This fall, visitors at the Nintendo Museum in Japan are going to get an opportunity to catch a glimpse of history from Nintendo’s five decades in the video game industry. Nintendo Museum has announced that an art gallery will be opening on September 3 featuring “a wide range of game artwork, including character illustrations and concept art.”
The Art Gallery will open on Wednesday, September 3rd on the 2nd floor of the Nintendo Museum Exhibition Building. Visitors can explore a wide range of game artwork, including character illustrations and concept art.
— ニンテンドーミュージアム (@Museum_Nintendo) June 24, 2025
The announcement was light on details about what kind of artwork will be presented in the gallery, or how far back it will go. Although Nintendo became widely known in the early ’80s for arcade hits like Donkey Kong, the company’s first foray into gaming came in the early ’70s with lightgun games. Since the launch of the Nintendo Entertainment System in North America in 1985, Nintendo has remained a major player in gaming.
The Nintendo Museum already has exhibits that celebrate the history of Nintendo’s video games, as well as a selection of minigames that visitors are allowed to play. During GameSpot’s two-day visit to the museum in 2024, Dan Ryckert noted that it “is light on text, descriptions, placards, and other traditional elements of a museum.” He added that the room with fully-functional giant controllers from the Famicom, SNES, N64, and Wii Remotes was his favorite.
