Nintendo Labo: Google Cardboard for the Switch?

I've previously commented on this blog about how some technologies that have been hyped as being cutting-edge and futuristic have also been released in some of the cheapest, low-tech ways imaginable to help promote them. For example, the current generation of virtual reality (VR) accessories includes head sets that are dirt cheap because they are little more than plastic or cardboard containers for a smartphone, the device actually has the technology that makes the VR possible. With that in mind, Nintendo is using the power of pre-fab cardboard kits to add new games and features to its hybrid game console, the Switch.

The new product line is called Nintendo Labo, a selection of cardboard kits that players can use to build accessories that work in conjunction with the Switch's console display and Joy-Con controllers to provide new kinds of game play. Of the Labo kits that have been previewed so far, the Switch can be modified to look and operate like a variety of different objects (e.g., a doll house, a toy piano, a fishing rod, etc.) in order to enhance the gaming experience. Of the announced Labo kits, the one that intrigues me the most is one that looks like a robot suit: When assembled, players can use the kit to operate a giant robot in a Switch game.

In my Wii U retrospective from 2016, I mentioned how video games have been experimenting with different kinds of control schemes since the 80s in order to enhance the gaming experience. The motion controls for Nintendo’s Wii, Wii U and 3DS continued that trend, and it looks like the Switch’s Joy-Cons will be doing the same. Yet whereas the Wiimote had various accessories made of plastic, Nintendo appears to be following the Google Cardboard example by releasing the Joy-Con accessories as cardboard kits that will be assembled by the gamers.

Unfortunately, for as fun and creative as the Nintendo Labo kits look, they aren’t cheap. Right now, the Variety Kit costs $70 and the Robot Kit costs $80. The games that work with the kits are included, but those are still sizable price tags for kits that are largely made of cardboard. On the other hand, Labo shows plenty of potential, much more so than other gaming trends (e.g., toys-to-life), so I think it’s only a matter of time before we see Nintendo fans creating their own Labo kits from scratch. I’m sure they’ll come up with some pretty cool stuff. Heck, I’m still blown away by how someone figured out how to use a Wiimote to control giant robot arms that weigh 15 tons, so who knows what someone will figure out with Nintendo Labo.