Nintendo Labo
Kim Bubello for TIME

Helping Gamers Create Their Own Fun

Nintendo Labo

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

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