Nintendo Labo: Toycon 01 Variety Kit

Building these toys back-to-back in a rush just doesn't seem like what it was made for. It's made for creativity, thinking on your own, and a million other things that you would have never have thought a video game console could do. My only worry is where I'm going to store all this cardboard, and if the games will continue to hold the interest of both myself and my son beyond the initial impact of how cool it is to make something like this.

Labo's best, then, as a collaborative experience, bringing parents and their brood together to flip, fold, tab and, finally, take turns on another fascinating step forward for the ever-unique Nintendo.

No one else could pull this off, no one else would even dare try. It is a brilliant, wholesome and memorable way to spend your time, and while it might borrow from Lego and origami, and probably a million other places, it is unique. [Essential]

One of the great fallacies of children’s entertainment is that kids need things to be simple. Kids love diving deeply into complicated things, accumulating knowledge that is out of reach of the adults around them. Nintendo has always understood this, but Labo is a unique expression of this understanding, something that extends beyond the virtual world. More of a madcap engineering kit than a game, it feeds and rewards creativity and curiosity. As an adult, you’re along for the ride, but if you’ve got imaginative children in your life, seeing how they respond to this marvelous toy factory will be a great joy.

It’s unclear how much Nintendo is going to market Labo as an educational toy but it certainly has great value as such. It not only stimulates artistic urges but making full use of each of the Toy-Con garages feels like the most entertaining science lesson ever. The potential seems limitless and while Labo may not be a video game – and in that sense will provide little relief to Switch owners looking for something new to play – it could well be the next big thing. For big kids as well as little ones.

Labo has me thinking about what else is possible with the Switch and, impressively, managed to make the console feel even more amazing.

Labo is an experience where creating and building are just as much fun as playing. It eases you into this world: at the beginning, you’re simply folding cardboard. But just a few hours later, you’re trying to figure out how to turn a box into an interactive drum kit.

What’s most interesting about Labo isn’t necessarily how the cardboard toys come together, but what you can actually do with them once they’re assembled. Labo’s functionality depends entirely on how the Joy-Con remotes and Switch tablet cooperate with each other — and it’s not in the way you might expect a traditional controller and game console to work together.

If the rest of the games in the Variety Pack, and the more expensive Robot Pack, can deliver the depth offered by the RC car and especially the Piano, Nintendo has created something that every child will love. And also something that every child will learn something from.

The ToyCon Garage offers some surprisingly powerful tools for you to come up with your own creations, but you’ll need to put some significant time in to learn the ins and outs of them. Time will tell whether Labo ends up being a success for Nintendo, but it’s something I’m thankful for them attempting.