Nintendo has never shied away from making colorful and wacky consoles. This is the company that brought us the Game Boy Color (emphasis on color) and thrilled fans with a range of options like turquoise, yellow, and purple. Fast forward to 2021, and the Nintendo Switch has Joy-Con options like pink and neon green and a very vivid red and blue, among others.
But in all of their years, Nintendo has one glaring gap in its hardware offerings: There has never been a Wario-themed console. Sure, avid Wario fans could buy purple and yellow Joy-Cons for their Nintendo Switch or customize their own Game Boy, but the man deserves more. It deserves a dedicated console.
Wario is already a character synonymous with style. Its color scheme, purple and yellow, would be an absolute fire on a handheld. Complementary colors perfectly paired would work perfectly with a purple body and yellow buttons. Hell, the GameCube was already purple. Nintendo could have typed a “W”, added a yellow button and called it a day.
It’s more than just a look. The premise of the latest WarioWare game, WarioWare: unite!, begins when Wario and his friends are sucked into a console of his own making. And WarioWare games have often been adapted to the consoles they are released on. For example, WarioWare Gold featured plenty of tactile mini-games and allowed players to record their own voices since its arrival on the Nintendo 3DS.
The series is also very aware of the material it is played on. The Game Boy Advance Warioware: twisted, already got an upgraded game pack which added a gyro sensor for use with minigames. Why couldn’t Nintendo be able to add a matching handheld to go with it? The series is called “WarioWare” after all. A console could have been the real Wario product we have on hand.
So what made the cut for the elusive exclusive console? Well, there have been a lot of Pokémon. Pikachu alone has gotten a console version for just about every generation since the Game Boy Advance SP. The little creature was literally cast on Nintendo 64, to cry bitterly. And while the Legendary Pokémon decals on consoles look cool, I just don’t have the same long-standing connection with them as I did with Wario. Beyond that, Mario got a red-colored Nintendo Switch, and franchises like Animal Crossing and Splatoon got bundled versions or custom Joy-Cons.
There hasn’t been a shortage of character-themed and franchise-themed material. It’s just that Nintendo has stayed close to a few proven franchises and characters. I think it’s time to branch out and make some weird consoles again. That’s what Wario would want.