Nintendo World, the go-to place for fans of Mario and Link, recently revamped its New York location and the new look fits perfectly with the company's future ambitions.
Last month, Nintendo's Big Apple store closed its doors in order to reinvent itself as a future-proof location. The store, which is the only U.S. retail location open to the public, rebranded itself from Nintendo World to Nintendo NY.
PJ Sadler, Nintendo's Regional General Manager, declared for Engadget that the refurbishing of the store is aimed at keeping up with the premium level of quality Nintendo is famed for. To summarize, this meant designing new exhibits, new lighting and a completely new floor layout.
Gensler, an architectural firm from New York, assisted the company in making the desired changes.
The first-floor registers are now relocated to the west side of the store. To open up the space and create a more flexible interior space, the store also ditched the upstairs alcove.
"Everything used to be bolted down," says Scott Moffitt, executive vice president of sales and marketing at Nintendo U.S.
The display cases can now be moved easily, thanks to their added wheels. This will allow Nintendo to create new exhibition layouts or simply clear the room to organize championships or other public events.
The first major test for the open-floor design will happen next month, when the regional finals of the Pokkén Tournament will take place at Nintendo NY.
Nintendo kept the gaming museum on the second floor, and historical gaming items will shift around the exhibition to keep things fresh.
The present exhibit showcases a number of Nintendo consoles, among which we count the classic SNES and the vilified Virtual Boy. More bits and pieces of historical gaming are there on display, including handheld systems from LCD Game & Watch to today's 3DS XL. One notable plus of the exhibit area is that it presents all items in clear glass cases, with natural light trickling down from 48th Street.
After the refurbishing, the room ditched its previously semi-claustrophobic aspect and made its way into proper exhibition space.
Some design choices give a nod to the store's initial look. For example, the front door knobs are still in place, and the Poké Ball handles look as cute as when they were first installed. Homage to the golden days of Nintendo World is paid in form of the metal silhouettes of Mario characters that sit above the elevator.
As Dorkly points out, Mario is the third most representative Nintendo character. This is why statues of him and his brother, Luigi, are found around the store. At the opening ceremony for the new store, the organizers surprised fans with a special guest.
Charles Martinet, the man who voiced Mario, was part of the ribbon-cutting event.
The big number of fans present at the opening proves that the reshaped Nintendo store will see a lot of attention from the public. Some die-hard fans even arrived 24 hours prior to the opening, just to make sure that they are among the first to witness the shape-shifting of Nintendo World into Nintendo NY.
We look forward to paying a visit to the revamped store, but we are even more anxious to see Nintendo release its highly anticipated NX console.
