Michael Pick, “the Casual Engineer” who builds curiosities on YouTube, had a small problem with the Nintendo Switch: “It’s really easy to lose,” he says. So he fixed it, in a way. In a big way.
At more than six times the size of a real Nintendo Switch, here is the World’s Largest Nintendo Switch, and yes, all of its buttons and joysticks function. You can watch Pick playing Mario Kart 8 Deluxe in, uh, “portable” mode — note how he covers the A button to accelerate with his forearm, while using his whole entire hand to steer with the humongous Joy-Con.
Of course, what’s the fun of this video if Pick isn’t going to show everyone how he made the controllers work? Peering inside the blue Joy-Con, we see that he’s rigged up a system of servos and triggers to, essentially, create a large puppeting system that manipulates an actual, teensy-weensy Joy-Con housed inside. The Switch (displaying to the big 4K LED screen) is likewise housed in here.
The console is 30 inches tall by 70 inches wide and weighs 65 pounds. Don’t worry, it’s playable with a (non-gigantic) Nintendo Switch Pro Controller, too, which Pick uses to dispatch Fortnite player Manwell65, making him the first to be eliminated in that game (or any) via Giant Nintendo Switch.
Not that Pick will be taking this on the bus to play Fortnite — it’s a gift to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital, which has an affiliate in Huntsville, Alabama, where Pick is an aerospace software engineer. Kids will likely use the Pro Controller when they want to play, but for sure, anyone who sees it will whack all the buttons just to see what that’s like. I would.
