo plant built in 1969.
As the Kyoto-based company was established in 1889 as a maker of traditional Japanese “hanafuda” playing cards, such cards are also on display, along with Western-style playing cards and board games sold before video games.
“I want people to think that Nintendo is a company that is good at conveying fun,” Shigeru Miyamoto, executive fellow at Nintendo and the creator of Super Mario, told a press conference.
Tickets, sold via a randomly selected drawing, are priced at 3,300 yen ($23) for adults, 2,200 yen for children aged 12 to 17 and 1,100 yen for children aged 6 to 11.