While I’m yet to really appreciate any major benefit of the Nintendo Switch 2’s GameChat feature, I’m nevertheless always hardware-curious. I’m a tech nerd; I want to know what companies are shipping and how good it is. With that in mind, let me sound the alarm with a warning: do not buy that cutesy Switch 2 camera shaped like a Piranha Plant. If you buy it, to be blunt, peripheral company Hori is absolutely pantsing you.
Let’s cut to the chase: the Hori camera, which comes in a cute licensed shape of a Piranha Plant, is rubbish. It’s not rubbish on the outside, though. First impressions are good: it’s got lovely packaging, and when you free it from its box only the most miserable of gits would conclude that this thing isn’t incredibly charismatic.
There’s even really clever design touches. The camera itself is a USB-C, which means it can be plugged directly into the Switch 2 and stick out of the top of it, making it the only camera marketed specifically for Switch 2 right now that is properly appropriate for handheld mode (if such a use case ever emerges). When you want to place the camera on a surface, you dock it into its Super Mario Bros. pipe-shaped dock, then plug that into the Switch. So far, so clever.