Console Cameo

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    Is that a PlayStation controller in my PlayStation game?

    A console cameo is where the game system on which you're playing (or another by the same company) appears in some form in the game you're playing. Developers, when looking for inspiration for a fictional gadget, enjoy modeling amazing pieces of technology on the console that the player is using. This not only makes the interface really easy to design, but also makes the game just a bit more immersive in that respect. Less common is modeling an object off another console by the same company.

    This has to appear in a video game for it to count; systems appearing in other media don't count unless it is based on a video game (Pokémon for example). PCs don't count unless the program is made exclusively for a single operating system and the game makes it clear which operating system (or a parody thereof) is being used. Finally, it doesn't count if the game system only appears in order to demonstrate controls or in something like the Wii's safety screens.

    Examples of Console Cameo include:


    Video Games

    Action Adventure

    Action Game

    • In Cyber Troopers: Virtual On, all of the mecha have Sega Saturns attached to their backs. In Oratorio Tangram, they were upgraded to Dreamcasts.

    Adventure Game

    • The DTS in Trace Memory.
      • Another Code R: A Journey into Lost Memories replaces the old DTS with a new model that resembles a DSi.
    • In Snatcher, the computer used by Jean-Jack Gibson varies between versions. In the PC-88 and MSX2 versions, it is the same computer platform that the game is running on, whereas in the later console versions it is a PC-68 (a fictional model).
      • In SD Snatcher, Gibson's computer is specifically an MSX Turbo-R.
      • In the later versions of Snatcher, Metal Gear Mk. II is rebuilt at the end as the platform the game is running on (i.e. in the Sega CD version, Metal becomes a second model Genesis with a Sega CD attachment).

    Beat'Em Up

    Fighting Game

    • The Trophy Room in Super Smash Bros.. Melee has a number of Nintendo consoles in the background, including a Nintendo GameCube.
      • If you set the language to Japanese while playing the North American version, any consoles that looked different in Japan will have their Japanese appearance, such as the two-tone gray Nintendo Entertainment System being the red and white Famicom. Also the Virtual Boy only appears in the background if the language is set to Japanese.
      • You can also obtain a GCN (GameCube) trophy, whose description says "Rumor has it that Super Smash Bros.. Melee is a software title for this wondrous device."

    First-Person Shooter

    Hack and Slash

    • In No More Heroes, Travis Touchdown has a Nintendo 64-esque console in his apartment.

    Party Game

    • Mario Party's seventh installment has an orange GameCube in the Neon Heights shop.
    • This often happens in the Wario Ware series, since the plot of them is that Wario is a video game designer. ** Twisted features a specially adapted Game Boy Advance
      • Touched has Wario get a DS
      • Smooth Moves has the Form Baton, which is a Wiimote.

    Platform Game

    Puzzle Game

    • Pushmo has a giant Nintendo 3DS puzzle.
    • Picross DS has a series of puzzles that make pictures of Nintendo systems. Years before that, Mario's Picross included a puzzle that made an original Game Boy.

    Racing Game

    • A battle stage in Mario Kart: Double Dash!! is a giant Game Cube. The DS version featured a giant original Nintendo DS.
    • F-Zero GX's Port Town circuit has a giant ROB.
    • In Midtown Madness 3 for the original Xbox, you can see pedestrians holding boxes with Xbox logos on them.

    Real Time Strategy

    • Pikmin 2 is loaded with these, most notably an NES D-Pad and a Game & Watch.
    • In one level of Army Men: RTS for the PlayStation 2 features a giant (in comparison to the units themselves, which are toy soldiers) PlayStation 2 that you can gain electric energy for buildings and units from.
    • Populous DS has a tileset that straddles both examples - settlements start out as a Game & Watch and become more advanced Nintendo consoles as their population increases, culminating in the Wii. The second-largest settlement is an original Nintendo DS.
      • The SNES port did the same thing.

