Summary
- The Nintendo Kawaii packs a Wii OMEGA board into a 2.36 × 2.36 × 0.62-inch, keychain-sized aluminum body.
- It features a magnetic dock with GameCube controller ports and a video-out port to play on a TV.
- The open-source project features MCAD/ECAD/BOM files, but building one for yourself would be tricky.
This very cool GitHub project takes the GameCube's lunchbox shape and shrinks it to roughly the size of a keychain, complete with a sleek-looking aluminum body and genuine Nintendo silicon (via Tom's Hardware).
The tiny console, called the Kawaii, was created by Bitbuilt modders @YveltalGriffin, @Wesk, and @Ding. It features an OMEGA trim of the original Wii's motherboard, allowing it to fit in such a small, sleek-looking case (this means it can also play Wii games). It's so ridiculously small that it measures 2.36 × 2.36 × 0.62-inches (60 × 60 × 15.8mm). To put this in perspective, that's roughly the size of a Game Boy cartridge, which means the Kawaii is seriously pint-sized.
There's even a magnetic pogo-pin dock that features GameCube controller ports and video out, making it easy to hook the Kawaii up to any TV and to connect genuine controllers to it. The console's actual games are stored on a microSD card inside the device, making it easy to get titles up and running on the system.
While the Kawaii is open source, creating your own would be challenging
Imagine showing up to the Super Smash Bros. Brawl tournament with this little beast
In a deep-dive video on the Kawaii from YouTube channel Macho Nacho Productions, the team behind the project notes that Kawaii gets "very warm" when gaming and that it "prioritizes aesthetics over practicality," so a portable desk fan and ample airflow is recommended. Macho Nacho's video also shows off Mario Kart: Double Dash and Crazy Taxi running on the Kawaii.
While the Kawaii is that it's "100% open source," there's no assembly guide or built-in tutorial, given how difficult it would be to create your own keychain-sized GameCube console. That said, MCAD, ECAD, BOM files, and a full MCAD assembly are available at this link if it's something you're interested in tackling. The project is also available on GitHub.
You can turn your PS5 into a Linux-powered gaming PC now, but there are big trade-offs
PS5-Linux is pretty limited right now.
