Having a Nintendo Switch is perfect for a family... lots of family friendly games, and lots of cool party games that we can play together on a games night. Our go to games are usually going to be Overcooked 2, Mario Kart 8, and Super Smash Bros... although, recently, I played the Mario Strikers game and that seems like a fun one to play as a family as well!

Anyway, this Switch used to be my Switch... but I've since lost it to the girls and it is now the family Switch. Oh well, now I have my Steam Deck... I'm not too fussed, I really like the greater depth of the PC games anyway. I never really managed to click with console games... fun as a time-filler, but the depth was never really there... even if they were really well crafted.

Anyway, the trouble with the regular Switch dock and charger is the fact that you can only charge the two controllers that attached to the Switch when you put it in. As we have a spare set of controllers, that can sometimes mean that our family gaming evenings are scuttled as one of the sets can be completely depleted. I do try to encourage our girls to make sure that the controllers are always being swapped around.... but they are are only kids still and will forget.

So, when I was recently at my brother's place, they had picked up this relatively cheap third-party charging accessory that locks into the USB port of the Switch Dock to charge two extra pairs of controllers!

The setup is super simple... it just comes in two halves that slide together with the USB port entering the USB port on the side of the Switch Dock. There is a power rail that transfers the power from the USB side to the non-USB side, but apart from that, it is just a charger with no additional bells and whistles.

... and here is the completed set up! It is pretty slick, and well designed... with the whole footprint not being that much larger than the actual original dock, and it is all held snugly together with charging LEDs to let you know if the controllers are full or charging.

There is an extra space for another pair of controllers... I'm sort of considering getting a second-hand set or another new set if they go on sale. The older daughter is having more friends around, and there was a recently sleep over as well... and having an extra set would mean that everyone could all play at the same time instead of having to take it in turns. Nothing wrong with the turns... but it is also cool to have a 6 player Smash Bros chaos-fight!

... and on a slightly unrelated note... I finally set-up our SodaStream. Again, after seeing how it worked at my brother's place. It was pretty simple, but I had been putting it off. However, I did get sick of buying bubbled water. I now down multiple glasses of bubbled water with a little splash of cordial... probably could do without the cordial, but I think the fact that I've stepped up my fluid intake is likely to be more important than the little bit of extra sugar that I'm taking in. I feel it especially on the days when I'm working in the garden on a hot day... I've spent most of my life not drinking enough water, so this is probably a good habit to start!

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