SwitchCharge gives Nintendo Switch hours of extra battery life

By Gabe Gurwin April 5, 2017

switchcharge nintendo switch extra battery — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Playing the Nintendo Switch in its portable configuration is an absolute blast thanks to the system’s Joy-Con controllers and crisp display, but you won’t be able to do so for very long. In just three hours, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild can drain your battery completely. InDemand Design’s SwitchCharge portable charger aims to fix that — and gives you a nice stand to go with it.

Using a two-part “quick lock” design, the SwitchCharge attaches to the back of the Nintendo Switch and provides an additional 12,000mAh of power, which is nearly three times that of the system’s built-in battery pack. InDemand Design claims that it was able to get more than 10 hours of playtime out of Breath of the Wild, with Shovel Knight lasting for more than 14 hours. The battery can fully charge the Switch in about three hours. Once you’re home and wish to place your Switch back in its dock, all you have to do is pull up on the top section of the SwitchCharge and pop your system out.

The SwitchCharge also offers a replacement for the cheap, fragile kickstand that comes attached to the back of the system. The beefier design features supports on both sides, is adjustable, and doesn’t hinder access to the SwitchCharge’s charging port. It even comes with two game cartridge slots built into the back, should you be traveling with your system but leave your case behind.

InDemand Design is currently hoping to raise $80,000 on IndieGogo in order to make the SwitchCharge a reality. Early backers who donate at least $75 will receive a SwitchCharge by August of this year. A SwitchCharge carrying case, designed to hold the console, the charger, the Joy-Con controllers, and an additional 10 games, is also expected to arrive at the same time.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…

Gaming

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door remake is full of quality of life updates

Mario bumps into a Goomba in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door.

Next month, Nintendo will celebrate the 20th anniversary of one of its finest games. Nintendo GameCube classic Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is getting a Nintendo Switch rerelease that's somewhere between a remaster and a remake (not unlike the company's recent Super Mario RPG revisit). But a game as beloved as this presents a challenge for developers: How do you stay true to the original while still upgrading it enough to justify a full-priced double-dip rather than an HD port?

I got an answer to that question when Nintendo gave members of the press a close look at the upcoming Switch release. The good news for protective purists is that the remake doesn't seem to be changing much about the core RPG aside from a bit of dialogue translation. Instead, the new version delivers key quality of life improvements to make a cult classic a bit friendlier to newcomers. That leaves it feeling like an even lighter makeover than Super Mario RPG, but a welcome one nonetheless.
What's new?
During my hands-off demo, Nintendo would walk me through several familiar snippets of the adventure. I'd see the opening combat tutorial in Rogueport, some fights against Pale Piranhas, and Chapter 1's climactic clash with Hooktail. Naturally, the most obvious change here is the remake's newly redone visuals. The Switch version is notably more crisp than the GameCube original, thanks to the removal of messy artifacts around the edges of its paper characters. It's smoother and more vibrant overall, with some more dynamic lighting to boot.

Gaming

The Nintendo Switch just got 2 surprise games — and they’re both worth grabbing

A teddy beat sits on an embroidery hoop in Stitch.

If you were unable to catch this week's Nintendo IndieWorld showcase, then you missed a surprisingly loaded show. Lorelei and the Laser Eyes got a May release date, WayForward showed off its Yars' Revenge revival, and Steamworld Heist 2 got an exciting reveal. In the midst of all those headlines, two smaller games were surprise released on the platform: Stitch and Sticky Business. Don't sleep on either of them, as they're both worth a purchase.

Both games are ports of previously released games, but both went a bit under the radar upon their original launch. Sticky Business modestly launched last summer on PC, whereas Stitch has actually been around since 2022 as an Apple Arcade exclusive. The latter even has an Apple Vision Pro version now that can be played in mixed reality. I can't blame anyone for missing either, but their Switch releases offer a good opportunity to catch up with some quiet hidden gems.

Gaming

All cross-platform games (PS5, Xbox Series X, PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC)

Two squads of heroes clash in an Overwatch 2 trailer.

Cross-platform support is becoming more important in the world of video games. Multiplayer hits like Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 and Fortnite have pushed crossplay into the limelight, and now most AAA multiplayer games release with at least partial cross-platform support. Finding every cross-platform game is no easy feat, though, so we did the hard work to bring you a comprehensive list of games that support crossplay.

Unfortunately, there aren't any rules when it comes to crossplay, so each game handles the feature a little differently. To make matters more confusing, certain backward-compatible games on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X still support crossplay on the most recent hardware, even if there isn't an official release for that hardware.