Nintendo Independent Wiki Alliance

The logo of NIWA, featuring the hiragana にわ, meaning "garden"

The Nintendo Independent Wiki Alliance, NIWA for short, is a network of wikis and their associated websites that aims to chronicle all things Nintendo, supporting wikis independent of large corporate wiki groups, most notably Fandom.

History

NIWA began as an expansion of the concept of Encyclopædiæ Pokémonis, shortly after the administration of Zelda Wiki contacted Archaic, Bulbagarden's head, about a possible affiliation. It was jointly decided, shortly thereafter, that rather than a simple affiliation, an entire network of Nintendo-based wikis could be begun, and Super Mario Wiki was shortly asked to join as another founding member.

After a little under a month of planning, NIWA was launched on February 14, 2010, to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the public launch of Bulbapedia. As noted above, the Alliance only consisted of three wikis from the start.

Within two months more, preparations were complete for the launch of Metroid Wiki and WiKirby, which had been spun off by users of the original trio of NIWA wikis, and they joined the group. Wars Wiki, a wiki based on the age-old Nintendo Wars franchise, became the first member recruited from outside the original trio.

Throughout October and mid-November, NIWA experienced a boost of wikis every week on Friday, starting with Lylat Wiki (October 1), then Pikipedia and Pikmin Fanon (October 8), StrategyWiki (October 15), SmashWiki (October 29), WikiBound (November 5), Donkey Kong Wiki (November 12), and Nookipedia (November 19). On November 30, Golden Sun Universe joined, notably on a Tuesday rather than Friday. NintendoWiki, which had been worked on secretly for quite a time before, joined on December 10.

In 2011, after no new wikis joined the alliance for several months, Fire Emblem Wiki joined on April 20, followed by Starfy Wiki on April 28, the following year in 2012, the F-Zero Wiki joined on March 16, followed by Icaruspedia on March 23, and then the Dragon Quest Wiki on March 30.

Throughout the next three years, three Wikis would join the alliance: Hard Drop Tetris Wiki on January 17, 2014. Inkipedia on July 4, 2015, and the ARMS Institute on June 22, 2017. In November 2019, Donkey Kong Wiki merged with Super Mario Wiki, reducing the wikis in the alliance to 23, and this was the first time such a reduction was seen.

After more than three years with no new wikis joining the alliance, Xeno Series Wiki joined on March 14, 2021, followed by Dragalia Lost Wiki on April 28 and Ukikipedia on May 9 which was the first wiki in the alliance to focus on a specific game within another franchise. These additions brought the total number of members to 26 wikis.

On October 19, 2022, Zelda Wiki, whose future in the alliance was proving to be uncertain after its acquisition by wiki farming service Fandom in 2018, announced its re-independency from the platform, preventing problems that were associated with the service that NIWA was against. It briefly renamed itself as Zeldapedia before reverting back to its former name. On December 11, it was announced by NIWA's social media pages that the Dragon Quest Wiki was expelled from the alliance in a unanimous vote due to the new host's inappropriate conduct. However, its wiki staff had also withdrawn from the alliance as well. This brought the members back down to 25, but on December 13, the Drawn to Life Wapopedia joined the alliance, bringing the number back to 26 wikis again.

On January 19, 2023, Kingdom Hearts Wiki joined the alliance, followed up with Kovopedia on March 2, Mystery Dungeon Franchise Wiki on June 22, Rhythm Heaven Wiki on August 30, and MiiWiki on October 26, bringing the total to 31 wikis in the group.

On August 22, 2024, the Chibi-Robo! Wiki joined the alliance, raising the total to 32 wikis in the group.

Name

NIWA's name, an acronym of Nintendo Independent Wiki Alliance, is also romanized Japanese for "garden", symbolizing the natural growth of the community around the fandoms that make it up. This is fitting, given Nintendo's Japanese origins, and since romanization of Japanese is important for most of the wikis.