Wii U External HDD Cases Part 1: Super Mario

I haven’t been following the Wii U too much these past several months, I figured I knew all there was to know about Nintendo’s new console. But then recently I learned the system is allowing for external storage (either SD Cards or external hard drives) to help with capacity. How great is that? No proprietary hardware and easy-to-maintain data. Kudos to Nintendo.

What got me excited about this storage system are the possible external hard drive enclosures we could be seeing, be it from Nintendo or a third party (like Mad Catz). I think we could be seeing some pretty cool cases to park our hard drives in, because they’d enlist video game themes as opposed to looking like drab bricks.

First up is this really simple Mario block design. I have a few more designs in the pipeline, but I wanted to start with this one because it would compliment the Wii U console in appearance.

It features a Mario question block that operates as the power button (illuminates when powered-on). Above it are coins that animate in a light sequence to denote data is being transferred or a write is taking place (like saving a game). It would play the coin chime sound when the device is turned on, in sync with a single coin animation.

I’m 99.99% sure we’ll see a few fun HDD cases like this, because they’d appeal to both Wii owners and those who would want a geeky external case for their desktop computer. And that kind of market reach would be difficult to ignore from electronics companies.