Toy-Con VR Goggles – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

March 22, 2019

Details Released on Nintendo Labo: VR Kit, Pre-orders now Open

Nintendo announced its return to virtual reality (VR) earlier this month by unveiling the Labo VR Kit for its hybrid console, the Nintendo Switch. At the time only brief details were released showcasing the various cardboard components and what the cost would be. Now, Nintendo has released a new trailer going in-depth with some of the actual software that’ll be available for launch next month.

Nintendo Labo: VR Kit

Thanks to the six different parts of the Nintendo Labo: VR Kit (VR Goggles, Toy-Con Blaster, Toy-Con Elephant, Toy-Con Camera, Toy-Con Wind Pedal and Toy-Con Bird) Nintendo has created quite the mix of videogames to compliment each particular peripheral.

So for the big Toy-Con Blaster, there’s a videogame called Blaster where you have to battle an alien invasion with giant bosses to contend with. Or Kablasta, where players can challenge a friend to competitive hippo feeding by flinging different types of fruit. While the Toy-Con Camera offers a much more relaxed set of titles like Ocean Camera and House Camera, where players can take underwater snaps or interact with the strange house creature respectively.

As weird as it looks, the Toy-Con Elephant offers a much more creative approach, using Doodle users can create 3D artwork using various in-game tools and styles, in a similar vein to Google Tilt Brush. Or for puzzle fans there’s Marble Run, with physics puzzles to complete by using various objects to guide marbles through rings.

Nintendo Labo: VR Kit

And then there’s the Toy-Con Wind Pedal and Toy-Con Bird contraptions. Use the Toy-Con Wind Pedal to play Hop Dodge as a jumping frog, or combine it with Toy-Con Bird to play Bird Dash. Race through checkpoints in the sky with the Wind Pedal delivering an extra boost of speed. Or just use Toy-Con Bird by itself to soar on the back of a bird, in Bird.

That’s not all Nintendo has in store, there’s also the VR Plaza filled with 64 bite-sized videogames and experiences, a lot of which only use the VR Goggles part of the system. And for the budding videogame developers out there, Toy-Con Garage VR is a new tool that allows players to create their own VR content.

The Nintendo Labo: VR Kit will be available from 12 April, with the full kit retailing for $79.99 USD / £69.99 GBP. If you’re eager to jump into Nintendo’s VR world you can pre-order the kit now, here for US customers, and here for UK customers. For any further updates, keep reading VRFocus.

March 8, 2019

Developers Give Their Reactions to Nintendo’s Labo VR Attempt

The big news this week has certainly been the fact that Nintendo is embracing virtual reality (VR) once again, although rather tentatively by creating a cardboard Labo VR kit for the Switch console. While certainly interesting news, until the kits are made available VRFocus isn’t entirely convinced this is a good idea. So much so we decided to see what the VR developer community thought of the announcement.

Nintendo Labo VR Kit

Having gone for the easy option of making a cardboard cut out kit for Nintendo Switch – essentially turning the popular hybrid console into a Google Cardboard like device – reactions to the VR adaption are mixed, to say the least, with Vertigo Games’ (Skyworld, Arizona Sunshine) Managing Director Richard Stitselaar saying in an email: “At first glance, the Nintendo Labo: VR Kit certainly feels like a step backwards for the VR industry. We hope it will pique rather than discourage wider consumer interest for VR.”

While Alexander Erdyakov, Fibrum’s (Desirium) Business Development Director was far more positive: “I’ve heard a lot about Nintendo Labo on release and our team can approve that using Labo was an awesome and unique experience. Labo VR kit seems to be game-changer because of amazing switch controllers and new mechanics from game to game. Needless to say, Nintendo is innovators and will surprise us once again. I believe that games for it will be great, but as for original Labo, I’m not sure that the content will be replayable and we will see must have titles.”

The most negative response – and one that aligned with VRFocus’ fears – came from Make Real’s (Loco Dojo) Director of Immersive Technologies Sam Watts on Twitter where he said: “Nintendo Labo VR is going to be terrible for perceptions of what #VR is but still gonna buy one for the studio curiosities shelf. Hopefully not with the label “This is what killed VR, again.”

He went on to say: “We don’t need anymore 3DoF Cardboard to sully the waters…Google Cardboard has done more harm than good. Many people have only tried that and think that’s all VR has to offer and have dismissed it any further.”

Nintendo Labo VR Kit group

Even with Nintendo’s skill at innovation, the Labo VR Kit may not be the best introduction to VR, seen as more of a gimmick than a reputable entertainment medium. When VRFocus gets its hands on one, we’ll let you know what we think.

March 7, 2019

Will the Introduction of Nintendo Labo: VR Kit See the Mass Market Appeal the VR Industry Needs?

After the internet rumour mill went into overdrive a couple of weeks ago suggesting Nintendo was once again heading to the land of virtual reality (VR), for once the rumours weren’t wildly inaccurate with Nintendo announcing the Labo VR Kit for its portable Switch console today. While certainly an interesting concept, prior to actually testing it in the flesh I’m torn between thinking this is both a good and bad idea for the VR industry as a whole.

Nintendo Labo: VR Kit

The Japanese gaming giant released its Labo construction platform almost a year ago, encouraging kids to do more than just stare at a screen by involving both the physical and digital worlds. Using cardboard cut-outs – which don’t require any cutting, glueing or sticky tape – children could make bikes or pianos that work with specific Nintendo software. With three kits available, they soon proved to be highly popular, offering unique gameplay that only the Nintendo Switch could provide.

