(I got bored one night and made this page, I apologize if it's low quality and/or outdated. </3)

❓What is "The Retrocule"? ❓

The Retrocule is a fictional and purely mental polycule that consists of myself, Mr. Game and Watch, Pac-Man, R.O.B, and occasionally another member which depends on my current hyperfixation.
"The Retrocule" got its name from original sources of the mainstay members (Mr. GnW, Pac-Man, R.O.B) all coincidentally debuting in the 80s (1980 for the first two, 1985 for the latter).
(The name is semi-ironic, but until I find a better one, this will remain official.)

The concept of having romantic fictional partners falls under the topic "Selfshipping/Yumeshipping". There's very little definitive information about it, but if you already know what shipping is, you can make an educated guess.

"Wow. That's like, really weird."

Every time I bring this up in communities, I get quite a few questions about this whole concept. It would be entertaining to answer them all at one time, but unfortunately I'm terrible at forming reasonable explanations on the spot.
This website serves as an ... educational tool I guess? Just in case someone actually wants to learn about my weird obsession with these strange little guys.

...But first, I really, really want to get the biggest question out of the way:

"How did you even get attached to these characters? They have very little romantic appeal, and one of them doesn't even have a face!"

This is an extremely common question I get, a very fair one at that! One has to realize that the reason these things come into existence is because of personal experiences. This could be due to childhood memories, or some secret second thing someone may not know yet. Though, in my case, I think I have a decent explanation for this.

Cue the heartfelt story...

Growing up as a kid, I was obsessed with Super Smash Bros. Like, I thought it was the coolest game series ever. Being able to play as Captain Falcon and beat the living shit out of Kirby was (and still is?) an experience you can't have in any other series, but that's besides the point.
Later on, I got gifted Super Smash Bros. for the 3DS out of the blue, and I was ecstatic. Imagine observing a series for all those years and finally having a game from it in your hands, it feels surreal.
Naturally I played the game a ton, unlocking characters on the way. Of course, I didn't know some of them, but I could assume what their movesets were just by looking at them.

But then, I came across him.

As I mentioned before: I barely knew most of the characters, but I could still tell what they were by their silhouettes.
"Oh, that's a kid with a cap!" "Duhh, that's obviously Wario!"

But this critter was different to me.

I couldn't figure out what that thing was for the life of me. I knew it was a very simplistic design, but that didn't look like a kid with a cap or the obvious garlic man in overalls.
Naturally, I had to fight him (I kicked his ass, by the way.), but something still felt very off.

He didn't fight with only a sword or his fists, he seemingly had an endless amount of weird and obscure items my small kiddo brain couldn't process (It didn't help that the fight went by pretty fast too). The stage stuck out to me like a sore thumb too. Usually, the challengers have some kind of epic or recognizable location their stages take place at, but this one felt very different..
.. Almost a bit ... flat?
Anyway, he joined my roster, but he still looked extremely out of place from the rest of my currently unlocked characters.

And this might sound weird but.. I kind of related to him in a way? He felt like the black sheep of the roster (With it being full of recognizable and decently known characters), and I was also a black sheep who had trouble fitting in amongst the places I would go to.
(This was the first sign of the hyperfixation that would form later in my life, just you wait.)

Since he stuck with me so much, I decided to main him. It took me a while to get comfortable with his moveset and ease of being tossed around, but I became a CPU-killing machine in no time.

After some time, I went on the internet to do some quick research about this critter, because that entire time I still didn't know his origins.
Apparently, this weird thing technically didn't come from a game, but was made to represent a whole series of some ancient Nintendo technology that existed before Mario even existed as a character.
In short, this little (At the time) rabbit hole I threw myself down led me to appreciating retro games as a whole and made me think about exactly how much care went into making Mr. GnW.

Fast forward to 2018 (When Super Smash Bros. Ultimate came out), nothing significant happened besides me getting a GnW amiibo and the game for Christmas. I still main'd him and had an abnormal backlog of knowledge about him in my brain.
However, I was yet to try out some other characters that were on my mind, which were Pac-Man and R.O.B. I tried them out and I wasn't really attached to their movesets as much as I was with GnW, I was moreso attached to how well the devs managed to characterized a yellow circle and a toy nobody liked.
I wasn't as obsessed with those two, but that would change later, way later.

The Downs (And The Ups!).

This section gets a bit personal, so I will provide a quick content warning for brief mention of relationship abuse.
I won't go too much in-depth, but I still wanted to provide a warning for those sensitive.

While you can't really have flaws in a fictional polycule, my actual love life was extremely rough for a while. No matter who I would fall in love with, they would constantly end up being mentally abusive and manipulative.
This left me hopeless and seeking some kind of escapism, no matter what it was.
After a bit of doomscrolling on Twitter (Which, as unhealthy as it is, was my outlet at the time), I came across someone who made some oddly heartwarming Mr. GnW selfship art. They constantly drew themselves in situations that a couple would participate in, except with GnW present.

This art.. spoke to me in a way? First of all, I didn't think people were actually as obsessed with that little guy as I am, and second of all, that art was actually really fuckin' cute.

And since I was going through a pretty recent breakup and already had a pretty deep connection with the character (Remember the "black sheep" analogy?), I started gaining romantic feelings for him too.
... And it ended up being an extremely effective coping mechanism actually! Whenever I got sad, I would think about him and suddenly forget what I was sad about.
I ended up doing this with Pac-Man and R.O.B too, which led me to discovering more about myself and realizing I definitely have a type.. (Silly retro characters that were given actual personalities and thoughts later in their lifespan).

This may seem very weird and confusing to the average person, but a lot of people do this subconsciously without even realizing!
Thinking about something you adore is an extremely common coping skill, and it's often the first one people are taught.
In this case, it just varies differently from person-to-person. <3

Of course, this isn't every single detail of what came to be, but if I were to explain all of it, I would be here all day typing away at my keyboard. But I do hope this gives you even the slightest bit of insight on why this is a thing. (I tried </3)

TLDR for you stinkies who didn't read any of that: It's less about looks, and moreso about the experiences and struggles which led up to the feelings.

"I think I get it now, but how does this affect you today?"

Still positively! I may be more afraid of expressing it now (Because it's "cringe"), but I still hold these characters close to my heart. As silly as it sounds, they've gotten me through some tough shit I wouldn't have gotten through otherwise.
Nowadays, I have an actual partner who loves me and doesn't seem to mind the weird polycule, so it's a win-win for me!

This whole life experience has also led me to becoming more open about discovering myself and the little things that make me smile. It's crazy to think about exactly how much my mindset has changed due to these little critters, but it's a welcomed change.

If you still think this whole thing is weird, that's fine with me! After all, I just think they're neat. <3

Edit

Pub: 30 Jul 2025 08:51 UTC

Edit: 30 Jul 2025 18:31 UTC

Views: 149