20 Nintendo Peripherals You DIDN'T KNOW Exist

20 Nintendo Peripherals You Didn’t Know Exist

Welcome to Mojoplays, and today we are dipping into the weirder side of Nintendo to find some accessories nobody needed, and most people didn’t even hear about. These are 20 Nintendo Peripherals You Didn’t Know Exist. Let’s have a look!

GBA Solar Sensor

Only Hideo Kojima could look at a handheld game and decide the missing feature was the actual sun. Released in 2003, "Boktai: The Sun Is in Your Hand" came with a solar sensor built right into the GBA cartridge, meaning players had to physically head outside to charge their weapon and fight vampires. It sounds completely ridiculous, but that was also the genius of it. The real world became part of the game itself, and suddenly sitting indoors all day was bad strategy. I really wish I had experienced that as a kid, running around outside with a Game Boy instead of now, when I mostly need sunlight because my body is pale and dying.

NES Lockout / Safecare Homework First

Before everything became a menu option, companies sometimes solved problems with actual chunks of plastic and metal. Region locking, for example, could literally mean making cartridges a different shape. Parental controls were even funnier. The "Homework First" was basically a tiny security device for the NES, clamping over the console and blocking access to the cartridge slot with a combination lock. No passwords, no screen-time settings, just physically imprisoning the Nintendo until homework was done. It is wonderfully direct, although probably more expensive than simply telling your kid to stop playing. There was also one major flaw: if a game was already inside, congratulations, you had only locked them into playing that one forever, please don’t be “Battletoads”, goddammit it’s “Battletoads”.

The Cyberbike

Waving your arms is not enough exercise! Enter "CyberBike", a full-size exercise bike with Wii controls built directly into it. Instead of staring at a wall while pedalling nowhere, you could ride through a virtual park and pretend your living room had suddenly become scenic. As ideas go, it is actually pretty clever, and probably more motivating than watching the little calorie counter slowly crawl upward. The problem was the price. You were basically buying an exercise bike and a gaming peripheral at the same time, when a normal bike could get you outside, move you around for real, and somehow cost less? Oh it’s not white and made of plastic, not worth it.

GameCube Microphone

By the time "Mario Party 6" rolled around, Nintendo apparently decided the series needed one important upgrade: yelling. The GameCube Microphone was a very cheap-looking plastic accessory bundled around "Mario Party 6" and later used with "Mario Party 7", giving certain mini-games voice controls instead of regular button presses. A handful of other games supported it too, including "Odama" and "Karaoke Revolution Party", but let’s be honest, it was just for screaming nonsense during "Mario Party". Commands like “bigger!” and “STOP!” turned an already chaotic multiplayer game into something even louder. It felt flimsy, looked like a toy, and somehow that made the whole thing even funnier, and I don’t know if I’m crazy, but I never heard of it, and it was smack bang in my childhood, so I feel like I should have?

Nintendo Switch Neck Stand

I thought I had already crossed a line when I bought a tablet arm to hold my Switch above the bed so I could play with detached Joy-Cons. Then I saw this thing and immediately felt normal again. Sold in Japan, this bizarre neck-mounted holder wraps around your shoulders and props the console directly in front of your face, leaving your hands free for the controller. In theory, it is all about comfort. In practice, you look like a bellend. I can understand wanting to avoid holding a Switch for hours, but there has to be a limit people, we can’t become this, I simply won’t allow it. If you wear this in public, move cities.

uDraw Tablet

The name "uDraw" makes this sound like something Nintendo dreamed up for the Wii U, but nope, this weird little tablet actually belonged to the original Wii. It launched with "uDraw Studio", basically a simple digital art program that turned your TV into a giant sketchpad. That was already a strange sell, considering the Wii Remote could handle basic drawing on its own. The tablet did work reasonably well, though, and a few games were built around it. The problem was the library. Titles like "SpongeBob SquigglePants" and "Dood's Big Adventure" hardly became classics, and they also sound like p*rn parodies.

