The first thought I had when I heard that VR was coming to the Nintendo Switch via the Labo range was probably the same thought that ran through many other minds during the announcement – and that thought was, “well that’s not going to work very well.” And now I feel silly, because I’ve honestly been having the loveliest time exploring Nintendo’s lo-fi take on virtual reality, surrounded by a pile of peculiar cardboard peripherals. My right eye does feel a little bit weird, but more on that later.
I’d previously been cynical about the Labo range of craft-your-own peripherals, or Toy-Con as Nintendo calls them. £70 for some sheets of cardboard seemed steep to me. But I can tell you right now that each and every Toy-Con was surprisingly fun to make and every time I finished a new build, fresh opportunities for discovery and play emerged – not only from the Labo software but from the Toy-Con themselves. Yes, the materials you build with may only be cardboard, but when it comes down to it, Lego is just bricks made out of a thermoplastic polymer comprised of three monomers. It’s not what they’re made of that matters, it’s what you do with them that counts, and it turns out you can do a hell of a lot with the Labo VR Kit.
The full Labo VR Kit comes with five Toy-Con and a couple of smaller accessories, each with different build times and minigames associated with them. As with other Labo kits, there’s a Switch cartridge included in the package that provides software that will guide you through every step of construction. The animated instructions are easy to follow, lighthearted and interactive – so you can pause, rewind, fast forward and even zoom in to them to check that you’re booping your folds in exactly the right way.
The main component of the kit – and the thing VR enthusiasts like me will be most curious about – is the set of VR Goggles itself. The VR Goggles is one of the simplest builds in the box, made out of only a few pieces of card and a pair of lenses. They’re an integral part of all the additional Toy-Con builds though, slotting into them neatly and becoming the sole viewpoint for all your adventures.
As with everything Nintendo, the switch from 2D visuals to 3D is given a little bit of extra flair. A simple tap of a button on the Switch screen stretches and then pulls apart the existing 2D image, satisfyingly snapping it into two perfect circles as if they were liquid held together by surface tension. Once that’s done, the Switch can then be inserted into the VR Goggles where the lenses can work their magic.