So you just did a Nintendo Switch. Lucky you! Or maybe you have one for someone else and you want to help them get the most of it. How nice! In any case here some good things to know after opening everyone’s favorite hybrid portable console.
While the Switch is pretty straightforward to set up and easy to use, there are a few tricks that make the entire experience even better, from increasing the battery life to saving time clicking through the eShop. I am assuming that by the time you read this you will have already gone through the first process of booting your Switch, creating a user profile, and connecting it to a Nintendo account. If not: do it! If so, do these things next:
Get a screen protector
No matter how careful or delicately you think you are going to damage the screen, I promise you that. You could accidentally knock it over at some point. Maybe you have a cat that hits it. And if nothing else, you’ll likely drag it in and out of the dock a few times during its lifespan, which can wear down the display as well. You can avoid permanent consequences for any of these incidents by purchasing a screen protector. Hori produces an economical but effective plastic. There are a number of other options too. Tote bags are a nice way to add extra protection such as.
Create an additional account
Even if you’re the only person playing your new Switch, do yourself a favor and create an additional user profile. Bonus points if you choose Japan as the region. Some games only allow one save file per account. An easily accessible alternative gives you more options. And when it’s set for Japan, it unlocks additional games and demos that haven’t made it to North America, including some in Switch Online’s subscription-based retro library.
Activate dark mode
If you don’t love addressing your eyeballs, head into the settings menu and turn off the bright white background. It will be more calming and reduce unnecessary battery drain.
Adjust brightness
This is another no-brainer. Unless you’re sitting on the beach, you probably don’t need to project your Switch’s display at full power. If you are in a dark room, turn the brightness all the way down. The automatic brightness adjustment works well everywhere.
Save battery life with airplane mode
This is the third battery life tip designed to show you the importance of maximizing the limited juice your handheld can access. Wanna play The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in the park like that guy in the commercial? Turn on airplane mode to turn off unnecessary features like WiFi and Bluetooth. It extends the battery life and can be toggled back and forth in the settings menu in no time at all.
Remove the password requirement for the eShop
The Switch will ask you to enter your password every time you just want to log into the eShop, unless you disable it. To do this, open the eShop, select your profile icon at the top right, click through to your account information and update the settings for entering your password.
Download free games
The Switches’ library of free games isn’t as extensive as some platforms, but there is still plenty to get your hands on and enjoy right away without spending a dime. Here are the top three recommendations in this department:
- Fourteen days – a battle royale shooter where kids yell at each other while showing cool dance emotes.
- Warframe – a chic sci-fi loot shooter with a huge campaign that you can grind to your heart’s content.
- Unite Pokémon – a super fun, very accessible MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena game) with your favorite pocket monsters.
There are some other decent options out there too, including the platform fighter brawl, alternative battle royale shooter Apex legends, and Hearthstoneesque card game Eternal.
Expand your library
Free games are great, but the Switch has many other great experiences to offer as well. In addition to outstanding first-party games like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Animal Crossing: New Horizons, it was also loaded with ports of blockbusters and indie games, as well as remasters and re-editions of older Nintendo games. The Great Deals tab in the eShop menu shows you the biggest games on sale on a given day, and the Wish List feature lets you keep track of the things that interest you and notify you when and when it always falls in price.
Once you’re ready to throw a few bones at Nintendo, you can’t go wrong with any of the games Kotaku‘s Switch Bests perform. The lists of Most sold Indie games on Switch in recent years are also good starting points.
Back up your data with cloud storage
The Switch didn’t start with cloud storage but it now has it thanks to Switch Online. Unfortunately, the paid subscription service costs $ 20 a year, but it might be worth it if you want to invest a lot of your time in offline games, such as playing games Breath of the wild or Super Mario Odyssey in the months and years to come. In this way, your stored data will not suffer a similar fate, even if your Switch is stolen, broken or otherwise beyond recovery.
The Switch Online expansion package is still not worth the extra $ 30, but with dozens of the best NES and SNES games ever released, it’s worth trying the basic subscription tier on the three months for $ 8 entry point. If you ever let your Switch Online subscription expire, you have 180 days to renew it before all game saves stored in the cloud are deleted.
Make some friends
Almost four years on, the Switch’s social functions are still critically underdeveloped. But that doesn’t mean that they don’t exist at all. While there is no party chat (you’ll have to rely on the in-game or Discord chat features), you can still make friends with other players and see what they’ve been playing. There’s even a trending section that lets you know if your friends are all with a case of, for example Mario tennis Fever. The Nintendo console allows you to link Facebook and Twitter accounts to quickly search those platforms for mutuals that are also on Switch.
Buy another controller
The Joy-Con are very cute and come in all sorts of colors. Unfortunately, they also sucks for playing games. A smart way to get your hands on more gamepads for IRL gaming sessions. They can cause cramps in your hands after a while and almost certainly will Drift malfunction Sometime. They’re okay to start with and easy to maintain in handheld mode, but you won’t regret upgrading to a $ 70 Switch Pro controller. You can also get an Xbox Series X controller (my personal favorite) to work with the Switch by purchasing an inexpensive third-party dongle. And if you want a cheaper, more versatile option, the 8BitDo Pro 2 is still great and only $ 50.
That’s it! Enjoy your Switch now. And if you decide to ignore all of this advice, for the love of God, put another screen protector on it.
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