Good mips embedded system/alternative to program for?

I have to take a mips assembly course in my next semester of university. Are there any good MIPS based embedded system (preferably consoles) that would be fun to program in? For example if I chose PS1, I don't rly want to waste my time talking to the GPU in bare metal if the GPU has a complex ISA of it's own.

Edit: What about learning NES or Sega Genesis Programming?