by eldritchhorror75
So I am a longtime supporter of VR. I fight the good fight against misinformed people by praising the potential of VR and the current state. So I was curious about Nintendo’s modern take on VR. I know the majority of people say, “I am not paying that much for a box of cardboard” when it comes to anything Nintendo Labo, however, the basic Labo VR kit comes with a game cart and the VR headset build and blaster all for $40. Not a bad price overall.
The builds were pretty fun, anyone into Lego or model building will be right at home here. They aren’t to complex and the ingenuity of the designs are very interesting. The instructions for each build are on the cart in form of animated and very detailed videos that are in slow motion and can be fast-forwarded or rewound and manipulated to size and angle of view by the user. The only caution I would suggest building would be to definitely help kids. Those little excited hands might fold the cardboard wrong or tear the cardboard pieces punching them out.
The game cart itself comes with over 30 videos to view in VR, from feeding animals to hanging out with Mario. There are tons of little mini-games. Most would be considered tech demos, but fun little diversions. Each of the Labo peripherals has their own games that are more complete and fleshed out. Hold on though, Why do you care what some random grown man thinks about Labo VR? I am a die-hard Oculus Rift fan and spend and prefer my VR time backed by a beefy PC so who cares what I think. Instead, here is what my 10-year-old son had to say about it. He is who it was made for after all. 10-year-olds opinion follows… “It’s pretty neat, I mean it doesn’t have stuff like Supershot but it is cool to blast the little slime guys and I like being able to actually feel the gun and pump it like a shotgun. It gets blurry sometimes and I don’t like holding it to my face. Why doesn’t it have a head strap? I do like the way the game has a section that I can make my own VR games. It is sorta hard to figure it out though, but I am working on it. I wish they had done a create a VR game more easy like Super Mario Maker. I like it though. I can’t wait to try Zelda and Mario in VR. That is still coming, right? I think it is pretty good. I mean it’s as good as the VR on the computer or PlayStation but it is better than the ones for phone and I think it doesn’t look as good as the games on the Oculus Go but the Nintendo VR games are more fun!”
So there you have it! A solid buy if you have a Switch and any interest in VR. It’s very affordable in my opinion for what you get, especially the basic $40 kit. The builds are impressive and the games are fun for kids or even adults in a social gaming situation. My only concern will be how the cardboard holds up over time. We have had it for a little over a week and it has seen play every day and so far so good, however, with several ten-year-olds having fun with it and passing it around, I don’t know how long it would last.
