Nintendo’s handheld systems have always experienced a healthy amount of success. After the Game Boy Advance put a bow on the Game Boy line of systems, the DS was next in line. In its heyday, the DS was incredibly popular and took the portable gaming market by storm almost immediately thanks to the line of Nintendo DS launch titles which included a portable remake of the 3D platforming masterpiece Super Mario 64. Since this was before the days of widespread digital distribution, cartridges were the primary way that games were played on the DS.

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Similar to what has happened with older retro consoles, fan-made merchandise based on consoles from the 2000s has gained massive popularity online. Gaming rugs in particular gain a lot of traction on social media partly due to fans being able to take on more creative ideas that official manufacturers might be less inclined to try. One company called Rug-A-Fella has taken gaming rugs to the next level by creating rugs based on the cartridges of beloved Nintendo DS games like Animal Crossing: Wild World and Mario Kart DS.

Rug-A-Fella has gained tens of thousands of followers across TikTok and Instagram by showing off its prolific production of gaming-themed rugs. DS cartridges are just one part of its catalog as it also produces rugs based on PS2, GameCube, and Xbox games. Nintendo themed rugs are especially popular with some such as the Pokemon Yellow and Kirby Air Ride rugs currently being sold out on its website.

Nintendo has rarely passed up an opportunity to embrace nostalgia, particularly for the 8-bit and 16-bit era. However, as more consoles over time have been considered “retro,” Nintendo has not done much to capitalize on the nostalgia that exists for comparatively younger consoles like the DS. An easy way to lean into this nostalgia would be to bring back franchises that only got games on the DS, but Nintendo could go further by making and licensing more merchandise based on systems like the DS, Wii, GameCube, and Game Boy Advance. People who played these consoles when they were younger are likely at the age where they feel a lot of nostalgia for them, and Nintendo could be doing a lot more to appeal to these fans.

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Source: Rug-A-Fella