The Nintendo Labo: VR Kit is the fourth in the series (Toy-Con #4), featuring a possible six contraptions to build depending on which kit you actually buy. All of them revolve around the ‘VR Goggles’ which holds the Switch and can then be attached to the rest.

Unlike most of the VR headsets you see today, the Nintendo Labo: VR Kit goes for the Google Cardboard style of VR, where you hold the headset up to your face, instead of a head strap to support it.

Helping Nintendo test the VR waters

Nintendo isn’t dumb, it has been burnt by VR before way back in the 90s with the disastrous release of the Virtual Boy, with its red and black screens and the fact it needed to be table mounted.

Since the consumer rollout of VR in 2015/16, I’d say there has been a consistent look towards Nintendo regarding whether it would enter the VR field again, with occasional quotes from employees teasing the possibility. And for the company going down the Labo approach makes complete sense. Nintendo has (sort of) taken the mobile phone path which is cheaper for both it and consumers plus there isn’t the need to spend a ridiculous amount of money developing hardware that might become a commercial failure.

Then if the Labo VR Kit does prove to be overwhelmingly popular and receives great feedback then that could easily spur Nintendo on to further invest in VR, which would quite frankly be a boon for the consumer side of the industry.

The Good, the Bad, and the Cardboard

However, not all of this completely sits right with me – from a VR enthusiasts point of view. I love the Nintendo Switch – I have one myself – but it was never really designed for VR, Nintendo have just tacked it on. And the problem with that is the quality of the experience.

Now I’m not saying Nintendo would do a half-arsed job on the software side, but the Switch is only 720p, and looking at the images of the VR Goggles I’m not sure whether the whole screen would be in view. So there could be quite a bit of screendoor, and what about latency and refresh rates, can the Switch provide a smooth experience? So many questions.

While those queries can only be answered with a demo, what also concerns me is the whole experience of putting a Nintendo Switch on my face. The design definitely steers towards short gameplay sessions, because even holding the VR Goggles players arms are going to tire – even more so with the larger items like the Blaster. Nintendo gets around this by stating in its press release: “Nintendo Labo: VR Kit encourages passing around the Toy-Con creations among a group of people so everyone in the room can easily join in on the fun.” So no epic Beat Saber sessions then!

Which leads to the question. Will the Nintendo Labo: VR Kit make VR seem even more like a fad as players eventually get bored of holding the kit to their face?

The Nintendo knock-on effect

If the platform doesn’t provide a great experience then the answer could easily be yes, stalling what could be enhanced mainstream adoption. If it is awesome then there could be the double whammy effect of Nintendo investing further, or more consumers looking for bigger and better VR experiences offered by the like of Oculus, HTC Vive or PlayStation VR.

I really hope that the Nintendo Labo: VR Kit is a stepping stone to bigger and better things. Yet its toylike cardboard quality doesn’t evoke a durable, hardwearing solution to longterm mainstream adoption. That’s still in the ballpark of the major VR players.

March 7, 2019

Nintendo Switch’s new Labo Kit Adds VR Gaming

So Nintendo has finally done it. After plenty of rumours circulating that the company was adding virtual reality (VR) to it’s highly popular Switch console, today the Japanese gaming giant has officially announced the Nintendo Labo: VR Kit.

Just like the other Nintendo Labo kits, this VR version (Toy-Con #4) has several components, with a total of six items to build. The first and main one is the VR Goggles which combines with the other modules to offer a mixture of experiences. The rest are the Toy-Con Blaster, Toy-Con Elephant, Toy-Con Camera, Toy-Con Wind Pedal and Toy-Con Bird.

All the pieces in the Nintendo Labo: VR Kit work in the same way as Google Cardboard, you just hold the VR Goggles up to your face, no head strap needed. The Jon-Con controllers are then situated in certain positions to allow players to easily interact with specific content – no details have yet been released regarding the videogames.

“This new kit builds on the core tenets of Nintendo Labo – Make, Play and Discover – to introduce virtual reality in a way that’s fun and approachable for both kids and kids at heart,” said Doug Bowser, Nintendo of America’s Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing. “We wanted to design an experience that encourages both virtual and real-world interactions among players through passing around Toy-Con creations.”

Due to launch on 12th April, the Nintendo Labo: VR Kit will come in four flavours. The full kit which includes Nintendo Switch software and materials to build all six Toy-Con projects – the Toy-Con VR Goggles, Toy-Con Blaster, Toy-Con Camera, Toy-Con Bird, Toy-Con Wind Pedal and Toy-Con Elephant – as well as a Screen Holder and Safety Cap. This has a suggested retail price of $79.99 USD/ £79.99 GBP.

Or you can buy the Nintendo Labo: VR Kit – Starter Set & Blaster which has the Nintendo Switch software, plus all the components to build the Toy-Con VR Goggles and Toy-Con Blaster, as well as the Screen Holder and Safety Cap, all for $39.99/£39.99.

If after buying the Starter Set you want the additional VR Kit components then they will be available as expansion packs. With a suggested retail price of $19.99/£19.99 for either set, Expansion Set 1 includes the Toy-Con Elephant and Toy-Con Camera, while Expansion Set 2 includes the Toy-Con Wind Pedal and Toy-Con Bird. Both expansion sets will only be sold via the Nintendo online store.

Additionally, the Toy-Con Garage mode will be part of the VR Kit software, offering basic programming tools for players to experiment with. And if at any time players don’t wish to use the VR functionality it can be turned off, with all the videogames playable in 2D. For further updates on the Nintendo Labo: VR Kit, keep reading VRFocus.