Vital stats Nintendo Labo
Ninty has fun with cardboard boxes
Cover your Switch in cardboard with Nintendo’s latest innovation…
● Ooh, you’re a card A cynical Mario-hater might sneer that slapping a premium on cardboard is so very Nintendo, but we disagree: Labo is the Japanese giant returning to its toy-maker roots, and it’s brilliantly inventive. Each contraption (or ‘Toy-con’) is assembled by following kid-friendly instructions on the Switch’s screen. With the Joy-cons or console inserted, they spring to life and become tactile, digitally augmented toys. ● Steerly beloved To get your head around Nintendo Labo you’ll want to pick up the Variety Kit. It contains a selection of Toy-cons, from a telescopic fishing rod to motorbike handlebars. Most straightforward of all is the wheel-less RC car (right): once it’s constructed, the two Joy-cons attach to the sides, and you steer it by jabbing the touchscreen to make each controller vibrate.
● Pianist envy Our favourite cardboard creation of all, though, is a fully functioning miniature piano. When you press a key, an infrared sticker on the back will reveal itself to the Joy-con’s IR sensor, signalling which note to sound. There are even dials and buttons that let you mess with tone and add sound effects.
● Mecha difference As if that wasn’t wacky enough, the standalone Robot Kit lets you don a full-body mech suit. Also making use of IR, it features a backpack, a head-mounted visor and attachments for your wrists and ankles. Once dressed like a DIY transformer, you stomp around a city smashing up buildings in a game that Wii U owners will notice looks a lot like the doomed Project Giant Robot. And we grew up thinking Lego was fun.
YOU STEER THE CAR BY JABBING THE SWITCH’S SCREEN TO VIBRATE THE CONTROLLERS