Ruby Recommends: What Happened To WiiWaa?

Hello again gamers, goblins, and ghouls. I’m back again this week to give you another Ruby Recommends!

As you know, I’m an absolute fiend for a good deep dive, investigation, rabbit hole or goofy video. YouTube is the perfect environment for that, allowing the average smart fella (or fart smella) to whip up a video essay, gameplay video or descent into madness around a specific niche.

While we here at Kotaku Australia have hopes to do something of our own on the video-sharing website at some point, I thought in the meantime it would be neat to sit down once a week and share a gaming-adjacent video from YouTube and discuss a little about why I like it.

This week, we’re looking at what ever happened to WiiWaa.

Slain by the wretched baby from Babysitting Mama

I’m sure many of us know who DidYouKnowGaming is by now. The video itself, however, is done by video game historian Liam Robertson as part of his series on their channel called Game History Secrets. The series itself is an incredibly interesting set of deep dives into stories from the games industry, and sometimes includes conversations with developers involved in lost or cancelled games. One of these instances is in the most recent Game History Secrets video.

Wiiwaa: The Lost Nintendo Wii Plush Toy Game asks the big question: what happened to WiiWaa?

WiiWaa was a cancelled Nintendo Wii title made by Swedish studio Zoink that was meant to be an adventure game controlled via the Wiimote being inserted into the mouth of a plush toy. It was a novel concept, with the original gameplay looking incredibly nifty.

Unfortunately, the game was never released. While for years the reasons were unknown, this video includes an interview with Zoink’s founder Klaus Lyngeled revealed the main reasons as to why WiiWaa never hit shelves. It’s quite the interesting watch, check it out!

This weekly post is also an opportunity for creators to feature their work. If you’re in the business of making YouTube videos diving into niche gaming content, investigating lost game media, or just doing any cool shit with games, OR you have a favourite creator that you’d like us to spotlight, let us know!