A couple months ago, Nintendo announced the opening of a museum in Kyoto that showcased their rich history since their opening in the late 1800s. But, in Nintendo fashion, they didn't want to just make a boring museum. The museum has three main areas: a showcase of Nintendo history, an interactive play area with unique games, and a cafe and workshop.
The Nintendo Museum has been open for a month now. Tickets are given by lottery, so you sign up for 3 available times and if you're selected, you can buy tickets. One of my choices was for Halloween, and I was selected. :)
Since before its opening on October 1st, they had a press day and allowed several content creators to run amok in the place. The entire museum has been cataloged with tons of photos and videos online. Watching all that stuff can prepare you for the museum. But, in my case, it put my expectations too high on what I wanted. Overall, the museum was just okay.
Here is some advice for the museum, if you plan on visiting. Note: The museum hours are 10am to 5pm, and my entry time was 1pm.
Go to the store immediately when you arrive.
Those controller cushions only have a limited amount available each day. I saw people walking around having bought some, but I don't know if they had been there all day and got them at 11am or Noon or something. I don't know if you have to say some password to someone to get one. I entered the store around 2pm maybe, and I circled around quite a bit and saw nothing.
The controller cushions aren't as big as they look. The Wii one is the longest at maybe 3 feet. I was interested in the Super Famicom controller, but it was probably 2 feet wide. Pretty small.
The controller cushions are also limited to one per person among all four types. Additionally, the tiny plastic controller replicas are also limited one per person. They had some of those left when I arrived, so I decided to get one and roll the dice. (I got a VB controller lol)
A bunch of other stuff was sold out in the store. Apparently, all those tiny controller keychains sold out around 3pm. They also didn't have any of the high end Hanafuda cards. They were missing some other stuff too.
Stuff is expensive, too. Shirts are 5500円. They did have some Ultra Hands, but there were 7500円. Very few single items were under 2000円. Also, unlike the Nintendo Store, you couldn't get points with your Nintendo Account.
Anyways, I bought a lanyard for my Nintendo card, the cheap hanafuda set, and one controller keychain.
Sign up for Hanafuda immediately when you arrive. Sign-ups are right next to the store by the entrance.
You can only sign up for the workshop and hanafuda sessions within 2-3 hours of your entry time. So, if you decide later that you might want to do it, all the times available to you will be sold out.
I was still able to do the Hanafuda painting session, but I couldn't do the learning/play session. It's fine, though. Like many of the amusement games, it looked like it was best played with 2 people.
The painting and making hanafuda cards was pretty fun. I have some pointers on how I could probably make mine look better for next time, but I will refrain from mentioning them.
I would say those are the two biggest things to pay attention to. The museum and amusement areas won't take you too long to go through, and they'll always be available for you. If you buy stuff first, it's not too difficult to lug around bags of stuff either.
As a smaller point: outside of the museum, there is nothing else around at all. This land must've been super cheap or the only thing available in the area because it's next to a Mazda dealership, a supermarket, and a bookstore. There's also a bicycle shop, and a couple other empty plots of land.
Also, if you're driving, there is scattered parking around the area. But driving in Kyoto is fucking terrible. Roads are narrower than most cities and there are too many cars. You could probably park at the Tsutaya? I think that's all paid parking, so why not?
I arrived at the museum 2 hours early. Went to a Book Off down the road. Then walked around for a while. I eventually just sat in front of the museum with an hour left to kill. They let me in 15 minutes early. After going through the entrance, security screens, and baggage check, I was in.
Not really knowing what to do first, I followed the signs and went to the 2nd floor museum. No photos allowed.
The 2nd floor showcased Nintendo prominent 40-year video game history with huge displays of each console generation and boxes from each of the 3 major regions of release: Japan, America, and Europe. They also had a sales ratio breakdown of each region, too. Nintendo 64 and Gamecube were huge in America making over half the overall total sales. The Nintendo DS had Japan take over half the total sales, too.
It was neat, but... It didn't really impress me or move me. So many people around me were going, "Oh wow, do you remember this?" "Oh man, this is so cool." But me... I guess I already had these waves of Nintendo nostalgia wash over me thanks to the Analogue Pocket and Mister FPGA consoles, and the Super Nintendo Mini. Also, I already saw a bunch of these games at Book Off a few hours ago.
It's not really nostalgia when this stuff is so ever present in my mind.
This most interesting thing in the museum was off in the far corner. Behind a glass walled room were some haphazard displays of console prototypes. They had the original prototypes of Wii-motes, the gamecube, gameboy, Nintendo DS, Wii balance board, the Switch. This was actual lesser know or seen history.
Behind them was a Donkey Kong arcade game, a few other arcade games, and shelves and shelves of other hardware or sales merchandise sitting in boxes. This led into an area that was roped off.
Once they go through this initial batch of ticket holders, maybe they'll collect all this stuff into an actual exhibition room.
All areas of the Nintendo Museum were open, so you can go downstairs whenever you wanted, play some games, and then return upstairs.
Your Nintendo Museum ticket doubles as a play pass for all the games on the 1st floor. To play a game, you tap your pass and register to play the game. You have 10 coins total (cannot be refilled). Each game took certain amounts of coins. It is not possible to play everything, but you can still play a lot. The games go by pretty quickly, and Several games require two players.
I immediately noticed that Dr Mario was available on the giant Famicom controller, so that's where my first coins went. Pointers? These controllers are actually giant. I have a pretty big arm span, but it was not possible to play with just one person. Also, it required two accounts to register, so you couldn't sign up yourself. I had one of the staff members help me out.
