Nintendo Labo releases tomorrow in America (April 20) and in a week's time (April 27) in Europe, and we've been playing with Nintendo's unique interactive cardboard concept for a while now.
With the five videos below you can check out how it is like to assembly some of these Toy-Cons, and also have a look at what the included software offers after the building process (we've left the creative, programmable Garage mode for later).
Beyond its boring, traditional look, this is perhaps the most impressive Toy-Con of the Variety Kit. The engineering feat amazes, with varied and deep possibilities, and the keys themselves offer a convincing touch. But then it also turns into a basic but fully playable synthesizer, allowing you to compose, modify and even create frequency waves with a paper sheet.
This is the only creation that uses the Joy-Con IR camera as it is its eyes. But those eyes can see in the dark, while you control its rumble-based movement with your Switch screen remote controller. And behold our fashionable design...
Requiring 6 to 8 hours of assembly, the Robot Toy-Con (sold as a separate kit) is the most ambitious, complex and fun to play so far, as it is the closest Labo comes to a traditional video game. The feedback is satisfying and its physical mechanism makes for a well above-average accuracy when it comes to motion controls.
We spent more than a full hour building our own House Toy-Con, and then we found out several ways to interact with the cute creature living within, as we plugged our cardboard handles into either of its walls (but, alas, we didn't realise we could plug them into the floor as well).
The crack with these two Toy-Cons is how well is the feedback of the real-world items are recreated, including rotating parts, fine rumbling and credible resistance to movements.