Assembling Nintendo’s cardboard VR kit is supposed to be half the fun – but once you’re there, you might not want to let the kids into your new virtual world

[Words Matt Tate]

from £35 / stuff.tv/LaboVR

Nintendo’s gleefully inventive cardboard Labo sets have helped the Japanese giant return to its toy-making roots with sometimes brilliants results.

You can get Variety, Robot and Vehicle kits, complete with backpacks, steering wheels and fishing rods… but it’s the new VR sets that are the most exciting so far – for both the target market of kids, and the parents who’ll inevitably end up putting in a shift during the long process of assembling the Toy-Con peripherals.

You have a choice of either the £35 Starter Set (just the goggles and the Blaster accessory) or the £70 VR Kit reviewed here, which includes multiple Toy-Con creations, each with its own set of mini games. Entry-level as the experiences may be, it’s hard not to be impressed with the level of creativity on show.

No scissors or glue are required. So as long as you have a Switch console, a pair of Joy-Cons and a degree of patience, you’re good to go.

1 Young parts run free

Open the latest Labo box and you’ll be greeted with a towering pile of multi-coloured cardboard sheets, stickers, bags of elastic bands and plastic bolts, and a game cartridge. Pop it in and you’ll be taken to a menu screen with Make, Play and Discover.

2 We clothe our eyes

Building the entire Toy-Con set is going to eat up a lot of your time. The VR Goggles, which you’ll take on first, have their own special lenses to create the virtual reality effect, and can take up to an hour to assemble. At least mistakes are reversible.

3 Where did hour love go?

Build time increases as the kits get more intricate, with the Blaster – definitely Labo VR’s showpiece – taking us three hours. If you’re planning on buying a set for the kids, it’s worth stretching the building out over a couple of weekends.

4 Blurred house in your soul

The shortcomings of the Switch’s 720p resolution are rather obvious. Turn your head in any game and you’ll encounter some pretty nasty blur, while textures are generally devoid of any detail and the screen-door effect is very noticeable.

5 Ballad of queasy rider

Motion sickness continues to be an issue in VR right across the board, so if you’re letting youngsters have a go you should be mindful of it. We didn’t encounter too many stomach drops, though, and the games encourage you to take breaks.

Tech specs

Display (Switch) 6.2in 1280x720 LCD VR Kit Toy-Cons Goggles, Blaster, Camera, Bird, Wind Pedal, Elephant Battery 4310mAh (2.5-6.5 hours) Weight (Switch with Joy-Cons) 400g

This is the kits

They might take time to build, but each finished Labo VR toy is something of a marvel. Here’s our top four:

■ Goggles

These will be familiar to anyone who’s messed around with Google Cardboard in the past, only the phone has been swapped for a Switch. But you have to hold the goggles to your face at all times, as there’s no strap.

■ Bird

Attach a Joy-Con to the headpiece and squeeze a pair of levers to make the wings flap. You play a bird on an egg-collecting mission, your head movements controlling direction, while the wings are used to fly higher.

■ Blaster

You put Labo VR’s most obviously videogamey peripheral up to your face, with elastic bands allowing the gun to be cocked. Pull the trigger and the Blaster emits a glorious thwack. The games are decent too.

■ Elephant

There are two Elephant games: Marble Run, a puzzler that has you moving ramps to guide a marble to its target; and Doddle, which lets you draw in a 3D space using the elephant’s trunk as your paintbrush.

This is definitely on the primitive end of the VR scale, but that’s fine. It’s primarily aimed at nine-year-olds who want to pretend they’re an elephant and are yet to have their minds blown by stepping into a 3D virtual space for the first time. Judge it on that basis and Nintendo’s latest cardboard side-project is a big success. @MattWTate

STUFF SAYS A great introduction to virtual reality, even if gameplay is lacking, and a tantalising glimpse into Nintendo’s future plans