At the Nintendo Museum in Kyoto (Japan), September 24, 2024. RICHARD A. BROOKS / AFP After the amusement park opened in 2021 in Osaka, Nintendo is getting a museum. The building with white walls pixelated with gray, which officially opens its doors on Wednesday October 2, has two floors and offers a fun and nostalgic immersion in the world of the Japanese game specialist, through a rich collection of admirably preserved toys and multiple animations around the consoles that have conquered the world. Read also | Article reserved for our subscribers “Mario Kart 8” has been in the lead for ten years Add to your selections This is an opportunity to learn “more about our desire to invent experiences that give pride of place to the game and to creativity, two values inherent to Nintendo,” says Shigeru Miyamoto. The man nicknamed the “Walt Disney of video games”, who joined Nintendo in 1977, upon leaving the Kanazawa University of Fine Arts (south of Tokyo), is the father, among others, of the Zelda characters. and Mario. He played a major role in the design of the site near Ogura Station in Uji, south of Kyoto. Green pipes, yellow “question mark” blocks and little Toad at the entrance: the site set up in the former Hanafuda and Karuta playing card factory – the first activity of the group born in 1889 – is in the colors of the famous plumber. The entrance to the Nintendo Museum in Kyoto (Japan), September 24, 2024. RICHARD A. BROOKS / AFP All consoles in the spotlight The museum devotes its first floor to all of the products put on sale by the company, in a vast circular gallery dominated by reproductions of the group’s multiple consoles, Game & Watch and even Famicom. There we admire boxes of Donkey Kong games, one of the first arcade games offering a narrative, Zelda, whose adventures are inspired by Mr. Miyamoto’s own childhood wanderings in the Sonode countryside – a stone’s throw from Kyoto – where he was born in 1952, and of course Super Mario, the Italian with overalls and a big mustache. A showcase tracing the evolution of the different controllers developed by the brand, at the Nintendo Museum in Kyoto (Japan), September 24, 2024. RICHARD A. BROOKS / AFP This is followed by a space dedicated to Nintendo creations to “move”: Power Pad, exercise bike and, more recently, Wii console. A little further, the museum immerses itself in the products that preceded video games. In addition to cards, Nintendo manufactured board games, strollers and other remote-controlled cars. It was the launch of a “laser gun” that brought him to arcade games, then to consoles. Each of the latter, even the much criticized Virtual Boy, has a space and is exhibited with its games, its controllers and its accessories. “If you look at our products, you can see that they all reflect a desire to create something unique,” says Mr. Miyamoto. You have 41.61% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
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