Bukan Nintendo namanya jika ia tidak bisa menghadirkan sesuatu yang kreatif dan inovatif dalam jajaran produknya. Perusahaan mainan yang sudah berdiri ratusan tahun ini memang tidak pernah berupaya untuk bersaing dari aspek kemampuan mentah ketika berbicara soal konsol. Wii, Wii U, hingga yang terbaru – Switch justru lebih menonjolkan sebuah daya tarik yang berbeda di luar game-game eksklusif yang memesona. Rumor beberapa hari yang lalu sempat menyebut bahwa Nintendo saat ini tengah menggarap sebuah pengalaman interaktif yang unik untuk Switch. Namun kami yakin, tidak ada satupun gamer yang akan menyangka bahwa hasilnya akan seperti ini. Perkenalkan, Nintendo Labo!
Anda bisa menyederhanakannya sebagai konsep “Google Cardboard” milik Nintendo Switch. Namun bukan sekedar kacamata, ia akan menawarkan begitu banyak varian mainan berbasis kardus yang bisa Anda pasang dan racik sendiri. Lewat trailer yang ia usung, Anda bisa melihat bagaimana Nintendo memaksimalkan ragam fungsi di dalam Switch untuk membuat kardus-kardus ini berakhir jadi media bermain interaktif. Dari membangun sebuah robot serangga, alat pancing, robot besar untuk bertarung, hingga piano dengan 13 tuts yang berfungsi layaknya piano pada umumnya. Tentu saja, target utama Nintendo untuk produk ini adalah anak-anak.
Nintendo Labo akan didistribusikan dalam dua paket berbeda: Toy-Con 01: Variety Kit berharga USD 70 dan Toy-Con 02: Robot Kit berharga USD 80. Paket Toy-Con pertama akan memuat varian permainan paling banyak, dengan lebih dari 28 buah lembaran kardus yang bisa Anda racik sendiri. Game-game yang bisa dimainkan dengan paket ini adalah 2 mobil RC, 1 alat pancing, 1 rumah, 1 sepeda motor, dan sebuah piano. Sementara seperti namanya, paket kedua akan berisikan software untuk Robot Kit dan juga lembaran kardus yang diperlukan untuk membangunnya. Nintendo juga mengkonfirmasikan bahwa mereka akan membagikan desain ini secara gratis nantinya agar gamer bisa membuatnya sendiri di rumah, tetapi tetap membutuhkan catridge game itu sendiri untuk bisa dimainkan.
Nintendo Labo sendiri rencananya akan dirilis pada tanggal 20 April 2018 mendatang. Terlihat menarik di mata Anda?
Tags: gamingnews , nintendo , nintendo labo , nintendo switch
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Games Nintendo Labo turns Switch console into interactive toys 'like cardboard Lego' Nintendo’s ingenious upcoming release for its Switch console uses augmented reality to make working cars, pianos and full-body robot suits – teaching coding and engineering principles through play Nintendo Labo. Photograph: Nintendo
Nintendo has introduced a new product for its Switch games console: Nintendo Labo, an innovative augmented-reality game that turns cardboard models into fully functioning toys.
Inside the Nintendo Labo box are 25 sheets of thick, brown, branded cardboard, and a little cartridge that pops into a Nintendo Switch console. Following Lego-like instructions on the Switch screen, you punch out the cardboard pieces and assemble them into contraptions of varying complexity. The first project, which takes maybe 15 minutes, is a simple little bug-like radio-controlled car; slot the Joy-Con controllers into its cardboard sides, pull up the controls on the Switch’s screen, and the vibrations send it juddering across a flat surface with surprising speed.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Nintendo introduces Nintendo Labo.
The more complex constructions are a telescopic fishing rod with a working reel, attached to a base with elastic bands and string for realistic tension; a cardboard model of a piano with springy keys; an abstract motorbike, with handles and a pedal; a little house. Each contraption is made out of cardboard and string, and transforms into a digitally augmented toy when you slot Joy-Con controllers and the Switch screen into it. The piano, especially, is quite amazing, and takes about two hours to build. The infrared camera on the Joy-Con controller can see reflective strips of tape on the back of the keys, which come into view when a key is pressed, telling the game software to play the right note. Cardboard dials and switches modify the tone and add effects to the sound.
The principles behind each construction – Toy-Cons, as Nintendo calls them – are explained by cartoon characters, putting a child-friendly spin on coding and engineering. On the Switch screen, you can view a cross-section of each model that illustrates what the Joy-Con camera can see and how it works. This educational element is geared towards curious children, but it’s also illuminating for an adult – seeing how these toys work only increases your appreciation of their ingenuity.
The most complex construction, which will be sold separately, is a cardboard mech suit that transforms your entire body into a Transformers-style robot in the game, translating your punches and kicks into building-levelling virtual smashes.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Nintendo Labo’s fishing game. Photograph: Hosokawa Shingo/Nintendo
The finished Toy-Cons are surprisingly sturdy, but won’t stand up to extended enthusiastic play with younger kids. They do, however, dispense with the need to ever spend money on plastic accessories. Nintendo plans to offer replacement cardboard kits and templates for players who break theirs, but the easier solution is just to mend it. You can stick the cardboard Toy-Cons back together with glue or tape, reinforce them, or decorate them with pens, washi tape or googly eyes, without affecting their functionality. It’s easy to imagine creative players and the online maker community taking this customisation in unexpected directions.
Nintendo Labo addresses a limitation of existing augmented reality games that use camera technology to superimpose things on the real world: however much you might want to believe that you’re battling monsters, the reality that you’re pointing a phone at a card with a weird pattern on it dents the fantasy. Drawing on Nintendo’s history as a maker of toys, the Nintendo Labo creations are tangible physical objects, enhanced rather than conjured by the games console. It invites players to engage intellectually and creatively with the technology, and the careful process of building them makes for a more mindful toy than most digital entertainment, which will appeal to parents trying to moderate their kids’ screen time.
Nintendo of Europe’s president, Satoru Shibata, gave a statement: “Our goal is to put smiles on the faces of everyone Nintendo touches. Nintendo Labo invites anyone with a creative mind and a playful heart to make, play and discover in new ways with Nintendo Switch. I personally hope to see many people enjoying making kits with their family members, with big smiles on their faces.”
