Product Reviewed: Mini Arcade Pro
Manufacturer: iMP Gaming
Retail Price: £44.99 / €51.06
Heyo folks! We have a brand-new product review for you, and I think you are really going to like this one. Mini Arcade cabinets are popping up all over the shop; however, the majority of them only have a self-contained library of games at best, and their screens aren’t necessarily the biggest. They are great for scratching that retro itch, but what if we were to tell you that there is one Mini Arcade cabinet that allows you to play both modern and retro games alike, and all it requires is your Nintendo Switch/OLED or Nintendo Switch 2.
Cue the Mini Arcade Pro by iMP Gaming. It turns your Nintendo Switch console into a portable arcade Cabinet, complete with its own fight stick and eight buttons, and it takes power straight from the console for full autonomy, or you can plug it straight into the mains using an AC outlet with a USB-C cable.
Appearances and Features:
The Mini Arcade Pro is a tabletop unit that has retro-inspired designs and motifs with plenty of vibrant colours and images of video game characters and controllers. Although somewhat nostalgic, the designs are not of any particular character or a controller, Nintendo or otherwise, which will certainly help get around potential licensing or branding issues.
As the Mini Arcade Pro has its own in-built controller, it sports eight fast-action buttons labelled A, B, Y, X, R, L, ZR, and ZL to respectively match those on a typical Nintendo Switch Pro Controller. It also has a – and + button, as well as a Home button, GameChat button, and a Turbo button. Holding down the Home button will allow you to wake the console, and you can put it to sleep using the same button as well, much like you can with a Joy-Con or Pro Controller.
When it comes to moving controls, the Joystick has eight different directions with both analogue and digital emulation, and comes with a little red ball on top, just like some of the traditional arcade cabinets from back in the day. While the cabinet lacks a secondary joystick to play certain games or a D-Pad for that matter, it does have its very own workaround. On the top left part of the arcade controller, there is a toggle switch that you can slide between LS (Left Stick), DP (D-Pad), and RS (Right Stick).
On the back of the cabinet, there is a storage compartment for 12 game carts and 12 micro SD cards, where you can easily store some of your games so you can easily transport both them and the cabinet wherever you want for some Mini Arcade Action on the go or around a friend’s house. It is certainly useful, but I have found some of the slots for the cartridges to be a little too loose, and a simple jolt could easily eject the cart if you aren’t careful, which can cause you to lose it.
To list exactly what the Mini Arcade Pro comes with and what else can be found inside the product box, they are as follows.
- Arcade Style Mini Cab
- 8 Way Joystick controller with digital and analogue emulation.
- 8 fast-action arcade buttons.
- Home and C buttons.
- Turbo Fire option.
- Storage for Games and SD Cards.
- Non-slip base
- Retro Arcade Styling.
- Cassette Case for Nintendo Switch & Nintendo Switch 2
- User Manual
Charging and Battery Time:
The Mini Arcade Pro doesn’t require batteries to use and instead works like a wired controller, taking a charge directly from the Nintendo Switch in order to work. As this uses power from your Switch, it will drain the battery on the console slightly quicker than usual. If you plan to play for longer periods at a time, you can plug in an A/C Adapter with a USB-C cable into the bottom of the arcade cabinet, and it will simultaneously charge/maintain charged, your Switch console.
Connecting to your Switch:
Connecting the Mini Arcade Pro to your Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch OLED, or Nintendo Switch 2 is a pretty straightforward affair, but there is one really important thing you have to do first. On your Console, you must activate the Pro Controller Wired Connection tab on the Settings menu. Failing to do so will prohibit the use of the Arcade controller, as the console will only charge the controller instead (even though it doesn’t have a battery to charge).
Once you have got that step out of the way, you can use one of two Cassette cases, which are designed to hold your Switch/OLED or your Nintendo Switch 2 in place. With the Switch and Switch OLED being the same size, either will fit in the cassette case with the smaller window. As for the Switch 2, it should be placed in the case with the larger window. Either Case can be slid down the rails on the top of the arcade cabinet and slotted into place.
Performance and Gameplay:
So, let’s talk performance. The Mini Arcade Pro is quite the robust piece of kit. The buttons and the joystick are very responsive, and I had no trouble at all with inputting combo moves when I tested it with Street Fighter 6. The Turbo button and the C button (for GameChat) are welcome additions, and I am thankful for the Toggle Switch that changes inputs for the Joystick. I should point out there there are limitations with what kind of games you can play with the Mini Arcade Pro. For the most part, you can play a very large range of games, especially those that rarely use the D-Pad or the Right Stick, for that matter.
The likes of fighting games, racing games, NES, SNES, Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, or SEGA Mega Drive on the Nintendo Switch Online Library are easily playable with the cabinet’s standard button layout. When it comes to games that require the full range of Nintendo Switch controls, like a fast-paced action game or a 3D platformer where you need frequent use of the right joystick at the same time as the left one, it would probably just be easier to play them using a Pro Controller or Joy-Cons instead.
I did test several games on the Mini Arcade Pro of different genres and play styles that include, but are not limited to:
- Street Fighter 6
- Mario Kart World
- Pokémon Legends: Z-A
- Hyrule Warriors: Age Of Imprisonment
- Donkey Kong Bananza
- Donkey Kong (NES)
- Angry Video Game Nerd: 8-Bit.
Games like Street Fighter 6 and Mario Kart World are perfect to play on the Mini Arcade Pro and can easily be played for hours on end. When it came to games like Hyrule Warriors: AoI and Pokémon Legends: Z-A, on the other hand, you can play them to some extent, although when the action really ramps up, you will lose valuable time using the toggle switch to change between joystick and D-Pad, which can result in losing a battle, and is just not an ideal way to play.
CONCLUSION:
The Mini Arcade Pro by iMP Gaming is certainly one of the most impressive Nintendo Switch/ Switch 2 accessory that I have seen. Microids had a similar idea with their Arcade Mini cabinets that you can put together with small rubberbands and they came with recognizable character designs from the likes of Resident Evil, Street Fighter, Dragon Ball Z, Asterix XXL, and TOKI, but none of them came with a dedicated arcade controller setup, and they were only designed to house the original Nintendo Switch as the OLED model was a bit of a tight squeeze.
This bad boy, however, caters for both the Nintendo Switch, and the Switch 2 Model and you can use the cabinet with either console. It comes with interchangeable cassettes so you can use it with your current Switch console and then if or when you upgrade to a Switch 2, you can still use the Mini Arcade Pro with it.
I really enjoy not just the look of the cabinet but the feel of it as well. The controls really are responsive and it genuinely feels like you are playing a real arcade cabinet. It is also very well made and sturdy too, and the easy of putting it together and taking it apart makes it so easy to put away when you are done or need to transport it somewhere and dont want it taking up too much space in a back pack.
In short, the Mini Arcade Pro, is a must-have accessory for any arcade afficionado and it makes a pretty sweet gift for a loved one during the holiday season or just any time of year really.
THE VERDICT:
Recommended
*Product was provided by iMP Gaming for the purposes of this review