Nintendo Switch Labo

Nintendo has a long history of creating accessories that make you wonder whether you are seeing the future or something built during craft class. "Nintendo Labo" landed firmly in the craft class category. Instead of fancy electronics, the kits were mostly sheets of cardboard that you folded into things like a piano, fishing rod, or steering wheel, then paired with the Switch to control different games. The idea was undeniably creative, especially for kids who enjoyed actually building the controller before using it. Still, spending real money on cardboard always felt slightly strange. One spilled drink, excited younger sibling, or badly placed foot could turn your expensive gaming accessory into recycling in an instant.

Satellaview

Long before downloading games became normal, Nintendo was firing them at the SNES from space. Japan’s Satellaview accessory connected to satellite broadcasts, letting players receive games, news, competitions and other online-ish features at scheduled times. Some releases were modified versions of existing games, while others were completely exclusive, including several "The Legend of Zelda" adventures. Certain broadcasts even featured live voice acting, meaning you had to play while the program was actually airing. It was incredibly ambitious for 1995, but also hilariously inconvenient. You needed extra hardware, special memory cards and a willingness to organise your evening around Nintendo’s television schedule. Satellaview lasted until 1999, proving satellite gaming was impressive, but the internet was considerably less annoying.

NES Satellite

Don’t confuse this with the previous entry, because this isn’t about satellite viewing, it’s about wireless gaming. Wireless gaming on the NES sounds impossible, but the NES Satellite used an infrared receiver connected to the console and a separate battery-powered box that could take four wired controllers. So, technically, the controllers themselves were not wireless at all. You were just moving the pile of cables further away from the television. It also needed a clear line of sight to work, which becomes slightly awkward when four people are sitting between the two parts. Still, it doubled as a four-player adapter and gave everyone extra room. Nintendo replaced it with the simpler wired Four Score a year later, but the Satellite was an impressively early attempt at cutting the cord.

Wii Vitality Sensor

E3 usually brings new games, flashy trailers and the occasional console reveal. In 2009, Nintendo instead unveiled something that looked like it had escaped from a doctor’s office. The Wii Vitality Sensor clipped onto your finger and was designed to read your pulse, supposedly opening the door to games that reacted to stress, relaxation or changes in heart rate. The strange part was that Nintendo never really showed what players were meant to do with it. No proper game demonstrations ever arrived, so everyone was left guessing. Maybe horror games could detect panic, or relaxing software could help calm you down. We never found out, because after years of silence, Nintendo officially cancelled the device in 2013.

Super Nintendo Super Scope

Nothing about the Super Scope was subtle. Nintendo followed up the sleek little NES Zapper by handing SNES owners what looked like a plastic rocket launcher, and it never reached the same heights. You rested the thing on your shoulder, peered through its scope, and aimed at the screen like you were defending the living room from an air raid. It certainly made light-gun games feel more dramatic, but it was also huge, awkward, and not exactly something you could casually leave on the coffee table. Support was limited too, with games like "Battle Clash" and "Yoshi's Safari" being among the few that used it properly.

Wii Sports 8-In-One Accessories

Chances are you know one or two of these, but most folks didn’t realise just how many were made. The Wii Remote already asked players to pretend they were swinging a tennis racket, throwing a frisbee, or smashing a ping pong ball. CTA Digital apparently decided imagination was doing far too much work. Their solution was to sell plastic shells shaped like actual sports equipment, letting you slot the Wii Remote inside and make everything much bigger for no real reason. There were tennis rackets, frisbees, table tennis paddles and plenty of other chunky attachments ready to fill a cupboard. Sure, they made the motions look slightly more convincing, but they also added weight, clutter and the constant risk of accidentally launching fake sporting equipment into your grandma’s head. Look at my new game Nan, oops call an ambulance.

64DD

Near the end of the N64’s life, Nintendo started getting dangerously close to Sega levels of hardware add-ons. The Nintendo 64DD attached underneath the console and used special magnetic disks that offered more storage, writable data, and features like a real-time clock that games could react to. On paper, that opened the door to some genuinely interesting ideas. In reality, it was a bulky extra box arriving during an era when CDs were already taking over, and it wasn’t exactly cheap either. Only a small number of games ever supported it, and the whole thing remained exclusive to Japan. Instead of extending the N64’s life, the 64DD arrived to late to have a lasting impact.