They only give you 5 minutes, and they start you at level 1. Me and the dude made it to level 2, but it went by so fast. Oh well, it was fun. :)
It used 2 coins
- Use Date : 2024-October-31 (Thu)
13:12 (Asia/Tokyo)
Big Controller
Controller
Family Computer
Game
Dr. Mario
Level Reached
2
Score
1,000 pts.
Photos
I walked around and looked at other games. Nothing was super amazing. The Zapper game was the biggest and high production valued game there. It took 4 coins, the most of any game available. Expensive... but shit, was I really not going to play it? I'm not going to save these coins for anything else. I got in line and it didn't take too long for my turn.
The Zapper game is a 12-player shooting gallery game where everyone chooses to use either a Zapper or a Super Scope. There are 3 rounds with various Mario enemy characters appearing, and you shoot down as many as you can.
Pointers? One key thing about learning how to play this is being able to watch the groups in front of you play their games. Everyone's score is tallied and there's an overall Gold, Silver, and Bronze winner of the game.
When it was my group's turn, I immediately noticed that you could shoot anywhere on the screen. You are not limited to the area in front of you. You could shoot way down to the other side of the screen if you wanted.
Knowing this, as the enemies appeared, I shoot down everything that appeared in front of the people beside me first before turning my attention to stuff in front of me. I was in booth #5, so I could clear out lots of enemies from booths #1-#4 and still have stuff left going from #5 and up.
Also, Blue turtles give you +3 points each.
Anyways, I got first place with 215 points. :) I did not see what the second place score was.
- Use Date : 2024-October-31 (Thu)
13:32 (Asia/Tokyo)
Zapper & Score SP
Controller
Zapper
Stage 1 Score
106 pts.
Stage 2 Score
59 pts.
Stage 3 Score
50 pts.
Overall Score
215 pts.
Trophies
Next, I did the Ultra Hand game. It was only 1 coin. You use an Ultra Hand to grab poke balls moving along a suspended conveyer.
Pointers? The Ultra Hand feels kinda flimsy, but you need to strong-arm it a bit to get it working right. You close the arms together, like gardening sheers, to close the gripping hands on the end. Then you open the hand to bring it back.
The hands will close and always stay closed. You need to clamp down hard (very hard) on the string so it doesn't move, which will pull open the hands on the end. You may feel like you're clamping down on the string hard enough, but it easily slips through the plastic. You need to crush down on it.
Once the staff member explained that to me completely, I was totally ready. The game was competitive in a group of 4 people. Once again, I got first in my group. Although, the lady next to me was a pretty close second.
- Use Date : 2024-October-31 (Thu)
13:44 (Asia/Tokyo)
Ultra Hand SP
Fireworks
8 launchs
Photos
Next I played the Ultra Machine. It's an indoor batting game. It fires ping pong balls, and you swat them with a whiffle bat. You can hit various things in the makeshift room, and it'll make breaking sounds or do something, like fall apart.
I was terrible at this. Maybe I should've played on my knees. I missed nearly every ball, and the ones I hit went straight up.
This was 2 coins. I should've played the Giant Nintendo 64.
- Use Date : 2024-October-31 (Thu)
13:49 (Asia/Tokyo)
Ultra Machine SP
Number of Swings
24
Bonus
4
Photos
For 1 coin, you could play a classic game for 5 minutes. They had emulated games for Nintendo, Super Nintendo, and Nintendo 64 available. Why would I spend my precious single remaining coin on something I'll just play at home later.
Oh wait, what's this? In the back, and completely open were stations with an NES challenge. Play NES versions of Donkey Kong, Pinball, Mario Bros, Balloon Fight, and Super Mario Bros, each for 1 minute and rack up as many points as possible. I used my remaining coin on this.
I completely biffed on Donkey Kong, but my scores were pretty good on the other games. After each game, they give you a 5-star ranking. I ended with a 4-star total ranking.
- Use Date : 2024-October-31 (Thu)
13:59 (Asia/Tokyo)
Nintendo Classic
NES Challenge 5
Total
★★★★
1,400 pts.
★★
8,160 pts.
★★★★
6,470 pts.
★★★★★
14,750 pts.
★★★★★
26,150 pts.
★★★★★
After using all my coins, I went to the store and then reserved a time for hanafuda. With 40 minutes before hanafuda, I bought a burger at the cafe. All ordering is done on the phone. Scan the QR code, complete your order online, pay at the counter, and wait for the food.
Here's the menu:
I ordered a Wasabi burger, without any customization. The burger was small, but it was really good.
After, I went upstairs to make some hanafuda cards. I think my overall crafting skills failed me. The light colors were too light, so I used more paint and it went everywhere. The dark colors were too dark, so those parts are completely blacked out. Glueing the paper on the back was pretty messy, and took quite a while. I was getting close to the one hour limit of the craft room.
Do I really care if they look professional though? Nah... Although, maybe I should've just torpedoed my project at the first sign of trouble to make something more unique. Eh, it's fine. I learned how traditional hanafuda cards were made, and learned a little bit more about what hanafuda is.
Overall, I spent about 3 1/2 hours at the Nintendo Museum, which felt like stretching the most out of my time there. I left there somewhat disappointed in the experience. That's it?
Although, writing about it is a bit cathartic. I actually did kinda do a lot there after all. How long do you usually stay at museums? 3 1/2 hours is pretty decent after all.
Over time, I think they'll add more to the museum. More games downstairs perhaps? A new exhibit upstairs to fill that empty back space?
More businesses might move to the area too, filling up those vacant nearby lots.
I'd like to go back in a year or two with some friends. :)