Are you ready for some button-mashing nostalgia? Nintendo has just announced new controller capsule toys on X/Twitter. Video games are often classified as strictly audio/visual mediums, but there’s a tactile element to gaming too. A console’s controllers can bring back memories of dramatic boss fights and emotional endings.
So it was a nice dose of nostalgia a few years back when Nintendo released its Controller Button Collection capsule toy series. These toys were replicas of its Famicom and NES controllers.
Of course, the company’s hardware legacy consists of much more than its 8-bit console, and so now they’re back with round two of the Controller Button Collection, featuring the next three Nintendo home-system generations: the Super Famicom/Super NES, Nintendo 64, and GameCube!
Like with the Famicom and NES controllers, which component you’ll get in the new Controller Button Collection Vol. 2 is up to chance, as all six of the new items share space inside the same capsule toy machine. However, whereas the 8-bit controllers had their entire form factors chopped into three pieces, this time the designs are more complex, so the focus is on recreating each controller’s most iconic features.
For the Super Famicom/Super NES, that means the diamond-layout four-face buttons. It was the first system to use what’s now become nearly a universal standard across the video game industry.
For the Nintendo 64, we get a replica of the company’s first analogue stick, accompanied by the big red start button. Since the Nintendo 64’s digital D-pad wasn’t particularly unique, the second capsule toy is for its face button array.
Lastly, for the GameCube, the focus is on the right half of the controller, with its secondary analogue stick and distinct golf course aerial view-like face button cluster.
The new Vol. 2 Controller Button Collection lineup, alongside the original Famicom/NES capsule toys, are on sale at the Nintendo Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto speciality stores, as well as the smaller Nintendo shop at Narita airport. Each capsule toy will cost 600 yen (S$5.40), bumped up from the original price of 500 yen.
Meanwhile, if you’re looking for retro-style Nintendo controllers that you can play actual games with, Nintendo of Japan has finally relaxed its policies for who’s allowed to buy the Famicom Switch controllers.
When Marcus is not trying to full combo a song on his favourite rhythm games, he’s either reading or watching some obscure Japanese mystery show/novel. Don’t ask him how much his Arkham Horror collection costs either, it’s his most closely guarded secret.
Si Jia
