"Make, Play, Discover"
Many may remember the good old days when you were a kid and could imagine a whole world with the cardboard box that came with some product your parents bought. Then, technology advanced and kids' eyes are now glued 24/7 to iPad screens watching Elsa from Frozen fight Spider-Man or some other mind-numbing junk. Well, good news, folks, seems like that golden age may just come back.
Straight from the East, Nintendo’s latest product, Nintendo LABO is for the young and young at heart. Pairing cardboard cutouts with the Nintendo Switch (their latest console), the user folds their own handmade creations to play games and all sorts of entertaining activities. It comes in two separate packs, one variety kit with a set of 5 different toys (or “ToyCons”, as they are called) and another one that lets the user build their own robot suit to wreak havoc on virtual cities.
This may seem to come out of left field, as Nintendo is primarily known for their videogame empire, but lesser known is that, after their humble beginnings a Hanafuda card manufacturer in the later 1800s (yes, they are THAT OLD), Nintendo became a very successful toy maker business, producing several hits in Japan. Also, and this may sound familiar, they used to produce a very popular set of paper cutouts, so, maybe, instead of taking an idea from out of the blue, this is may be Nintendo bringing it back to their roots.
But ok, let's go back to the future and talk about each ToyCon in more detail:
Rc Car:
This clever little contraption uses the vibrations on the JoyCons on each side to propel the "car" forward and uses the infrared camera on the right JoyCon to see reflective markers even in the dark. Also, a second Rc Car can be thrown into the mix and you can compete to see who can flip each other first.
Fishing Rod
The fishing rod works just like a real one would: turn the reel to lower your line, then move from side to side to catch the fish. It’s kinda boring, I admit. Fishing is boring.
House
In this house lives a virtual creature you can play with, kinda like a Tamagotchi of sorts. On the sides there are slots you can insert knobs, buttons, levers, etc. Each one does something individually, but in tandem with each other, they make all sorts of combinations, each with a different effect, some even unlock minigames you can play to collect currency you can then spend on things and skins for your creature. Certainly it must be a lot of fun trying to find every possible combination.
Motorbike
This handlebar let’s you drive a virtual motorcycle by actually steering it. You can even compete with other racers, accelerating, turning, jumping and, occasionally, popping a wheelie on a smaller scaled Mario Kart. It’s even possible to make your own racing tracks, using the movements you make with the JoyCon to make the track and the IR camera to capture objects and turning them into the terrain.
Piano
This one is the most complex of the Variety Kit, taking over three hours to build, but it’s worth it. It’s not just a simple piano, it’s a miniature music studio (ok, it’s no Logic Pro, but for something made out of cardboard, it's way better than it deserves to be). You can record songs, change the sound, make your own paper waveforms and beats, you can even use the JoyCon as a conductor’s baton to dictate the tempo of the song. Plus, the keys are impressively responsive. People have aready started to put out some impressive works around the internet using the LABO Piano. Here's an example:
ToyCon Garage
This one is not a toy per se, but rather, a platform hidden in plain sight which allows the user to program functions using the Switch’s sensors, buttons and touch screen to add new capabilities to the other ToyCons or make up entirely new creations. It works through an intuitive “IF" and “Then" system: you connect a sensor node to a reaction node and so on and so forth. It’s a simple interface (too simple, in fact), but it opens endless possibilities to whoever is creative enough. The creations that have already surfaced go from the amusing to the impressive. Here are some examples:
The problem here is that building the ToyCons is more fun than actually playing with them, as some users reported they’ve very quickly lost interest in the built-in games. Maybe if Nintendo opened an oportunity to other developers design games for the LABO, then this problem could be resolved. But who knows? The Nintendo LABO has only been released for a couple of weeks and you can be sure we’ll still hear a lot from it.