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Nintendo Announces Labo, A Cardboard-Software Hybrid For The Switch
As a sudden announcement today after teasing a new child-oriented initiative earlier in the day, Nintendo revealed Nintendo Labo, a series of cardboard shells that interact with specifically made software on the Switch.
Players assemble the cardboard pieces like age-old cardboard craft or, more recently, similar to cardboard VR goggles, and attach the Switch and joycons into it in varying permutations as the game requires. The assembled shells are named Toy-cons by Nintendo and can be made into a mini-piano, a fishing rod, motorcycle handles, or even giant robots.
At the outset, Nintendo is selling two sets for Nintendo Labo. The first one the Nintendo Variety Pack, $69.99, comes with five Toy-con projects such as the aforementioned piano, fishing rod, motorcycle handles, but also a house and two RC cars powered by the Switch joycons.
The second, the Robot Kit, comes with a backpack with controls and mechanisms designed to control a giant robot in the game software, demanding a higher price of $79.99. From the video, it bears more than a passing resemblance to the ill-fated Project Giant Robot that Nintendo had been showing off for the Wii U in 2015.
Both Labo sets are releasing on April 20.
You can check out the trailer below, as well as visit Nintendo's Labo site for more details.
Our Take
As a Nintendo game, I am not sure I am that interested in Labo. As someone that wants to play with a new toy, I could see myself checking this out. A lot of it is going to depend on whether the software is cool, and how durable the cardboard is. That said, those prices are pretty expensive, so an impulse buy for families gets harder the higher it goes above $60.
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