    Role-Playing Game

    • NPCs in Pokémon often hold the system the game is on and comment on trading with a friend or offer to trade you.
      • The player character has the home console in his/her room at the beginning of the game: In Red/Blue it was a SNES, in its remakes, it's an NES, and when visiting Red's house in Gold/Silver he has an N64. In Ruby and Sapphire, it's a Gamecube while in the DS games it's a Wii. In Gold, Silver, Crystal and Pokémon Stadium 2, it was possible to decorate your room and some of the items were all the Nintendo consoles released at the time, including a Virtual Boy!
      • Pokémon Scarlet and Violet takes it further. Naturally, the protagonist has a Nintendo Switch in his room at his home, but also, once you defeat Penny for the first time you can access her dorm room, where you can see she has a Game Boy, DS Lite, and Gamecube on the shelf. Seems she collects old consoles.
      • Amusingly, after the first battle in Black/White, the Wii in the room is the only thing to survive without a scratch...
      • The Pokédex used to be loosely based on the current Nintendo handheld, going from Game Boy (Pokémon Red and Blue) → Game Boy Color (Pokémon Gold and Silver) → Game Boy Advance (Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire; Fire Red and Leaf Green's looked like the GBA SP)→ Nintendo DS/DS Lite (Pokémon Diamond and Pearl) → Nintendo DSi. Pokémon Black and White broke the tradition; the Unova Pokédex looks more like an iPod than any recent Nintendo handheld. Later games tended to put the Pokédex as an in game phone app.
    • The COMPs in Devil Survivor look remarkably like the Nintendo DS. In this instance, every main character there has it. In the Updated Rerelease, they are 3DS'.
    • In Mario & Luigi: Partners In Time, Professor E. Gadd has what this troper presumes to be his portable computer shaped like a Nintendo DS.
    • In Super Paper Mario, Francis owns pretty much every Nintendo console out there, including the Virtual Boy. Also there are recipe systems that look like the Nintendo DS.
    • Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door has a palmtop device, "Mailbox SP", that looks exactly like the GBA SP.
    • In the Mega Man Battle Network and Mega Man Star Force games, the Wii, GameCube, Super Nintendo, and DS all make appearances. The GameBoy Advance also shows up in Battle Network 5.
    • The Gamecube version of Tales of Symphonia has a GameCube in the Renegade's Base.
    • In Super Mario RPG you can buy a Game Boy off of a mushroom kid, and it even opens up a shooter-style minigame.
    • Phantasy Star Portable has most of the Sega consoles as weapons: the Mark III, the Master System, the Genesis, the Saturn and the Dreamcast.
    • Some of the weirder enemies you can fight in Star Ocean the Second Story are murderous PlayStation controllers that whip you with their cords.

    Shoot'Em Up

    • In Mega Man 7, one of the "junk" items that Rush can occasionally dig up is a Game Boy.
      • Also, several Famicom systems appear in the background at the beginning of Junkman's level in the same game.
    • In Metroid Fusion, the X-infested fans in the tropical zone are bordered by a mishmash of metallic-looking objects, including one that looks like a Game Cube.
    • One of bosses in Hyper Zone, an early Super Nintendo Entertainment System game by HAL Labs, is shaped like the face button layout on the SNES controller.

    Simulation Game

    • NESes appear in Animal Crossing.
      • In Animal Crossing: Wild World, there is a furniture item (pink box?) that if you look hard enough, has a Gamecube on one of the shelves.
      • In Animal Crossing: New Horizons, there is an in game Nintendo Switch.

    Stealth Based Game

    Survival Horror

    • In REmake, the MO disc readers look exactly like GameCubes.
    • Xbox 360s appear as collectibles throughout Condemned. There are achievements for finding them.
    • Alan Wake contains an Xbox 360. The room also contains a copy of Night Springs: The Video Game, based on the Show Within a Show.

    Third-Person Shooter

    • Shadows of the Empire: The supercomputer which Dash Rendar is tasked to steal from the frigate ship Suprosa is modeled after an Nintendo 64 with the Shadows cartridge plugged in.

    Wide Open Sandbox

    • In Shenmue, Ryo Hazuki has what appears to be a Sega Saturn console in his house; odd, considering that the game takes place in the mid-1980s.

    Other Game Genres

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