In this edition of NF Magazine, we’re celebrating the launch of Nintendo’s latest, wildest product line. Nintendo Labo is the most off-the-wall idea the Big N has brought to market since the Switch itself! (Yes, I know it’s only been a little over a year since then, but still!) The same pure creativity and fun that led them to fuse home console and portable gaming together into a single device has now driven them even further into territory never explored before by any other company in gaming, leading to further fusions of the Switch base unit and Joy-Con controllers with a cavalcade of cardboard creations.
We’ve prepared a full Nintendo Labo Launch Guide for your perusal, highlighting each unique build-it-yourself Toy-Con project Nintendo has sent to store shelves to kickstart this new line of products. We also look ahead at a few future Toy- Cons seemingly lurking just over the horizon, then do our best to contextualize the Labo launch in the light of Nintendo’s entire history with an article that looks back on some of the toys they created in the decades before video games came into the world, and then another piece that presents some of the most “disposable” peripherals we’ve seen through their video game years as well.
All that and our exclusive reveal of Night Trap: 25th Anniversary Edition for Nintendo Switch from Limited Run Games, a company that isn’t exactly building things with cardboard, but is nonetheless making gaming more physical every day! Night Trap finally coming to a Nintendo system is historic, to say the least, so read all about it!
Also accompanying the magazine is an exclusive new papercraft toy created just for us by Alex Gwynne, founder of Fold Up Toys. We usually provide wall posters with our issues, but I didn’t think anyone would be too interested in having Nintendo’s PR photos of the Labo products hanging up on their wall, so we swapped out the poster for a tangible toy you can build yourself! Print copies have the toy provided in the bag, while Digital copies have the PDF included to be able to print one out at home. It’s a fun little version of the Labo Robot Kit’s giant robot, and I hope you’ll all take the time to build it and let it join your desktop or amiibo shelf!
