Hands on with Labo – Nintendo’s crazy cardboard gaming system

The Nintendo Labo may well be the most family-friendly gaming setup since the Wii arrived in 2006. The basic concept is simple: you create gaming accessories out of bits of cardboard, then use them together with the Switch to play, play and play some more. But that simplicity hides a plethora of possibilities both in gaming and, if your children are so inclined, basic object-oriented coding.

NINTENDO LABO MAKE: BOARD, NOT BORED

Labo’s slogan is Make; Play; Discover, with the Make bit referring to the bit where you build the accessories. You start off with a sheet of cardboard containing pre-punched sections which are easily pushed out, and plenty of markings showing you where you need to fold.

NINTENDO LABO MAKE: EASY TO FOLLOW

To further reduce the likelihood of tantrums, a video on the Switch itself gives you step-by-step instructions as you construct your masterpiece. With the building done, your kids can decorate their Toy-Cons to their hearts’ content, before moving on to the next stage. And that’s where things get really good.

NINTENDO LABO PLAY: FUN WITH CARDBOARD

What you’re paying for with the Labo Variety Kit (£60/$70) is the ingenuity behind how the Toy-Cons (cardboard accessories) combine with the Switch. The RC car is the simplest of the six launch Toy-Cons, in that it’s, well, just a car. The Joy-Cons slot on to its sides and you use the main Switch unit as your RC controller to drive it around.

NINTENDO LABO PLAY: REELY GOOD

The fishing rod and associated game is great fun for a few minutes, as you delicately try to entice fish on to your line then frantically reel them in. The piano is really quite neat, too: once it’s built you slot the Switch into the front and the Joy-Cons into the side, then plink and plonk at it as your musical talent (or lack of) allows.

NINTENDO LABO PLAY: BETTER THAN REAL LIFE

The motorbike is also great: it gives you cardboard handlebars either side of the Switch screen, and you can drive it by leaning from side to side. There’s even a throttle on one side, operated by twisting the cardboard towards you, and you start it up with an ignition button.

NINTENDO LABO PLAY: MORE MINI GAMES

The house offers a multitude of mini-games. It comes with three sort of plug-like er… plug-ins, which slot into either one of the three holes on the sides/bottom. The differing combinations control which game you play, so putting one on one side and one on the bottom will give you a different game.

NINTENDO LABO ROBOT KIT: BE A SUPERHERO

The Robot Kit is by far the most impressive of the launch Toy-Cons. And how could it not be – you get to control a massive robo dude/dudess as it stomps around smashing up buildings and laying into flying saucers. It’s also a complex setup that’ll take around four hours to construct and that comes with a multitude of different parts. In use? It’s tremendously entertaining.

NINTENDO LABO DISCOVER: ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES

Labo’s coding aspect comes in the Discover app. It Iets you create your own custom recipes for games and control modes. You can, for instance, set it up it so that the RC car can navigate around using the Joy-Con’s IR camera. Or so that touching the Switch’s screen will cause the fishing rod to vibrate.

NINTENDO LABO INITIAL VERDICT

Labo’s an exciting and seriously impressive new development in family-friendly gaming. With the Variety Kit, the crafting element alone would give you several weekends’ worth of family entertainment, and the games would keep your kids occupied for plenty more. Is it worth considering if you don’t have children/young relatives? Probably not at this stage.