I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; the old designs are always the best. It’s why I love the Cubesense controller so much; it feeds that constant yearning for nostalgia inside me, and more than anything else, it’s a fun product that makes me smile. That’s what I often look for when searching for gaming peripherals – if they make me feel like a kid again, then they’ve definitely made their mark, which is why I was so excited to come across the Nintendo Switch Jumbo Game Boy dock from Cohoba Creations, a fun peripheral that makes me feel like Chibi-Robo coming across a Game Boy while tidying up the house!
Kevin from Cohoba Creations was kind enough to send me their Game Boy dock to check out as well as some exciting extras that certainly instill a sense of fun into my tabletop gaming sessions. I’ve just taken all the pictures for this article and I’ve still got the Switch set up on the desk next to me with Let’s Go Pikachu running, so this article might take me a lot longer to write than usual!
Thanks to Cohoba Creations for sending us this product to review. As always, Retro Dodo does not accept payment for reviews, and all of my views on this product are 100% my own and unbiased.
The Jumbo Game Boy dock from Cohoba Creations is a fun peripheral that provides a sense of nostalgia while marrying new and old technology and design together, finally fulfilling the childhood dream of turning our favourite objects ‘giant’. It’s a great dock for playing your Switch in tabletop mode and provides a surprise storage solution for your Switch games.
- Price: Game Boy Dock $53.99/£55. Extra Switch game storage Game Boy cartridge $20/£20. Joycon holders $17.99/£17.69. All prices exclude delivery.
- What’s In The Box – Nintendo Switch Jumbo Game Boy Dock + Switch game storage Game Boy cartridge. Joycon holder sold separately.
- Dimensions: 260mm high x 180mm wide x 50mm deep
- Weight: 545g
- Connection Type: Slot for USB cable
- Compatibility: Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch OLED
- Available From: Cohoba Creations
Table of Contents
Getting To Grips With The Jumbo Game Boy Dock
Cohoba Creations certainly knows how to target nostalgia seekers. This 3D-printed Game Boy dock is set up just like the original handheld, albeit being made for a giant! The dock measures 260mmm high x 180mm wide x 50mm deep and has all the key features of the original Game Boy including the grooved lines on the back of the handheld, the cartridge slot, and the trademark grooves on the side and top of the console and face buttons.
Now before I go any further, I will mention that this is simply a Nintendo Switch dock and that the face buttons don’t actually work. I know the whole thing looks like Harry Potter has used Engorgio on a normal Game Boy and turned it into a handheld fit for Hagrid, but if you were hoping to play Game Boy games on Nintendo Switch Online using it, then you might be a little disappointed. Still, they’re great as fidget toys while you’re watching a cutscene or waiting for the next stage to load, and they do actually press in which is nice! The D-Pad even has the same grip lines on it too, making it an incredibly nostalgic fidget toy at that.
Check out the picture above; it looks like the DMG is looking after a tiny child, especially when you see the same groove lines and the tops of two Pokémon Red cartridges in the cartridge slots! Cohoba Creations make a variety of colour schemes and cartridge options for customers to purchase, but as Pokémon Red and my classic Grey DMG were my first combo, I just had to pay homage to my original setup. The cartridge does more than just look fancy too as you may have gathered from the featured image in this article, but I’ll get onto that in a second.
How Does It Feel?
The dock itself is made from a 3D filament that feels sturdy in your hands. It’s passed the wobble test on my desk a couple of times too, meaning it certainly shouldn’t fall over if you knock into your table or TV unit while it’s standing upright. The fidget buttons all press in easily with surprisingly nice sounds considering they don’t actually do anything – they sound a little like pressing buttons on an old mechanical toy or a fairground machine to me which evokes a different kind of nostalgia entirely.
To slot your Switch into the dock, simply remove the upper half of the Jumbo Game Boy and slide your Switch (minus the joycons) into the opening. As the Switch and OLED Switch are both the same size it doesn’t matter which version of the console you own – both will fit inside the dock. There are rubber rails on the inside of the display area to cushion your console as you slot it in and out too, preventing any scratches and keeping everything nice and secure. It’s incredibly easy to reattach the top of the dock too to complete the Game Boy look; I managed to do it with one hand while looking at my camera screen when filming the video below!
