Ummm...wow. Did anyone buy this thing today?

I can't imagine ever being less interested in a Nintendo product then I am with Labo.

*shrug* It looks like it's geared toward kids, I'm not in the target group at all.

It's my kids birthday today so I bought it. I'm sure she'll have a blast.

I’m getting the Variety pack for my son. It should keep him busy for several hours on several days.

I have no desire to visit the Robot one. One huge project and then a bulky pack almost certain to disintegrate after a single use.

The only thing less interesting from Nintendo then the Labo was the Wii U.

Rename it Labia and you hit the target for your adult male audience.

I think Labo will be a monster hit.

I may pick it up myself because it looks fun. Reviews I have seen have been very positive.

I read that Nintendo expects damage, and even teaches kids how to repair things that break. And I'm not talking with expensive replacement parts, but with duct tape and other normal products.

I don't think it is. There were plenty of copies on the shelf of my local Best Buy yesterday. And I doubt they produced a ton of these at launch considering how much manufacturing must be involved.

"considering how much manufacturing must be involved"? It's literally cardboard, and Nintendo has manufacturing experience churning out 3DSs and Switches... I think they can handle it.

I had a blast with the variety pack over the weekend

It may be only cardboard, but I think you'd agree that it's more manufacturing required than a regular Switch game, right? With the extra hardware and cardboard and packaging.

And with all that manufacturing experience Nintendo had, how has availability been at launch for the 3DS? The Switch? The SNES Classic Edition?

This feels like an apples & oranges debate. Cardboard is not LCD screens.

I can see it being a sleeper hit and I think they did the right thing coming out in the spring instead of the holidays. If it fails, it'll fail by then. If it's a slow build, they'll be everywhere by Black Friday.

I hope people see the possibilities outside of just cardboard Labo toys. The concept is that modern controllers are advanced enough to be used in creative ways. I'm envisioning a maker community that would design custom parts that could be 3D printed for use with VR games in a similar manner.

I see this project as the culmination of what Nintendo started out doing with the original Wii controllers

No, I wouldn't agree... A Switch game is a high-tech microelectronics SD card or something. The Labo stuff is again, literally paper cut in fancy ways. The development of the designs etc. no doubt was expensive, but the actual manufacturing is trivial and can be done by the same people who make shipping boxes for amazon, etc.

(I work on a packaging line for manufacturing, so I occasionally coordinate with such a company that makes our shipping boxes based on the designs we give them)

I thought there was some sort of a circuit board included as well. Maybe not?

No, the variety pack comes with 28 cardboard sheets and a couple accessory bags, which includes things like the grommets and string for the fishing toy and most importantly the reflective stickers that work with the IR camera like in the piano


When a key is pressed, the reflective sticker pops up from behind that black wall, which the IR camera then sees and responds accordingly. Ultimately the right joy con is still driving everything.



Another great thing is that all the tech is explained in the "Discovery" section, even explaining how the gyroscopes and accelerometers work separately and together, etc.


Using custom labo cards
https://imgur.com/a/542jRY4

Labo is a masterpiece 10/10 GOTY.

I watched some "let's build Labo" videos on YouTube, and seeing grown men putting this stuff together was one of the most embarrassing things I've ever seen.

First real issue with my son's Switch came about this morning. He wanted to check out the DLC for South Park: The Fractured but Whole on the eShop before the game arrived with today's mail. Upon reaching the page for it, it wouldn't allow him to view it. Or any other game with an M rating, for that matter. I thought that maybe I'd accidentally left some parental restrictions on. I had to create a Nintendo account to "supervise" his so that I could even check anything pertaining to the eShop. I checked and found no restrictions in place. I even downloaded their app to see if there was anything I was missing. Not a single restriction in place.

I called their toll-free customer service number and was told that it was because my son's age was entered while setting the system up and he is under 18. This is done automatically evidently and according to the CSR I spoke to, my only work-around for this is to create an account for myself on the actual Switch and let him do it under that account. When I asked him why they have parental controls in place when they automatically have this policy set he couldn't give me an answer.

Has anyone actually heard of this policy? I've been dealing with Nintendo and its related consoles, handhelds, etc for over 30 years and this is the first I've heard of it. And aside from him using my account, is there a workaround? He's got almost $20 in his account that was set aside for the South Park DLC that is apparently not transferable to mine.

Can’t support just change the birth date for you?

The guy I spoke to showed absolute zero interest in doing anything to really help me. I might try giving them another call tomorrow. They've got west coast hours, so it will have to be after I get out of work.

A few people have suggested a factory reset, but one of the warnings before getting to the final deletion is that it won't delete your Nintendo account. Seeing that the problem lies in the account itself, I am hesitant to wipe everything out and have the kid have to redownload all his shit.

As opposed to grown men playing video games on rooftops (or whatever else they put in that first switch commercial... oh gotta walk the dog, lemme bring my switch).

My daughter and I only build the RC "car" but she had fun. I said it before, but she's basically claimed the switch as her own, and if account portability was anything like PSN is, I would readily buy a second one.

It seems like some people don’t grasp that Labo isn’t really aimed at adult gamers. Definitely more of a kid thing but I don’t see what’s so wrong with that.

There's nothing at all wrong with that. It's one thousand percent for kids, which I think is why the idea of adults buying this for themselves is bothering me. Seeing that concept manifest in the YouTube videos just exacerbates that irritation for some reason.

And, as an adult whose desk is littered with Lego, a Lando Calrissian action figure, and other stuff 'for kids', I really have no explanation for why I'm having such a gut reaction to this particular thing.