Nintendo announced their next ambitious project for the Switch, and it involves a lot more cardboard than anyone imagined.
The Nintendo Switch was a triumph for Nintendo, a revolutionary gaming device that broke the barrier between handheld and traditional consoles. So everyone was surprised when Nintendo announced that its next big innovation for Switch would be made out of cardboard.
Nintendo Labo, as this new initiative is called, consists of pre-made cardboard templates that you assemble yourself. Once put together, the cardboard constructions — called Toy-Cons, because it’s the natural next step from Joy-Cons — become an accessory that works with the Nintendo Switch, each one interacting with the device differently depending on what was made.
Once you get over the fact that Nintendo is essentially taking Arby’s social media campaigns and combining it with that amazing kid who made a Switch out of cardboard, you start to realize that Nintendo Labo is actually pretty cool. Especially because this video Nintendo made to announce Labo is pretty cool.
Nintendo was able to pack quite a lot of information about the capabilities of Labo just from that one video. If you’re having trouble processing what you just saw, don’t worry. We’re here to help.
After taking a very in-depth look at the announcement video, here’s a list of every single thing you can build with Nintendo Labo (that we know of):
1. A tiny piano
2. A fishing rod
3. A gas pedal
4. The head of a motorcycle
5. A little, moving cardboard creature
6. A little house
7. A cardboard man still looking for his sea legs
8. A flappy bird
9. A steering wheel (Mario Kart 2018?)
10. Strap-on cardboard robot parts to make you into an actual rock-em, sock-em robot
11. A camera
12. A gun (Duck Hunt 2018 confirmed. You heard it here first.)
13. A bass drum pedal
14. A tap? (Highly unlikely, as the Nintendo Labo is meant for kids and not adults looking to live out their bartender aspirations. But honestly, if this isn’t a tap what is it?)
15. This little gizmo that looks like Nintendo’s manual version of BB-8
16. This ambiguous lever, that could be a bow-and-arrow or a snowshoeing sim
Nintendo Labo wants to celebrate DIY creativity, and yet all of these Toy-Cons seem pre-concocted by Nintendo, with “DIY” consisting of punching out cutouts from a rectangular piece of cardboard. Here’s hoping that Nintendo takes Labo a step further in the future to allow support for completely homemade, custom creations. (Because we all know there’s a genius out there who will make a fully functional replication of D.Va’s mech, and then somehow port Overwatch into the Switch.)
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Nintendo will release two Labo packs on April 20. For $69.99, the “Variety Kit” includes five different games with the Toy-Con. The “Robot Kit,” the one that allows you to be one with the robot you see on your TV screen, will sell for $79.99.