Nintendo shows off Mario, Zelda, and 135 years of history in a new Kyoto museum

KYOTO, Japan – Japan’s iconic video game maker Nintendo opened a museum here in its home city today, Oct. 2nd, tracing the company’s roots from a playing card company that began 135 years ago, to the present-day home of Super Mario, Pokémon and a vast and growing entertainment empire.

The company’s bosses appear to want to sum up their corporation’s achievements, as they begin to transition to a younger generation of leaders, and the company moves from video games into new businesses, including stores, movies and theme parks.

But to open a museum that explains the company’s history is a highly unexpected, uncharacteristic move for a company that seldom explains itself, preferring instead to let its games and other products speak for themselves.

“I feel that the only way to connect and communicate with the consumer is through the product,” Nintendo Executive Fellow and Representative Director Shigeru Miyamoto said at a recent press conference.

Miyamoto, who is known for designing Mario, Donkey Kong, Legend of Zelda and other Nintendo games, admitted that changes in the business environment require the company to think and act differently.

Nintendo invited reporters and video game influencers to preview the museum, but did not allow them to record any Nintendo employees, including Miyamoto, for broadcast.

Nintendo’s “intellectual property is so recognizable that it's worth tens of billions of dollars,” observes James Mastromarino, who covers the video game industry for NPR.

“So Nintendo knows that they have some of the most recognizable and most beloved characters in their wheelhouse, and that's part of the reason why they're so protective of it.”

The first floor of the new museum includes large games where players shoot at animated creatures and pilot aircraft. There are living-room-like batting cages, with a baseball pitching device called the Nintendo Ultra Machine, which the company sold from 1967-74.

On the second floor, visitors paint and play with Japanese hanafuda playing cards, which was Nintendo’s first product when it was established in Kyoto in 1889. They can then roam among displays of decades worth of Nintendo game consoles and toys.

Items are clearly labeled, but sparingly explained. One exhibit shows how, for example, Super Mario games have evolved, through various gaming consoles over the years.

The museum also has a café and a shop full of Nintendo merchandise.

“Anyone who grew up playing any type of Nintendo game or console, anyone who had that in their childhood, they would definitely become emotional having a look at everything here,” remarked Junna Faylee, a video game content creator from London, as she snapped up armloads of merchandise.

Analysts say that Nintendo’s roots as a toy company contribute to their focus on gameplay. Instead of making hardware with the fastest processors, or the highest resolution graphics, it instead concentrates on making software and games that are easy to learn, and addictive.

“In the end, everyone mistakenly believes that they play Nintendo games because they want to, says Asia University professor Akihiro Saito. “But the games themselves are designed to make people want to play.”

Saito directed Nintendo’s Pokemon game. He explains Nintendo’s game design through a theory he calls “gamenics.” He says Nintendo games carefully calibrate how players are challenged and rewarded. Players learn game rules not through manuals or tutorials, but by observing.

Saito also argues that Japanese culture is the core of Nintendo’s global success. That culture includes the spirit of Kyoto’s master craftsmen, who take pride in making things, not explaining them.

It also includes “omotenashi,” a tradition of hospitality that focuses on creating a memorable experience for guests and customers, in a subtle, understated way.

“Rather than enjoying the museum through flashy attractions,” Saito says, “I think it would be great if people could enjoy the museum with the feeling that it is an entertainment museum of Japanese culture, and see how the space has been designed to offer Kyoto-style hospitality (omotenashi).”

Chie Kobayashi contributed to this report in Kyoto and Tokyo.