Nintendo Switch 2 be damned, the GameCube makes a surprise return

I don’t know about you, but I really love the Nintendo GameCube.

It was the birthplace of some of the best games of all time, like Resident Evil 4, Metroid Prime, and Animal Crossing (that latter one only in the west, at least).

Not to mention it had some excellent new entries in beloved Nintendo franchises. Super Mario Sunshine, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, and Mario Kart: Double Dash were all formative parts of my childhood.

That also seems to be the case for one big Nintendo fan, who is now attempting to make a portable GameCube to play on the go.

A user on X (formerly Twitter) by the name of Redherring32 has posted about their work to make a portable Nintendo GameCube that works completely on the go.

“I'm making a portable GameCube. It's not a Wii,” they wrote.

“It'll have a directly driven 480p laminated IPS panel for the crispiest GameCube pixels you've seen. It'll have USB C PD charging. Video out over USB C. Wireless 4 player multiplayer. Oh, it'll play Gameboy games too.”

Judging from the pictures, it looks really cool. The actual console looks like a larger GameCube controller, but with a screen in the centre of it. And Redherring32 has made the effort to keep it looking as close to the original console as possible.

It even has the console’s signature briefcase-style handle for easy carrying. That feature of the console confused me in 2001, but at least as a handheld it makes a bit more sense.

In terms of scale, it’s a bit larger than a Game Boy Advance. So it’s a bit smaller than a Switch, and a lot smaller than a Steam Deck, which are the two main options for playing portable GameCube games in 2025.

It’ll even play the original discs, apparently, thanks to some custom hardware that makes use of proprietary GameCube stuff.. A good chance for Redherring32 to break out some game copies that haven’t been touched in a while.

It doesn’t sound like Redherring32 is offering to make these and sell them. With how trigger-happy Nintendo is with regards to copyright infringement, it would probably be a legal nightmare.

It also seems like it would be too costly and time-consuming, so it remains as a simple fan project and proof-of-concept for the time being. I guess we’ll all just have to contend with paying for Nintendo Switch Online to access the GameCube’s library for now.