Forget the Mushroom Kingdom, Mario's heading to MoMA

That’s right, Pac Man has officially joined the ranks of Van Gogh, Monet, and Warhol.

Museum curator Paola Antonelli has announced that fourteen classic games will be featured in a permanent exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art. The featured games include Tetris, Space Invaders, The Sims, and others. In the near future, MoMA hopes to snag some more titles such as Pong, Super Mario Brothers, Asteroids, and Donkey Kong.

Right about now you’re probably wondering how anyone could ever consider a pixelated ape throwing barrels down ramps as brilliant as Salvador Dali paintings -- you’re far from alone. But, let's try looking at this from Antonelli and MoMA’s perspective.

MoMA has selected games based on the how they've each, respectively, pushed the limitations of technology in their own times and the ways in which gamers have interacted with them. Antonelli is more concerned with experiences offered by these games, rather than aesthetics alone. Sorry Grand Theft Auto, no matter how naturalistic, there won’t be any car stealing and hooker killing in this exhibit.

Antonelli asserts there is an art to these classic joystick and button-pushing adventures and that they deserve to be recognized, as “digital artifacts” and “masterpieces of interaction design.” 

Even if you can't appreciate the artistic importance of trying to save Princess Toadstool, you should still be curious to see how the progressive museum plans to actually showcase these works.

Though, we're guessing Antonelli will probably get the first crack at a high score.