It's easy to dazzle us Nintendo fans with a giant Wiimote, a Toad barbershop quartet and a wall of pristine NES games, but to make a manhole cover exciting? That feels like a bit of a stretc- oh my GOD is that Pikachu?!
Nintendo has revealed a special manhole cover which will be housed in Kyoto's Nintendo Museum and it's quite the looker (thanks, GoNintendo). Nope, we never thought we'd be saying that about a manhole cover either, but here we are.
The design puts Pikachu front and centre (naturally), with the iconic Electric Type leaping from a classic Game Boy. With an explosive array of colours in the pixel background and a bright Pokéball thrown in for good measure, we'd be pretty confident in saying this is one of the prettiest manhole covers we've ever seen — a big statement, we're sure you'll agree.
Nintendo revealed the cover in a blog post on the official Japanese website, noting that the design will be one of the museum's many attractions when it opens on 2nd October.
The design comes from the Pokémon Local Acts initiative, an organisation to brighten up corners of Japan in sweet pocket monster-centric ways. A wide range of these "Poké Lid" manhole covers can be found all over Japan — and there's even an official website to tell you where each design can be found.
Aside from swanky manhole covers, the Nintendo Museum also features exhibits on the evolution of Nintendo products, a giant screen where you can play a traditional Japanese card game called Hyakunin Isshu, booths for batting against the pitching Ultra Machine and much more. You can find a full rundown of everything to expect from the museum in our following guide.