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Your first Switch accessories will be a bunch of DIY punch out cardboard sheets

by: Randy -
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I didn't see this coming. You didn't see this coming. Nobody saw this coming. Introducing Nintendo Labo. A series of actual cardboard punch out sheets that, after a little do-it-yourselfing, turn into bona fide peripherals for your Nintendo Switch. Labo fishing poles. Labo pianos. Labo robot backpacks, or something. I think one of them is just a house. What's that even supposed to do? Who knows! Sign me up.

I've never bought a Nintendo anything. But I have to just give The Big N a standing ovation, one, for the Switch, and two, for always, always, always keeping fans and industry pundits on their toes. I mean, would you have thought of the next line of console peripherals being a bunch of cardboard origami? No. And that's why you don't work at Nintendo. You work at Microsoft, where their most powerful console ever can't hardly snatch a headline to save its life. Or you work at Sony, where their PlayStation VR is selling just fine, thank you very much, but is still thinking inside the box.

Nintendo is thinking so far outside the box that it climbed out, grabbed the box by its nappy little flaps, and started folding it into different shapes. I mean, c'mon. Is this perhaps in response to that old Greenpeace Green Scorecard that gave Nintendo an F in eco friendliness? I doubt it. Besides, you don't sell 10 million Switch consoles within a year without polluting up the environment just a little bit. But it will be nice not clogging your storage bin with yet another plastic video gaming instrument. Is cardboard durability going to be an issue? Absolutely. It's almost insane to think about. But hey. Labo is about to reestablish Nintendo as one of the planet's #1 toy makers. 

I'm kidding. I love the idea. But I don't think 10 million Switch sales will turn into 10 million Labo sales. Not by a long shot. But it's nice to know that Nintendo is the company willing to push the boundaries of video gaming once again. Even if you didn't think of it first.

Nintendo Labo (is it pronounced LAB-oh or LAY-boh?) launches April 20—that's 4/20, huh huh—with kits starting at $69.99. I don't know what to make of all this. Except that it looks fun. Have at it, kiddos.