Just a quick survey of how we've all pimped our systems.

I have a soft case which was made by a friend, a 24-game Hori case, and a plastic grip for handheld mode. I also have an almost full 200gb SD card, a couple of capacitive styli, a lazy neck holder, which kind of fits the console, and the Wii U Game pad (Wablet) stand, which I occasionally use in tabletop mode. (Oh, and I also occasionally use the Labo fishing dock as a vertical stand.)

But I particularly wanted to highlight a recent pickup: the Nintendo Joy Con AA Battery Pack which launched around the same time as ARMS. I've always felt that the Joy Con were too thin and insubstantial to be truly comfortable in freehand mode and hoped that these would help. And they totally do! They might not match the hand-melting synergy of the Wiimote and Nunchuk, but they're a definite improvement over the vanilla Joy Con. They're a biiit bulky in single Joy Con mode, but still usable. So, yeah, a pretty nice little accessory, and you can pick them up for about 15 bones now.

By the way, has anybody here ever run out of Joy Con juice? I wonder if enhanced comfort was the actual unstated goal of this product...

Also, I picked up the Super Mario party bundle solely because it had the exact controller colors that I wanted, Neon Yellow and Green. Kind of a ridiculous thing to do, but they are SO BEAUTIFUL.

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Hori carrying case, Hori game case (which is almost already at full capacity!), 128gb micro SD card (also almost full), ethernet adapter, Pro Controller, glass screen protector, and a Flip Grip.

Two Pro Controllers (one standard and one Xenoblade Chronicles 2 themed), a 256 gig SD card, a Hori screen protector and a soft Nintendo carrying case. Not sure what else to get, to be honest.

Do the Pro Controllers really count as peripherals?

I’ve got three of those, plus the Zelda-themed carrying case and Hori screen protector. A rather large SD card, but I forget what size it is. I don’t need much else. *shrug*

@GameDadGrant
I'm not sure what the definition of a peripheral is, but I'd say that any non-essential hardware product for the system that isn't included in the base package could be considered a peripheral. But that's just my own personal take on it, and what do I know.

Besides the usual Hori case, screen protector, 128GB micro SD card and Pro Controller, I also recently picked up an NES 8Bitdo controller. I wanted a controller with a decent d-pad to play NES games, and this fit the bill (and I paid a lot less than Nintendo's official NES controllers).

It's not perfect, though. First, it's lacking motion sensors and rumble (which are included in newer 8Bitdo controllers, by the way), but I don't care about the lack of these features since I'm using it for NES games. As well, figuring out how to sync it to the Switch and charge it properly was a bit of a pain, but I was eventually able to get it working. Finally, the d-pad has a tendency to register diagonals by accident just like Nintendo's Pro Controller. I was able to fix this by opening the controller and adding tape to the contacts. Now it works great.

Just got my NES controllers, but I haven't tried them. I'm excited to break free from this symmetrical diamond hell!

@r_hjort
Yeah, that's the definition that I would go with, too. Hardware which isn't required for the system to function normally.

The real question is: What's the difference between an accessory and a peripheral??

@Anand
I think I've been using those two words more or less interchangeably before. But thinking about it, if there should be a difference between the two, maybe peripherals are things that are somehow connected to the system's functions, like controllers, controller shells, memory cards and such, whereas accessories are other objects related to the system but that don't affect the game's input or output. Like screen protectors, cases, skins, stands and stuff. Maybe? It would be interesting to hear what you guys think about all this since English isn't my first language.

None, but I very rarely get this kind of stuff for my systems.

@r_hjort Myself, I've always viewed it the opposite of what you said, with "accessory" referring to things like controllers and memory cards, and "peripherals" referring to things like cases and special grips and such.

If we look at the definition of these words, "peripheral" has things like "besides the point" and "unimportant," which I think fits as a description for things like cases and covers and such. Stuff you don't need, but are nice to have. Whereas "accessory" means "having a secondary, supplementary or subordinate function by accompanying as a subordinate," which I think better fits as a description for controllers and memory cards since they are required for certain functions of the system (extra controllers for multiplayer, larger memory cards for more storage, etc.)

But I guess if you try hard enough to reword things, you could probably argue a case for either way. That's English for ya!

