Some days are just better than others. Some days you wake up before your alarm, feeling rested and fresh, some days you get all the green lights, some days you reach into your Maccas bag to find they’ve mistakenly given you extra chips, and some days, well, some days a Special Edition Fujifilm instax mini Link printer (with an absolutely delightful Pikachu case) arrives at your door.
Look at it. Heaven in a box.
So what is this magical device? Well my sweet friends, this nifty little machine allows you to print out all your fave screenshots from your Nintendo Switch using instax’s instant film. Now isn’t that just a little bit sick?
Lovely stuff indeed, but how does it work? Well, the process couldn’t be easier. Trust, if a Luddite like me can do it, literally anyone can. First up, you find a nice pic you’d like to print from the ‘Album’ section of your Switch, from there click on ‘Send to Smart Device’ — and boom, we’re in business.
You’re going to need to have the ‘instax for Nintendo Switch’ app installed on your phone to receive the photo, which takes less than a minute to download and sync your phone to your Switch.
Then once you’ve selected the pic you want to print, you just simply press the print button on the app and there ya have it — instant art that you can cherish for a lifetime.
Anyway, enough talking. It’s game time, baby. I’ve been obsessed with Pokémon ever since I could spell my own name, so naturally I booted up Pokémon Sword and went to town with some A-Grade virtual photography.
Ahh my house in Postwick. Where it all began. This beautiful little town is where you start your journey in Pokémon Sword and Shield. Its official town slogan describes it as a farming town since days of old, where people and their Pokémon live in close harmony, lovely.
I absolutely adore mushrooms. So naturally, I couldn’t leave out the wonderfully mushroomy town of Ballonlea. Honestly, dream town.
Oh my god I keep telling you, yes.
I just love the vibe of this, it reminds me of a street in Osaka I used to live close to. Some of the best ramen I’ve ever eaten was on that street. Good times, great classic hits.
Touching the forbidden shroom.
Okay, that’s enough mushrooms for today. Playing with my instax mini Link printer proved to be so much fun, I felt compelled to share the joy around. So I asked some of my work colleagues and friends to share some of their fave gaming snaps with me. Because that’s the coolest thing about a product like this — it brings people together.
“This is a screenshot from my Switch right after lockdown began here in March 2020 — my pals and I got into Animal Crossing and spent most days playing online, spending extraordinary amounts of time perfecting our tiny islands while we couldn’t do much else. Looking back on it makes me feel happy, both for the memories and for the nice changes we’ve had in the year since.” — Jesse
“I’m fairly sure this one was taken when I did a video interview with The Amity Affliction while playing Mario Kart. I think one of us took it by accident.” — Matt
“And this is another accidental one when I was playing with some mates at my place. We were all absolutely buckled and couldn’t stop laughing.” — Matt
“Took these two I think within an hour of getting the Breath of the Wild review code.” — Alex
“I love this photo because Luvdisc is the silliest looking Pokémon and it deserves a chance to shine.” — Leah
“I took this screenshot in the middle of a COVID quarantine, it was nice to see something pretty like this on the screen while being stuck in lockdown.” — Annie
“I like this picture because it’s the only area of my island that I’ve actually finished and doesn’t look super shabby.” — Annie
“While Professor Oak would tell me that she isn’t in the centre of the frame, or big enough, I found something special in capturing Kangaskhan watching the meteor shower. This time, I decided not to throw a fluffruit at her and make her yell at me, and instead, I left her to enjoy it.” — Britt
“I had been waiting a long time to get a shot of Celeste looking up at the meteor shower, but she never seemed to be in the right place at the right time. This is the only one I have of her doing this, and while I wish I had had time to move the camera to the right spot before she moved, it’s still pretty neat.” — Britt
“It’s no secret Grookey is my favourite Galarian starter. For me, it has a sense of adventure to it, and makes me want to know more about this little Grookey’s life.” — Britt
Behold, the instax mini Link and its fruits in all their glory.
When I first started this little project, I didn’t anticipate how much I would enjoy the process of actually printing the screenshots out on the instax film. My phone is filled with thousands of photos, most of which I’ll never look at again — but the act of physically printing out these images and seeing them manifest into reality so quickly just blew me away, and added an extra emotional layer to the image.
The fact that I could take a screenshot on my Switch, instantly send that image to my phone, and then have it printed out right in front of me from my adorable little printer — all in less than a minute, just felt so damn cool.
The tactile feeling of physically holding a picture in your hand will always beat an image on a screen. And the best part is I now get to hand out these little bad boys to everyone who took part in this story. How bloody wholesome.
If you’d like to get your hands on one of these bad boys, then check out instax’s website.
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