Nintendo unveiled the Nintendo Switch 2 yesterday, but other than showing off the console – which I can confidently describe as a bigger and arguably better Switch – it didn’t say much about the capabilities of the Switch 2. But there’s one sentence in the press release about what the Switch 2 I can’t do this that makes me… well, I’m not worried, but maybe I’m a little devastated. “Some Nintendo Switch games may not be supported or fully compatible with Nintendo Switch 2,” Nintendo says. I don’t know about you, but I immediately thought: they talk about Labo.
(˃̣̣̥ᯅ˂̣̣̥)
Nintendo Labo didn’t set the world on fire, but it remains one of the funniest, weirdest, inventive and entertaining things Nintendo has ever done, and yes, I’m going to die on this cardboard hill. For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of assembling a Labo kit yourself, here’s a quick description of what it was like.
Each Labo set was a collection of so-called “minus toys” that could be assembled from flat-packed cardboard according to an interactive instruction manual, much like IKEA furniture. Once assembled, insert the Switch Joy-Con into your cardboard creation and through a combination of motion sensors, the all-important infrared sensor on the right Joy-Con, and a solid helping of softwarethis cardboard would be transformed, alchemy-like, into something incredibly fun. These tactile toys – a piano, a steering wheel, a camera – can be used in basic games, and users can even create their own experiences, much like later Nintendo games Game builder’s garage.
In tiny, it was amazing.
In our 2018 Game of the Year list, I called it “one of the most ‘Nintendo projects’ ever made,” and now, four years after it was quietly picked up behind the store and shot, I feel a certain emotion reflecting on what it did Labo and how ephemeral it was. Nintendo hasn’t even looked at Labo in years, and the omission of infrared sensors in the fresh Joy-Cons on Switch 2 is another reminder that this product is truly dead.
But for a moment, if you don’t mind, I’d like to think back to what it was like when it was alive, and I’d like to take a moment to thank “Monster Cat” as my then four-year-old… aged son nicknamed him the resident of the Toy-Con House owned by Variety Kit. The house accepted a right Joy-Con in the chimney, a Switch display in the front, and then a collection of adapters that could be placed on the left, right, and bottom of the house. The combination of adapters would create different scenarios on the screen. It was basic, fun and genuinely creative.
While we enjoyed the transition from paper to toy the most, Monster Cat was different. My son took it out regularly and his house was a fixture in our living room for years. The house itself has already been repaired several times, and the adapters – which have endured more physical abuse – are literally held together with tape, glue, popsicle sticks and stickers. It’s an amazing physical testament to the kind of play Labo enabled, and unfortunately I didn’t share it with our second son, who was born in 2018.
I wasn’t entirely concerned that Labo was to be closed down in 2021 – Nintendo was distinctive cautious about abandoning itcompletely deleting its website before determining it was still available. You know what retailers love? Storing immense boxes that don’t sell and whose manufacturer won’t take care of even the most basic marketing areas.
Before I registered what was happening, I followed a few inventory trackers and hurried to the regular box stores where, unsurprisingly, the stock was gone. I managed to get an extra VR kit… when what I really need is an extra Variety Kit. Our Monster Cat needed a fresh home. Sure, Nintendo has released the files so that users can find a way to remake them – admittedly, a very welcome effort to protect this most unusual of games – but some searching has turned up nothing that seems to be playable. (Fellow nerds, if you can point me in the right direction, my email is here!)
I know people are surprised that the Nintendo Switch 2 looks like this play it shelteredand the leaked video didn’t do much to disabuse anyone of this view. Switch is a hit! And I think we all hope that Switch 2 will be the next hit… but I hope that some of the out-of-the-box thinking that resulted in a product like Labo doesn’t end up in the trash bin. Who knows, maybe this optical mouse sensor could get us into trouble. The fresh generation Monster Cat may like the mouse.
(I love you, Monster Cat).
