
The Nintendo Museum in Kyoto has some remarkable exhibits – but it’s a damned shame that Nintendo doesn’t seem to want to tell us all that much about them.
Pros | Cons |
---|---|
Some amazing glimpses into Nintendo’s long history | The lack of context or additional info on exhibits is truly galling |
Fun interactive game exhibits on the ground floor | Long queues are inevitable, especially if you get an afternoon visit time |
Score: 3.5/5
I recently had the opportunity to visit the Nintendo Museum in Kyoto.
When I say I had the opportunity, I should clarify that I won the opportunity, because if you’re not aware, Nintendo’s made its first museum available to the viewing public on a lottery basis.
Support Alex Reviews Tech
Alex Reviews Tech is an independent, ethically run tech reviews site, and it needs your help to keep going. Support independent media by becoming a sponsor through Patreon, Ko-Fi or Paypal! (Spoiler: If enough folks do this, I'll be able to get rid of the ads)
Donate via PayPal
Find out more about how you can support Alex Reviews Tech here.
You enter in the dates you’re going to be in Kyoto and the times you’d like, and at the end of each month a drawing takes place, and if you’re one of the lucky ones, you get told that you’ve now got the opportunity to purchase a ticket for 3,300 yen, roughly $34 AUD at the time of writing.
I actually get why the lottery is there – it’s not just the Japanese obsession with lotteries in play – because as a tourist draw, it’s a big one, and there’s only so much space on the site of a former Nintendo card and Famicom repair factory on the outskirts of Kyoto.
If you just had to turn up, queue and hope on the day, you’d quickly face riots, which doesn’t feel very Mario-esque to me.
One caveat to this review is that Nintendo doesn’t allow filming or photography in the primary “museum” part of the Nintendo Museum, though you’re free to take photos or film on the interactive lower floor, the café or the Hanafuda workshop spaces.
Also outside, with plenty of spots for your own Instagram-worthy shots of you emerging from a pipe. Which, let’s face it, every single tourist will do. Well, every single tourist but me, it seems.
My own unique illustrations are as a result somewhat limited, though if you’ve watched Nintendo’s own hype reel for the place, you do get a very good feel for what it’s in store… or in this case, museum.
If you’ve not watched that particular video, here it is – don’t worry, you won’t spoil anything you’re about to read by watching it. Indeed, it’ll give you a little context around what I’m going to write.
Nintendo Museum Kyoto: The Good Stuff
Nintendo is a company with a long and quite varied history, and the museum section does show that it’s either kept or re-acquired a lot of that history, from its start as a maker of Hanafuda playing cards through to a whole host of novelty toys, boardgames and the rest before becoming one of the biggest and most prominent video game companies on the planet.
When Hanafuda cards and gaming characters collide.
The Nintendo Museum – the upstairs part of the main building – has a lot of fascinating exhibits, ranging from Disney-branded Nintendo board games to the Nintendo Ultra Hand in the back section before focusing in on the company’s gaming history.
That means you get near-complete – not quite, but I’ll get to that later – run of Game & Watch, Famicom/NES, SNES, Gameboy, N64, GameCube, Wii, Wii U and Switch. Even the ill-fated Virtual Boy gets a look in, so it’s nice to see Nintendo showcasing its entire history in this way.
Nintendo is a company with games as a focus, so keeping everything sterile and behind glass would be a rather dry approach, and that’s where the downstairs interactive area comes into quite literal play.
Trival fact: My NFC pass misbehaved and had to be reset by Nintendo Museum staff. The speed with which they did so suggests that this is not an uncommon occurrence.
Part of your entry cost – and embedded in your NFC pass – are a set of 10 virtual “Coins” that can be spent to play on gigantic replicas of key Nintendo consoles, or select interactive exhibits – or just to play a few classic Nintendo titles across the generations.
Weirdly and they’re apparently using emulation for this, which is an… interesting choice for a company as anti-emulator as Nintendo is.
I am pretty good at motion-controlled Game & Watch games. I guess that comes from being from that precise generation of gamers.
While they’ve been widely reported on, there’s also a slew of little hidden character details throughout the museum spaces, and it is genuinely fun finding those too.
Excitebike riders are not that hard to find… at all.
I was travelling with a certified Pikmin fanatic, and she was utterly delighted every time she spotted another lurking Pikmin in an unusual spot.
Nintendo’s start was in Hanafuda cards, and with that in mind there are optional activities making your own small sub-set of Hanafuda painted cards (2000 yen per person) or learn how to play Hanafuda games (500 yen per person).
This reminded me a LOT of primary school. Maybe I’m showing my age. Maybe not.
We opted for the former, and that too is quite engaging in a “sit in a room that feels like a preschool” kind of way. Having my own set of personally painted Hanafuda cards as a memento is kind of cool.
So all well and good and worth your gold coins, right?
Look, it’s a good time… but there are some problems, and one big glaring one that left me actively annoyed after I’d left the Nintendo Museum.
Nintendo Museum Kyoto: The Bad Stuff
I’m not going to rail against the whole lottery concept; while I can accept it may leave some Nintendo fans entirely wanting if their travel itineraries don’t coincide with open ticket slots, without some form of numbered control, it would get ugly regardless.
An idle Pikmin waits for the hordes to arrive. It won’t take long.
One bit of advice I’d give here is opt for an early visit time if you can do so at all; while your entry time is strictly monitored, you’re then free to stay for as long as you want, which means that by the early afternoon, it can be very crowded indeed.
