The original Nintendo Wii was already a compact game console, but over the years, hardware engineers have found ways to shrink it into smaller and smaller designs. Now, we may have finally hit the limit with the ‘Kawaii’ mod, which is a real Wii that fits on a keychain.
The Kawaii measures just 2.4 x 2.4 x 0.6 inches (60 x 60 x 15.8 millimeters) with a CNC aluminum chassis, complete with a keychain/tassel loop and six internal addressable RGB lights. The video and sound output, as well as the four GameCube ports, are on a separate dock that connects to the Kawaii with a magnetic pogo pin connector. There’s no disc drive, so homebrew and games are stored on an internal microSD card slot.
Importantly, this is anactual Wiiin a small keychain-sized device, not an FPGA device or other emulation solution. It uses a cut-down motherboard from the Wii Mini, building upon previous engineering efforts likeAVEflex, theOMEGA trimused by many other handheld-sized Wii mods, andnandFlex. With enough cutting and moving around the Wii Mini’s motherboard, it was possible to create a pocket-sized Wii console with the original processor still intact.
This isn’t a super practical way to play Wii or GameCube games. Even though the console itself is incredibly tiny, you still need the dock wherever you actually want to use it, and it needs an external fan for extended use. It’s also nottechnicallythe smallest self-contained Wii console, since theShort Stack modis still smaller than the Kawaii keychain and dock combined.
The forum page for the project explained, “It’s a technical tour de force that prioritizes aesthetics over practicality, and fully utilizes the OMEGA trim. Kawaii may be the zenith of Wii portablizing as an artform. […] It may be the smallest functional Wii build, but not the smallest functional Wii console. The distinction is semantic and largely irrelevant to the project’s goal, which was to create something beautiful, not to claim a title.”
If you want to try building your very own Kawaii console,check out the project’s hardware folder on GitHub. The mod is “extremely challenging,” so best of luck to you. Personally, I’ll stick to my full-sized Wii and occasional Dolphin emulation.
