Nintendo Labo VR is VR at its simplest - but also its most magical

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.

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