How I Fixed My Nintendo Mini

The Pokémon Mini

Pokémon is one of the bestselling franchises of all time. Most people have heard of Pokémon, but they won’t know about this console. There has been a plethora of products and consoles that comes and goes over the years. I remember the Pokémon Mini being advertised on the telly when I was a kid. It was around the time when the gameboys had finished their shelf live and they were bringing the gameboy advanced and the GameCube.

So they brought this console out too late. By the time the games were out, the software was already dated and there were only four games to play in Europe. In Japan there were about nine, but some were never released abroad. Understandibly, the Pokémon Mini fell into the depths of obscurity.

I have never been able to try out the multi-player games, because I don’t know anyone in my area who has one.

My Mini

I watched a video on YouTube where it branded this as Nintendo’s failed console. Nintendo has done plenty of failures in the past, but they’ve been overshadowed by their succesful products. I’ve owned the Pokémon Mini since I was a child and looking at it gives me memories of holidays in the Isle of Wight.

At the time, I thought it was awesome. There are nowhere near the quality of the mainstream games, but it’s a nice extra. It had features that you wouldn’t expect from a tamagotchi sized device. The screen is about the size of my thumb and one of the games can be converted into a stop clock or an alarm clock. Most smart phones will have all these in nowadays, but at the time it was quite unusual and also cool.

It’s been a good few years since I played it, and I owned all four games they were available. I think the one I played the most was Zany Cards and Party Mini. I think it’s a neat little device. It’s one of the smallest consoles I’ve ever played, and it’s got fun and simple games to play. I found it in a box after moving in. I wanted to see if it would work, but it didn’t.

So I opened it and got the old battery out. I tried putting a new one in and didn’t work. It was only when I took a deeper look, was when I realised why. The child in me wanted to cry.

There had been acid corrosion in the battery compartment. When I showed a picture to my friends they thought that there was no hope of this ever being playable again. I agreed with them, until I remembered a video I found where a guy fixed a broken GameBoy with a toothbrush and alcohol. At the time where I had my train of thoughts, I was drinking ginger beer. What I did with an old toothbrush, I got some ginger ale and started scrubbing the battery bed.

Pokémon Minis can fetch up to £250, depending on their condition and if they’re boxed or not. Getting a replacement would have been expensive. I have no intention of selling it either because I thought it could be a good heirloom for any kids I do have. I didn’t have much hope when I was brushing away the corrosio, but I thought it was worth a shot.

To my surprise, and shock of my friends, I was able to fix it. Everything seemed to work fine. I didn’t come across any glitches or power problems. I think it was just a cause of acid corrosion from the batteries. I was really lucky it didn’t go into the motherboard or the screen.

Verdict: I‘m so glad I have spare toothbrushes.