Playing With Power

8 extremely rare Nintendo consoles

by Robin Bea

Nintendo is known for putting out highly sought after special editions of its consoles.

For every adorable Animal Crossing Switch, though, there's another design that's so baffling or rare it's hard to believe it exists.

Here are the 8 strangest Nintendo console designs ever.

8. Famitsu 500 Game Boy Light

Only 5,500 of these clear Japan-only Game Boy Light handhelds were made to celebrate gaming magazine Famitsu's 500th issue.

7. MTV GameCube

MTV gave away 29 GameCube consoles — which notably couldn't play CDs — in a 2003 contest.

6. 24k Gold Game Boy Advance SP

Awarded Willy Wonka-style for finding a golden ticket in a game box, most doubted this handheld existed until it started showing up on auction sites.

5. Sharp Super Famicom TV

This TV with a built-in Super Famicom was one of Nintendo's earliest forays into bonkers consoles, but it never made it out of Japan.

4. Nintendo PlayStation

Only one of these prototypes from a failed Sony partnership is known to exist, and it sold to Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey for $300,000 in 2020.

3. The Art of Wii

A Canadian contest in 2007 gave away six one-of-a-kind Wii consoles, each with a unique design from a different artist.

2. Advance Wars Nintendo DS

Only 50 of these camouflaged Nintendo DS handhelds were produced, and they all went to members of the press in Europe packaged in a custom ammunition box.

1. McDonald's Nintendo DSi

In 2010, McDonald's worked with Nintendo to create a special branded DSi handheld complete with a custom game to train new employees.