Helping Gamers Create Their Own Fun

Usually with video games, all the fun happens on the players’ screens. Not so with Nintendo Labo ($60 and up), a set of kits allowing DIY-inclined gamers to construct their own cardboard controllers for the company’s grab-and-go Switch console. Called Toy-Cons, the Labo controllers range from a 13-key piano to a robot suit to a steering wheel. Once built and joined with a standard Switch controller, Toy-Cons can be used for a variety of minigames, like fishing or racing. Nintendo producer Kouichi Kawamoto says the aim was to “combine physical and digital game play.” While build-and-play toys that connect to electronics aren’t new, Labo is unique in the video-gaming world, where controllers are typically store-bought and rarely fun in their own right. The conceit has clearly struck a chord with consumers: Nintendo has sold more than 1.39 million Labo kits since its April 2018 launch. —Megan McCluskey