I’ve just finished recording Episode 67 of the Retrospect Podcast, made a cup of tea, and come onto Twitter to be met with one of the most incredible, tiny, and nifty creations I’ve ever seen – a Nintendo Wii the size of a keychain! I know that the Thumby and the miniature Funkey S handheld are impressive, but this new pint-sized creation makes me feel like a magpie in a crystal shop.
Created by Wesk Mods and YveltalGriffin, this could well be the smallest console in existence, and it comes complete with a dock too! Wesk is a name that many of you will recognise as the creator of the Dreamcast Mini ‘Dreamblade’ console, and of course, the GameCube Nano, filling the gaps in the mini console market for us nostalgic gamers and creating some groundbreaking stuff at the same time! You’ll also know YveltalGriffin from the epic PS Hanami handheld console we covered a while back.
Honestly, seeing that little video of the Kawaii moving left to right above has me mesmerized completely. I must admit that at first, I thought Huawei had teamed up with Nintendo to create some sort of flip phone when the tweet popped up, which admittedly would have been epic in itself, but the actual product is so much more exciting and pleasing than that.
Writing on the official post about the project over on BitBuilt, the pair discussed the fact that they had spoken previously about ‘creating a Wii micro build even smaller than the GC Nano’. It’s the smallest Wii that actually functions and the ‘the first build to ever fully utilize the OMEGA trim’, making it essentially the pinnacle of their miniature console modding work so far.
You can see just how small it is here in the picture above, coming in at 6cm x 6cm x 1.6cm – mindblowing! The dock allows for GC controllers to be plugged in directly and is powered by USB-C. It even includes composite/component output for video and stereo audio, has a 12-pin magnetic pogo-pin connector, and will be passively cooled.
Quickfire Questions With Wesk Mods
RD: How long did it take to get to this point from the start of the project?
Wesk: The process took a little over a year of on-and-off work and reworks to the design in between working on other projects. A lot of what we do in the portablizing/modding scene is throwing the metaphorical crap at the wall to see what finally sticks.
RD: How easy have you found it in comparison to your other mini consoles?
In regards to difficulty, the process was much the same as previous projects but this was my first foray into preparing files for CNC, as I normally design things to be 3D printed there were some additional techniques I had to learn.
RD: What is your response to people who are going to say ‘you can’t fit Wii discs in there’, and what are the benefits in your eyes of this portable console?
Wesk: If you want to fit discs then don’t modify your Wii; if you want to make something cool, then sometimes you need to embrace alternative means of game storage. In terms of benefits, I don’t think you’re peering through the right lens if you’re trying to compare the pros and cons of something like the Kawaii. Technically it’s worse than a stock Wii in every aspect but size, but sometimes “cool” factor is way more important, like comparing a Camry to a Go Kart.
RD: When will they be available to purchase?
Wesk: The timeframe on purchasing will come down to how quickly our contacts in China can get the prototype shells through to us for test fitting. Once we have verified everything is good on the hardware side of things, we’ll move to a buy-in/preorder phase. Hopefully, this should be only a month or so away.
RD: What is the skill level people will need to build them?
Wesk: The skill level required is extremely high, people will need to look at projects such as the GC Nano to get an idea.
RD: Finally, is this the pinnacle of small console creation – have you taken it as far as it could go?
Wesk: Have we taken it as far as we could? Yes and no. Technically things could be made a few mm smaller but at that point, you’re trading size for aesthetics. We tried to strike a perfect balance with the Kawaii.
Thanks to Wesk Mods for giving us a better insight into the Kawaii Wii, and we’re looking forward to seeing this dangling from our keys in the near future!