Secret Cartridge Storage
The cartridge that slots into the back of the dock doesn’t just look like my favourite Pokémon game and fill a gap that would otherwise be empty. It actually holds eight of your Nintendo Switch games, keeping them in the back of the ginormous Game Boy until you’re ready to swap games. The games slot into the holders smoothly and are kept in place securely by the top half of the cartridge which attaches via two magnets. And no, magnets won’t affect your Switch games, so you don’t need to worry about corrupting your game files and losing your progress.
I turned the game cartridge upside down with the lid on to see if the games stayed in place when the lid was attached and everything remained in the same place. Just bear in mind that the games don’t clip in, so they will fall out if you lift the cartridge upside down without the lid on.
For me, big versions of everyday objects make me feel like a kid again. This dock provides that ‘Woah!’ factor that would have gone around the playground when someone brought something cool into school that no one had seen before, and the fact that it’s based on my favourite Game Boy game as a kid makes it even sweeter, especially when paired with the matching Joycon holder too!
Obviously, Charizard is a different colour to what he is on the original Pokémon Red, but the likeness of my favourite Pokémon is good enough on a product that is not officially endorsed by The Pokémon Company. If this were an official product, I would be writing them a letter, but I’m well aware that small businesses don’t want to come under the wrath of Nintendo’s lawyers, so I’m not knocking any points off for design here.
Checking Out The Joycon Holder
Cohoba Creations sell these Game Boy game Joycon holders separately to the main dock, but they are very well priced for people who want to show off their love for their favourite games while playing both in tabletop mode and when hooked up to the TV with your normal dock. This Pokémon Red holder is very lightweight and weighs just 41 grams, so it won’t give you any wrist ache while playing long sessions on Tears of the Kingdom. It’s comfortable to hold too and keeps your joycons securely fastened; just press the buttons on the back like you would to remove them from your switch to release them from the cartridge!
I will point out that you don’t have to get the same cartridge for your joycon holder as you have for the back of your Game Boy; I just wanted to keep everything linked to the grey Game Boy and Pokémon Red for nostalgia reasons, but there are a whole range of colors and cartridges on offer. Choose Ho-Oh on a gold cart, Mario on red, Peach on Pink, Umbreon on black, and many more.
Can I Use It On My TV?
The dock is made purely for playing in tabletop mode and provides you with less neck ache as it raises your switch up higher. So for someone like me who has a raised shelf on his desk, it’s perfect. Unfortunately, you can’t use this as a dock for hooking your Switch up to the TV. There’s only an option for charging your Switch and not for hooking up a HDMI cable, so it won’t be able to replace your existing dock. Still, Cohoba Creations aren’t trying to get rid of your existing dock, but rather complement it by providing a fun option for when the TV is in use and you don’t want to play handheld, or for when racing with friends when sat around the kitchen table or in the office.
Final Thoughts
- A fun dock with a clever solution for storing games
- Makes playing in tabletop mode much more exciting and puts the display at a better height
- Looks great standing next to my original Game Boy & Pokémon Red cart
- Definitely a product that evokes an inner sense of childish delight
- It won’t be great if you’re used to portable tabletop playing – not small enough to put in a bag or case
- I know it can’t, but I still wish it could hook up to my TV for full-time use
This Jumbo Game Boy dock is first and foremost something to add a little extra fun into your life. It’s excitingly nostalgic and provides some slick storage solutions that manage to combine old and new technology together. There’s something appealing about storing tiny games that can hold worlds as incredible as Hyrule in Breath of the Wild inside a giant version of Pokémon Red that makes me smile whenever I think about it.
Some of you might have had the thought ‘What’s the point of this?’ Well, sometimes items don’t need to have a specific point other than being fun; we don’t always have to reinvent the wheel, but we can create peripherals that evoke all the memories and good times that I’ve spoken about while writing this article. Aside from preventing neck ache thanks to being higher when I’m playing tabletop mode, this dock takes me back to battling along Victory Road in Pokémon Red while my Grandma shouted for me to come down for my dinner. If you grew up with Nintendo like I did, then something that brings back those kinds of memories is priceless.
Do I wish it could hook up to my TV as my full-time dock? Of course I do, but it was never designed for that purpose so I can’t hold that too much against it. It’s a 3D-printed accessory and not a custom-designed dock like the CRKD Nitro Deck Plus with its power input and HDMI output ports. Still, if Cohoba Creations do fancy getting adventurous and making docks I can keep my Switch in 24/7, then they would find my credit card on their doorstep with a note saying ‘send one of every colour!’