NES Advantage

Some gaming accessories become completely useless with age. Others somehow circle back around and become cool again. This chunky arcade-style NES controller definitely falls into the second group. Back when arcades were everywhere, having a giant joystick setup at home probably felt a little excessive. Now, with retro arcade machines fashionable again, it actually has a certain charm. I still wouldn’t want to drag this thing out for every NES game, especially anything that needs quick, precise movement. But for fighting games, arcade-style titles, or classics like "Donkey Kong", it makes a lot more sense. It is bulky, dramatic, and completely unnecessary, kinda like me.

Family BASIC Coding Software

Before Nintendo was teaching people how to make games with friendly tutorials, it tried something much stranger with "Family BASIC". Released only in Japan, this Famicom package came with a full keyboard and software designed to teach basic programming skills. Woo .. Fun? Players could mess around with pre-made code, sprites, music, and other assets to build simple programs of their own. It sounds impressive now, but at the time it was hardly the easiest sell. Most kids probably wanted Mario, not homework disguised as a cartridge. The whole setup was also fairly complicated, bulky, and never made it outside Japan. As a result, "Family BASIC" became one of those Nintendo experiments that is fascinating to read about and slightly less exciting to actually use.

SNES Mouse

This is the only peripheral on the list that I actually owned, and apparently nobody else heard of it? A mouse on the SNES sounds completely out of place, especially when the standard controller didn’t even have an analogue stick. Yet Nintendo made one anyway, and if you played "Mario Paint", it was basically essential unless you wanted your masterpiece to look like it had been drawn during an earthquake. The SNES Mouse had that unmistakable early-90s computer look, but very few games were built around it, so it quietly faded into obscurity. What is surprising is how many titles supported it in some way. "Doom", "Jurassic Park", and even "Wolfenstein 3D" could make use of it. It was never a major part of the SNES experience, but it was far more versatile than most people remember.

Nintendo E-Reader

The Nintendo e-Reader was basically Amiibo before Amiibo learned how to look cool. Instead of tapping a little figure onto your console, you plugged this chunky reader into the Game Boy Advance and swiped special cards through it like you were paying for groceries. Those cards could unlock items, levels, or bonuses in games such as "Animal Crossing" and "Super Mario Advance 4". Some even contained entire NES games, including "Donkey Kong" and "Excitebike", which was pretty wild for a piece of cardboard. The idea was clever, but the whole process was also awkward and very early-2000s.

NES Laser Scope

Nothing says “quiet, immersive gaming” quite like strapping a giant plastic headset to your face and yelling at the television. The Konami LaserScope was designed as an alternative to the NES Zapper, letting players aim simply by turning their head toward enemies on screen. That sounds futuristic until you actually picture someone jerking their neck around the room like a confused security camera. Shooting was even better, because instead of pressing a trigger, you had to shout “fire!” into the microphone. So while the idea promised hands-free convenience, it mostly replaced one small light gun with a bulky helmet and an annoying kid screaming “fire” every other second after you’ve just finished a 10 hour shift.

N64 Video Capture Series

The N64 is often remembered as the console that could not do quite as much as the PlayStation, which makes its stranger accessories even more surprising. One of the weirdest was the N64 Video Capture setup, designed to work with the 64DD and "Mario Artist". With the right equipment, players could record video footage, bring it into the software, and then edit or manipulate it directly on the console. It was basically Nintendo trying to turn the N64 into a tiny home video studio. Look out for their next device which lets you stream straight to Twitch from your N64, well, as soon as Twitch is invented.

Poké Walker Pedometer

Long before "Pokémon GO" had people wandering around parks staring at their phones, Nintendo had already found a way to turn walking into Pokémon progress. The Pokéwalker came bundled with "Pokémon HeartGold" and "Pokémon SoulSilver" and looked like a tiny Tamagotchi strapped to your pocket. You could transfer a Pokémon onto it, then earn experience and other rewards simply by taking steps in the real world. It was a clever little incentive to actually move around, which was probably useful for anyone spending six-hour sessions grinding battles indoors. Support was obviously limited to those games, so it never became a massive platform. Still, the basic idea of mixing Pokémon with real-world exercise definitely did not disappear.