Nintendo New York
- Not to be confused with Super Nintendo World.
Nintendo New York (previously known as Nintendo World and The Pokémon Center) is an official store of Nintendo located in New York City at the Rockefeller Center. The store was opened on November 16, 2001 as The Pokémon Center and on May 14, 2005 as Nintendo World. Visitors can purchase Mario and Nintendo merchandise. Additionally, visitors can play Mario games on the Nintendo New York's Nintendo 3DSs, Wii Us, and Nintendo Switches. On February 19, 2016, the store was reopened after a one month renovation and had its name changed to "Nintendo New York".
Upstairs, there is a museum section, though the items on show often change. The second floor also contains a Pokémon section, where a lot of Pokémon plush toys are sold.
Nintendo New York often sells exclusive or rare Nintendo items, as it is the only official Nintendo store in the United States. They also give out special Nintendo shopping bags at checkout, with various character illustrations on them. The store often changes its décor, based on what games have recently been released. They also broadcast live presentations from Nintendo, primarily Nintendo Directs, for crowds of people to watch.
In June 2019, Nintendo opened their second ever retail store in Tel Aviv-Jaffa, Israel.
On June 1, 2020, the Nintendo New York store was one of the many places in New York City that was vandalized and damaged as a result of the George Floyd protests. However, compared to many other stores, it was not ransacked and looted of everything inside.[1] The store was put under police surveillance.
Activities
For some time around January 2010, visitors could go to the store from 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM and talk to the voice actor of Mario, Luigi, and many other characters from the Mario series. On November 7, 2010, on the 25th Anniversary of Super Mario Bros., Shigeru Miyamoto was among the guest visitors.
Visitors can frequently take part in tournaments and can chat with a screen with Mario or Luigi on it.
Whenever a live Nintendo presentation is set for broadcast (such as a Nintendo Direct or Mr. Sakurai Presents), a big screen is always set with a crowd of fans watching together, though this had been paused due to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as Nintendo's lack of pre-announced live presentations during this time.
Gallery
Nintendo World
The Nintendo World store logo.
Inside the Nintendo World store.
Old interior.
Photo of a diorama based on Paper Mario: Sticker Star
The cake celebrating Mario's 25th anniversary.
Nintendo New York
First floor interior.
Second floor interior.
A Mario statue.
Mario, Luigi, Charles Martinet and the NOA executives during the opening of the renovated Nintendo New York.
Mario's maquette found in the store and Shigeru Miyamoto's sketch congratulating the store on its opening.
Original planning sheets of Super Mario Bros. exhibited on the top floor of the store.
