Someone built a very genuine-looking Nintendo Switch to play Animal Crossing: New Horizons

(Image credit: Sarbaaz37/imgur)

The Nintendo Switch is a commodity in short supply these days, so one clever fan built one entirely from spare parts and issued a guide on how you can do the same.

It might go without saying, but I can't personally attest to the performance or reliability of the build, but the finished product looks incredibly legitimate. Side by side, I wouldn't be able to tell the copycat recipe from the real thing. Altogether, the builder was able to work their cost down to about $200 by patiently waiting on reasonable sellers and bidding on the right parts.

Known as Sarbaaz37 on Imgur, the builder says the idea for a homemade Switch came after their friends failed to find a fairly-priced model from retailers and private sellers. Apparently, the group of friends only wanted to play Animal Crossing: New Horizons along with the rest of the world.

"After playing New Horizons and hyping it up to my friends, they decided they wanted a Switch. They called around to different retailers every day for a week with no luck finding anyone who had one in stock. No one knew when the next shipment would be. This led to an online search like Craigslist, OfferUp, and Ebay," wrote Sarbaaz37.

The write-up is comprehensive and includes every spare part you'll need to build your own Nintendo Switch, as well as pictures and instructions on how to put the parts together. Naturally, this isn't a project for the average gamer without a ton of technical know-how. The builder clearly knows their way around machines and says the process took about a month and required "extreme patience."

With any luck, the Switch will be back in stock soon and we can all look forward to these upcoming Switch games together.

Jordan Gerblick

After scoring a degree in English from ASU, I worked as a copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. Now, as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer, I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my apartment, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.