You can always visit the Nintendo Store in Kyoto if you just want your plush Mario fix by the way.
Did I do that too? You bet I did.
I could rail against some of the visitors to the museum who were pushy jerks in terms of movement around the exhibits, but again that’s not 100% in Nintendo’s control. The massive rise in tourism in Japan has rather inevitably upped the jerk quotient, and the Nintendo Museum isn’t immune to this.
I queued for a little while for the Famicom gaming experience, but the queues (and selfish jerks) in the N64 queue) were a little too much for my patience.
The Hanafuda card making is fun, but you’re not making a full set, and the brushes provided are pretty chunky if you’ve got any experience with, say, model painting. I would have killed for a decent 00 or even 0 sized brush to make some fine details on my cards.
It should also go without saying that there’s a gift shop at the end with some pricey Nintendo merch to be had. Be prepared to make your credit card actively weep if you’re keen.
One notable oddity here; Nintendo’s other flagship stores in Kyoto, Osaka and Tokyo give you gold coins for your Nintendo account based on your store spend, but the Nintendo Museum gift shop does not, despite having some of the priciest merchandise Nintendo sells, flat out. Nintendo likes money, who knew?
Again, though, these are minor quibbles, and I have a major quibble to share.
The Nintendo Museum has some amazing exhibits that you simply won’t see anywhere else in the world – and then you’re given nearly no context about them at all.
Fascinating controllers, Nintendo. NOW TELL ME ABOUT THEM.
(Photo taken on the ground floor with Nintendo staff permission, you can’t take photos of the upstairs Museum parts at all)
The arrays of games for each platform is lovely to look through, especially if you’re a fan of taking note of regional differences. There’s even the fugly American SNES on display, though that abomination should really be hidden from public view in the name of decency.
What there isn’t is a lot of detail around why these items matter. There’s a huge shelf of old Nintendo published board games and toys, most of which have dates identifying the year they came out… and nothing else at all. Most museums want to tell the stories of their exhibits to give you more detail and educate you, but Nintendo hasn’t opted for this at all.
For example, there’s a small exhibit off to one side showing controller prototypes for the N64, Gamecube, Switch and others.
This isn’t that exhibit, because I can’t photograph it. That bit I’m fine with, but I would have liked to know MORE.
That’s manna from heaven for a retro gaming geek like me, but why not tell me why and how you prototyped those designs before deciding on the final forms, Nintendo?
Sit Miyamoto-San (or any of your hardware people, I’m sure there’s more than a few in Nintendo R&D that are long-term employees) down in front of a camera and get them to talk about that item for a quick video spot.
Or get a writer (hey, I’m available if anyone at Nintendo is listening) to craft up some text explaining the history of at least some of the items, or some details around them to further illuminate their utility.
That’s what museums do, Nintendo.
By way of comparison, I went to the truly tiny (but quite wonderful) Stained Glass Museum in Otaru on the same trip. While it’s maybe a quarter of the size of the Nintendo Museum, it compliments each and every exhibit with a description of each piece and its significance.
If a tiny stained glass museum in Hokkaido can do it, why can’t Nintendo do likewise?
This doesn’t have to be in every language on the planet, either; by all means write it in 日本語 if you must, Nintendo, and provide an app-based setup to make the same text available in other languages.
But do… something. Because while I loved the exhibits at the Nintendo Museum, they’re just a bit too much of a blank slate without that proper “Museum” context.
Nintendo Museum Kyoto: Alex’s Verdict
I think I see why your Donkey Kong G&W isn’t working, Nintendo.
Did I have fun at the Nintendo Museum in Kyoto?
Yes.
I’d be lying if I said otherwise.
It is a fun place to visit, and I do suspect for most it’s all about those interactive experiences on the ground floor, because where else can you waggle a person-sized wiimote around to try to play a game?
However, Nintendo hasn’t just set it up as a retro gaming arcade for all the family.
It’s meant to be an exploration of Nintendo’s deep history, but it feels as though Nintendo has only dug deep enough to excavate the precious relics without actually doing the documentation to make it clear to the wider world as to why they matter.
Only Nintendo has had the access to these particular items, because only Nintendo is, well… Nintendo. Who else is better situated to tell its story than Nintendo – and why hasn’t it?
Avowed Premium Edition (Code-in-a-box) - Xbox Series X
$160.50 (as of February 17, 2025 18:37 GMT +11:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - Xbox One/Xbox Series X
$55.95 (as of February 17, 2025 18:37 GMT +11:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)Demon Turf - Xbox One/Xbox Series X
(as of February 17, 2025 18:37 GMT +11:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 (Xbox Series X)
$77.61 (as of February 17, 2025 18:37 GMT +11:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)Grand Theft Auto V - Xbox Series X
$29.00 (as of February 17, 2025 18:37 GMT +11:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)Was this useful to you?
If so, please consider becoming a Patreon, Ko-Fi or Paypal supporter Alex here (again).
I feel strongly that independent tech media is a needed resource to help people make smarter tech buying decisions -- and I also very much like to help people use that tech once they've got it.
This is what I do, but I can't do it without your support.
If this article has helped you out (or you've just enjoyed it), please consider helping support what I do by becoming a sponsor today!
Become an ART Patron
Donate via PayPal
Find out more about how you can support Alex Reviews Tech here.