Fuji’s new Pokémon-themed portable printer is a nostalgic Nintendo Switch accessory and I love it

Nostalgia is a powerful thing, and smart legacy companies know how to capitalize on it. Nintendo and Fujifilm, two companies with over 200 years of combined history, have teamed up to create the ultimate nostalgia trap: an adorable Pokemon-themed instant photo printer. It connects to your phone to output small prints of your favorite photos – or, using a special app, Nintendo Switch Screenshots. Released in conjunction with New Pokémon Snap, this special edition Instax Mini Link captures the feeling of printing your favorite creature snaps at Blockbuster, a millennium rite of passage. It’s not cheap, but it’s a lot of fun – especially if you have young children to share it with.

The printer itself isn’t anything particularly new — Fujifilm has been selling Instax Mini printers like this for years. The “Special Edition” part, technically, is the paint job, which is unofficially called “Ash White (Red & Blue).” What’s really fun is a limited Pokemon-themed bundle that comes with a Pikachu silicone sleeve for the printer. It may provide some occasional protection from drops and other abrasion, but the appeal of the sleeve is mostly aesthetic. It’s stinking cute.

Back in the early 2000s, video rental chain Blockbuster had kiosks that let you print out your favorite shots from the classic Nintendo 64 safari game Pokémon Snap. That experience is almost replicated here. With a new app, you can not only print photos from your personal collection, but you can also print Nintendo Switch screenshots from any game. Importing screens is simple: just scan a couple of QR codes and they’ll be transferred from your Switch to your phone in a few seconds over Wi-Fi.

The app lets you crop, rotate, adjust, and add Nintendo-themed frames to both photos and screenshots before printing. Currently, the app itself and the frames have three themes: Mario, Pokémon, and Animal Crossing. Each series gets one app theme and several frames to choose from. This is all fun as an adult, but it’s the kind of novelty I would have been crazy about as a kid. If you have kids who love these games, they will love this thing.

Printouts often appear darker than they appear in the in-app preview.

The prints themselves are fine. It prints on Instax film (the same type used in Fuji instant cameras), so it’s small — but to me, that gives it a trading card-like appeal. I would have filled a folder with little printouts of my favorite games if I had had one of these when I was 12. But what’s more problematic than the size of the images is that they tend to appear a little dark. But even that’s not a big deal: your photos go through a basic editor before printing, so it’s easy to increase brightness with a single touch.

Be aware that the film gets expensive. Unless you get a particularly good deal, a 60-print film will cost you about $40. You can get larger prints from Walgreens, for example, for less. But this is not as much fun, and requires a trip to pick them up. Printing small, wallet-sized photos at home with a little Pikachu-like printer is a much more enjoyable experience.

None of this actually requires a specific Fujifilm printer; Any Instax Mini Link printer will work with the Switch-themed app. This is useful, because the special edition is not yet available. Fuji says it will arrive at major US retailers this month. If you can get your hands on one (or another Instax Mini link), you’re in for a treat. Just keep your eyes peeled: the Pikachu-themed version is sure to go quickly.