I am not the most organised of people, which is a well-established fact for anyone who knows me. As I write this, I have an electric drill just to my right, a weird selection of herbal mints to my left, and an empty case for Little Nightmares underneath me. I’m sure I will get to it sometime.
However, I do like to keep my games –my treasures– organised, and not just by random order. They go by platform and alphabetical order; good luck trying to figure that one out. So when I was offered the chance to take a look at a couple of storage towers to help me organise them even more anally, I leapt at it.
Snakebyte, who you might recall from my review of their Game:Pad 4 S, have recently released charging towers for use for PS4 and Xbox One. As well as offering you a place to put your games, they also allow you to charge your controllers. A simple idea that’s ultimately executed pretty well if unspectacularly.
I was sent four different towers for the purposes of this review: a regular and a Pro tower for Xbox One, and the same for PS4. It’s the Pro version you really want, however, as it’s with these that you can charge your controllers while they’re kept on top of the console rather than just connecting via one of its USB ports. Weirdly, however, you aren’t provided the right components to make the bottom half of the tower operate so you may have to do some digging in your toolbox.
As my Xbox One is located in my office, I spent most of my time testing that particular tower variety, though the PS4 was arguably just as easy to set up and had the same simple design. The towers don’t look “beautiful” by any means but they’re certainly functional, and when almost any new gaming tech has glowing lights, it’s a nice respite to go back to basics.
Setting up the Pro tower was pretty straightforward, though not as much as it could have been. The press unit I received came with a European plug so I had to hunt down the right adaptor, which ended up being for a shaver. Not sure if that applies to regular tower units, but it’s something to be aware of if you’re shopping from the UK.
The towers are made of four basic components with them all slotting into each other without much fuss; you probably won’t even need a manual. For the Pro version a small extra part can sit on top (but not attach, for some reason) and provide charge to controllers. For the Xbox One version, you are supplied with two battery packs to charge via what looks like two magnetic prongs. The PS4 version is slightly more complex and asks you to connect a small adaptor to the top unit, but it’s overall still easy to sort.
Speaking of the charge the towers provide, I would say it’s noticeably slower than just simply using a cable to your console. It does a job, but if you have two controllers you may want to keep one “docked” at all times and then swap them around once one’s battery goes flat.
Snakebyte have created two no-frills charging towers that you should check out if you want somewhere to store your games and also charge your controllers. It’s a little on the small side and isn’t exactly eye-catching or likely to blend with everything in your living room, but there’s nothing wrong with simplicity.
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