InkyPen

Genre: Application

Players: 1

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Review:

InkyPen is an Application and service released on Nintendo Switch in 2018. Subscribers have access to a wide selection of comics they can read using the software. Those curious to try it can check it out for free, but their access to the software will be extremely limited – if you’re actually looking to use this, you should expect to pay the $8 monthly subscription.

The good news is that subscription gets you access to a good smattering of comics. As far as I can tell, there’s nothing from the big boys at Marvel or DC, but you’ll find comics in other well-known franchises like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Star Trek, Archie, and Umbrella Academy, as well as numerous Sunday newspaper comics like Dilbert and Garfield.

The app contains some good options too – you can download comics to view them offline later, there are multiple viewing modes, a decent zoom feature, and good touchscreen support. I will note that there is a minor frustration here in that the “page forward” and “page backward” buttons seem flipped from what would make sense (ZL is page forward and ZR is page backwards), but you get used to it quickly enough.

The comics are well-represented here and easy enough to read on the screen (at least when zoomed in), though of course the quality of the art and stories will vary depending on the comic you’re reading.

However… if you have an online-capable PC or Smartphone, you already have access to a wealth of great comics for free, so unless you’re particularly interested in a specific franchise InkyPen includes, I’m not sure how much use you’ll get out of it.

I wish InkyPen found a different monetization model than the subscription model, because I feel like the app itself and the selection of comics here is both solid… but even with that being the case, it’s hard to recommend someone to pay $8 a month for what’s on offer here when you can simply browse free comics on the internet on other devices. Unfortunately, even the most well-designed Application is going to fail if the price doesn’t make sense for what’s on offer.

tl;dr – InkyPen is an Application that allows users to view a selection of comics on their Nintendo Switch. Save for a few minor issues, the actual software works great, but the $8/month price tag is hard to justify when any web browser gives access to a multitude of comics for free. However, if the price doesn’t faze you, you should be happy with what InkyPen has to offer.

Grade: C

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