Labo is the most Nintendo thing to come from the company in generations
One of the very best things about Labo, having spent a few hours tinkering with Nintendo's new DIY cardboard toy-set for the Switch, is also one of the most pointless. Build the radio control car - a process which takes just under 10 minutes, or over an hour if you want to go wild with the crayons afterwards - and you'll notice one final piece of cardboard that's left over. Fold the small flaps at either end, then pop the slim piece on top of your Switch's screen, sliding those tabs down into the Joy-Con rails. And voila - you've just installed an aerial so that now you can properly play with the RC car you've just built.
It's completely useless - unless there's some dark art going on I'm unaware of, that single piece of cardboard isn't sending signals from your Switch to the RC car - but it's also essential to the magic of Labo. Put your dry questions and concerns about what is what isn't a video game to the side for one moment, and lean on your imagination a little. Just play along.
Labo is a thing of wonder, belonging to a lineage that's arguably Nintendo's most fascinating. This isn't the next Mario, Zelda or Metroid; instead, it's a successor to the likes of Mario Paint, Brain Age, Electroplankton and Pictochat. Look even further back, and Labo has a direct link back to the Love Tester, the Ultra Hand and all those other glorious contraptions that came out of Gunpei Yokoi's laboratory in those pre-video game years when Nintendo was first and foremost a toymaker.
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