@Mop it up
I think I might like your interpretation better now that you bring up the definitions. I think my spontaneous desire to do it the other way around might have been coloured by the way we sometimes refer to things like bows, belts, jewelry and such as accessories when it comes to clothing and appearances, since they don't really have the same practical function as the actual clothes and so on.

EDIT: Then again, many of those accessories can have functions too, so nevermind!

Put some time in with the Nintendo Entertainment System Controllers.

First off, what a blast from the past! They feel so nostalgic. And eerily similar to my memories. I think that I need to break in the D-Pad a bit, but rubbing my finger into the smooth concave divot of the A button was as weirdly addictive as ever!

Alright, that's enough weirding everybody out for now, I guess. The wireless connection to the Switch seemed waaaay stronger than the Joy Cons'. I tried connecting the rail to the NES pad to round it a smidge and make the shoulder buttons easier to press, but it became too deep in that configuration. Speaking of which, the shoulder buttons are way too hard to reach on a regular basis. Since the controller is wider than the Joy Con, you really have to stretch your fingers around that hard right fucking angle. Using both was a pain. But using one and rotating the controller a little worked fine.

So the first thing that I wanted to check was compatibility. Thankfully, Nintendo hasn't artificially limited the controller's usage. So any game that can work with a D-Pad and two (four (six)) buttons pretty much does. It worked great with old arcade games like Donkey Kong, and it was brilliant with simple, precise games like Towerfall, Celeste, and Volgarr the Viking, as well as puzzlers like Lumines and Puyo Puyo Tetris (and probably Tumblestone?). I'd imagine that most retro collections would work nicely, as well. But a lot of games, even retro-styled ones, just have too many inputs. And some of them lack the customization to accommodate the NES controller. My hope is that companies start going back and patching NES controller support into their games. Our past is the future!

Oh, and the NES games feel awesome, too, of course. I played through the SP modes of Metroid and Dr. Mario (WTF), and then dived into some intense Ninja Gaidening. My thumb was actually starting to get sore towards the end. So authentic!

I had also wanted to try using the NES controllers in handheld mode, just to see if they worked, but I felt too exhausted after all of that old-school goodness. Thankfully, Chris Kohler did it for me! So it seems like you CAN just connect the left controller and use it as a giant D-Pad. AND use a right Joy Con to enable handheld compatibility for way more games. That's cool. I'm pretty sure that it can only pair as a standalone controller wirelessly, though.

All in all, a neat peripheral and collector's item (not that I'm a collector...)! And the utility will only increase over time. It's not the most comfortable controller in the world, but at least it doesn't have a stupid symmetrical diamond button layout. And it reminds me of my childhood!

I give it 8 Transformer Action Figures out of 10.

I guess I forgot my 8bitdo DIY modded NES and SNES Classic controllers. They feel great to play games with but there's no ZL and ZR buttons to get you back out of the game or to the save states easily. I guess that makes it more old-school and authentic though, right? Hah.

Then I guess I could count my arcade stick too.

I'll be honest though. I bought all of the above controllers for emulators. The fact that they work on Switch is just a bonus.

My favorite peripheral is the Hori compact switch stand. It makes tabletop mode possible from all kinds of different angles and it can double as a stand for my phone when I'm watching videos.

This stand makes gaming on the go much better. Nintendo really dropped the ball with its crappy kickstand. Next console revision needs to have two kickstands that lock into place at different angles.

Still rocking the Breath of the Wild Sheikah Slate carrying case. Also have a glass screen protector and a Pro controller.

NES joycons should be showing up tomorrow.

Thinking about adding a stand soon, too. My friend has the same one @mrbiggsly has, and pretty much sold me on it.

@Anand Is there still a home button on these? Do they have two shoulder buttons or four?

@Mop it up
The NESCons? Two shoulder buttons. Two face buttons. Plus and Minus button. D-Pad. No home, unfortunately, unless the software is programmed for it, like the NES classics app. They should just make Plus + Minus into a Home shortcut.

Until then, keep a spare Joy Con handy.

I just got the Horizontal DPad Joycon and I LOVE it so far. I'd love a wireless version of it. I haven't really put it through its paces yet but early signs are good.