I like it in theory but it looks super gimmicky as far as long term play value. Seems like the kind of thing you would build with your kid, play with for 30 minutes, then never touch it again for the rest of your life, until it goes in the recycling bin.
It is like the answer to “what if we could make those crappy lame wiimote accessories ourselves, out of cardboard?”
As a counterpoint: isn’t that kind of what happens to all kids toys? So at least this recycles instead of you tossing it in the trash, or storing it for 10 years until you get a quarter for it at a garage sale.
But I think this is actually pretty genius.
“Maker” culture is a pretty big thing nowadays, and a lot of the point of those kinds of crafts isn’t the end result, the end result is often just a sliced up 2 liter bottle and some cardboard anyways. The making of the thing is the real point of it. You aren’t making it to have something useful, you’re making it to do something cool, and then the thing you made is kind of a secondary product. So, Nintendo is trying to monetize and existing market, not create a new one.
Its one of those things that feels like a younger generation of designers is behind it, which is super cool for Nintendo. It also reminds me a lot of Nintendo marketing the NES with R.O.B., because games were out and toy robots we’re still cool. It gives a kind of physical presence to the video game product.
In my mind, I see some Nintendo engineers looking at Google Cardboard and thinking “hey, what if we did that, but more?” They aren’t trying to make Oculus, they’re looking at it as “here’s a neat thing that can be done cheaply enough that neat is enough to sustain it”.
I also think it’s an interesting way to try to differentiate from iPad/cell phone game offerings.
Yeah it is definitely clever and interesting, dare I say… “fun”… so they are going in the right direction here.
It appears to solve Nintendo’s biggest fear in making toys and accessories: over producing and being stuck with a bunch of unsold inventory. But this is completely recyclable and as a bonus they’re selling a quarter worth of cardboard for $80.
It would be cool if there was some kind of game like little big planet that let you design your own devices that could be made out of cardboard.
Yeah. The ideal would be an ability to invent new interactions.
For various reasons, I don’t see them having a fully extensible system, but Icould see Nintendo allowing that in a limited way: having an list of interactions that you could pull from, but that don’t have any cardboard designed for them, allowing you to combine those interactions in new ways based on new cardboard designs.
Love the innovation, love the craft aspect. Looks complicated as hell to build (the ones with strings in particular) and obviously will last a week tops. But what the hell, fun for an evening or two for my daughter? Sure for $20 or whatever it costs I am in.
Wait its HOW FUCKING MUCH??? For fucking cardboard???
That was going to be my entire post until my wife gently pointed at my boardgame collection :) So yeah, I guess I am in.
I think it’s just the two launch kits that contain the software that are $69 and $79 USD. From what I’ve read on the Labo site, future kits won’t have software and should be a lot cheaper.
In total agreement with you there. It’s a very smart product and I love that it’s cardboard and recyclable. Beats an expensive plastic landfill peripheral gathering dust any day. Hang on, $80 for some cardboard? The game’s are included in that right? Not had chance to look into this properly. Ah, @Ephraim, gotcha.
I find the line through the ‘parent friendly’ design of the Wii, the inclusiveness of Wii Sports, the ‘self-improvement’ angle of things like Wii Fit and the DS’s Brain Training, Pokemon Go encouraging folk to get out more, the social network aspects of Miitomo and the Switch’s portability and design as a social console really fascinating. I recently joked that Nintendo just need to make a game where people don’t look at a screen and… here we are. Kind of.
I definitely feel like Nintendo, for a while now, have been trying be a broader ‘force of good’ within gaming. This probably goes back further than the Wii but that’s at least when I first flagged it. Now they’ll be getting kids away from their screens to do some art and craft which is terrific.
That approach in the modern era goes at least as far back as the DS, which used StreetPass (proximity based passive communication in sleep mode) as a way to encourage players to balance their gaming time with going outside. The 3DS has an explicit “play coins” system, where the build-in pedometer gives you currency that you can use for various in-game activities. (Play coins seem pretty minimally used though).
I think the cool thing that Nintendo does is they make the screen part of a larger experience and have been doing that for a very long time. They don’t want to make the primary focus of their gaming to be you with a controller and a headset (or a helmet) cut off from the rest of the world. They want you to engage in fun and fantastic worlds with other people next to you.
@CLWheeljack I still use Play Coins for the Mii Plaza games on 3DS. It’s a fun distraction when I boot up the 3DS after traveling around with it for awhile. There are a handful of them in my building that I cross paths with regularly.
Ah, exactly things like that! Only got a 3DS recently and noticed the play coins too. Animal Crossing: New Leaf uses them (sparingly).
Yes and the glorious “friend codes”!
You don’t need codes to add people who are next to you. ;)
Where does it say that? Doesn’t the software guide you through the construction, as well as integrate in some way with each of the toy-cons?
Or will they be updating the variety pack to later support other kits?
I have many criticisms of Nintendo but I agree with this. Its nice. And in the world we live in today we and our kids could use more nice.
When I posted, it was being reported on a variety of sites, linking back to IGN France. IGN France has since published a retraction (in French, which I can speak, so sorry for no translation).
So the reality is, we have no clue what comes after the two launch “kits”. And it seems that based on the fact that there are two kits with unique software, that there is a certain amount of specific code. Which means… well, I have no clue. It may be that things end up being cheap and expandable off of the variety pack, or it may be that each new set “kit” contains unique software, and thus commands a premium price. I guess we will have to wait and see!
I would assume that each kit is entirely self contained, so software + cardboard. Assuming a $60 game, you’re paying a 10-20 dollar premium for the cardboard, which seems fine to me. Expensive, but not absurdly so as those things go.
The question is whether each self contained software package is actually worth the cost of a full game. As somebody who bought Electroplankton full price, I’m well aware of Nintendo’s ability to overcharge for incomplete experiences.
I’m curious about it… but can’t say “I’m in” and that’s it.
I mean the PR video looks like VERY basic games. It really looks like a “cute” like thing for those with younger kids (under 8) to get them hands on in building physical kits - and then using the tech to “bring it to life”
I’m totally baffled by the piano… I mean how would the switch know which key you’re pressing?
wait a second… my son just noticed - that Robot Kit needs… not a few extra JoyCon controllers… but at least 6… perhaps more (one for each hand, one for each foot, one in the back, and one on the side of your head)
I’m guessing it is actually 7, one on each side of your head.
I have 4. I don’t see myself wanting to buy even 2 more JoyCon’s just to then also drop $80 for the robot kit…