Tobold's Blog
Saturday, January 06, 2018
 
Nailing down the Switch

I am still happily playing Zelda - Breath of the Wild every day on my new Switch. However I had to buy some accessories to make that work smoothly. After trying it out once I abandoned the idea of playing with the Switch as a mobile device: I found the screen too small for Zelda and the 2-hour battery life not sufficient for my needs. So I was playing on my TV, with the two Joy-Con controllers attached to the supplied grip, which makes them feel very similar to a gamepad. However the supplied grip has no electric connection at all. Thus at the end of every day I had to unhook the two Joy-Cons and attach them to the main console for charging. Not very practical, and somewhat fiddly.

I considered two solutions and ended up buying both: A wired gamepad controller and a Joy-Con charging grip. The charging grip has the advantage that you can still play wirelessly, and just need to plug in the charging cable in the evening. The gamepad is rounder and slightly more comfortable to play with; however the one I bought doesn't support motion control nor near-field communications.

In summary, I basically nailed down my Switch and turned it into a regular console, with no more need to remove the tablet from the stand. I can see the appeal of having a mobile console, but unless somebody invents better batteries, the Switch isn't that for me.

Comments:
I'm not a big mobile gamer, but I have brought my Switch on a few significant flights and trips. I found that (for me) the battery issue was pretty much completely negated with the purchase of a ~25 USD battery pack. This more than doubled the playtime of my Switch (and even though I have played Zelda to death, even I need breaks after 5 hours) for the small price of carrying another object not much larger than a mobile phone whenever I took the Switch travelling.
 
I've been really tempted by this little thing but the overall cost to enjoy Zelda is too much for me. Coming from Steam, GoG and various mobile titles (free or nearly-free) I consider the Switch a luxury in the gaming world. And if you've got kids believe me... Justifying the expense is extremely hard :) because they overall interest in a single game doesn't last for a long time.
 
Post a Comment

<< Home
Newer›  ‹Older

  Powered by Blogger   Free Page Rank Tool