Nintendo's Gacha Keychains Double As Contoller Spare Parts

Summary

• Nintendo has added six new SNES, Nintendo 64, and GameCube options to its controller keychain gacha machines.
• Those with the jaychains have already discovered they're such faithful recreations that they can be used as replacement parts.
• The only problem is the only places you can find the machines are at Nintendo's two stores in Japan and Tokyo airport.

Nintendo expanded on what was a somewhat limited controller keychain collection this week. Previously limited to NES and Famicom options, the keychains are replicas of the buttons found on the retro Nintendo controllers that can be found in gacha machines in Japan's Nintendo stores. Now that collection includes options from the SNES, Nintendo 64, and GameCube, and it turns out the keychains have a third function after looking cool and being something you can fiddle with on bus rides and in boring meetings.

The six new keyrings, which have doubled the options available, were revealed this week and Nintendo fans in Japan immediately rushed to get their hands on them. VGC's Chris Scullion shared an image from Nintendo Tokyo where the queue to use the gacha machine was out the door. It's one of only three places in the world where the keychains are available. You can also find their gacha machines at Nintendo's Kyoto store and at Tokyo's Narita airport.

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Outside of being cool accessories you can fiddle with when you're bored, VGC reports there have been claims that some of the new keychains can be used as replacement parts for your old controllers. A tweet from doben_ssb that includes images of the GameCube buttons and C-stick keychains opened up shows that they are identical on the inside to the buttons and C-stick on the console's controllers. A follow-up from the same user shows that the same applies to the N64 stick.

Gotta Gach 'Em All

Mizure3213 adds that you can do the same thing with the SNES buttons which might be the most appealing option of all. The color scheme of the SNES buttons was changed for its US release - from red, blue, yellow, and green to blue and purple - which means if you have kept hold of your original console and its controllers, you can get one of these keychains and incorporate the controller's original color scheme. Getting the keychains will be easier said than done though, particularly if you don't live in Japan or plan on going there anytime soon.

The gacha machines from which you get the keychains are exclusive to Japan. That includes the original run of NES and Famicom options and since they've not been made available elsewhere, it seems unlikely the six new options will be rolled out outside of Japan anytime soon either. There's also the gacha element to consider should you ever be lucky enough to use one of these machines. There's no choosing which keychain you get. If you want that GameCube C-stick, you'll have to pray to the Nintendo gods that's what falls out of the machine when you use it.

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