Today, Nintendo of America uploaded a trailer for the Nintendo Labo VR Kit that, technically, would have helped promote it when they originally posted that one picture explaining it all. We can finally see how it works and what features it might have - and we finally have an answer to what that Bird Toy-Con is from the very first Labo announcements, when Labo was a new concept. To start of positive, Nintendo showed off an underwater setting, and since there is no light and camera tracking, you can move anywhere you want and still not lose effectiveness or quality- that's pretty neat.
The second demo shown off was the Blaster. I never thought I would be so invested in Nintendo VR, but with this attachment, you get to load up bullets and fire away (as you'd expect) however, that's exactly my favorite thing to do in any VR device, play a rail shooter... If it's enough to get to me to drop money on the whole shebang might be another thing, though. Two player modes are also integrated into this experience, however, it forces you to pass the Labo Set back and force, and that would do nothing but break the experience for me, personally. The next feature shown off was the wind pedal - You control a frog and when you step down on the wind pedal, he will jump. Ingeniously, the pedal will force a piece of cardboard up and create a fan to blow a gust of wind at your face, almost giving you the feeling of doing the actual jumping.
The Bird ToyCon isn't much different from the pedal, sadly. It wants you to press down on the bids stomach to make it flap it's wings, which is very underwhelming. You can, however, add the pedal to the set up and feel the wind as you fly around or even race the skies- this one would have to be a hard pass for me, personally. The Elephant isn't really... an elephant. Sure it looks like that on the outside, but inside the game, you can use it to paint 3D pictures with unique art, lighting and textured effects. However, after you've made your art, it's unclear what happens next - technically only you would be able to see it in the headset... Maybe a share feature will be announced soon? The second feature of the elephant ToyCon is Marble Run, a 3D puzzle game in which you extend your lever (or I guess the elephants trunk) to move platforms and effect panels to guide the marble to it's goal - I'm all for this one.
The Camera is shown of next, being the underwater demo from the intro. In this experience you simply take pictures of virtual underwater life - that's about it. VR Plaza is a set of 64 bite sized games and experiences. The main premise might be simple, and the time you spend with each one short, but they do look a lot more enjoyable than the camera. This mode will use a range of all of the included ToyCon, depending on the mini game loaded up. The final mode to be shown off was ToyCon Garage VR, which let's you create your own VR experience. As with the previous ToyCon Garage, it's a simple creative tool that let's you do virtually anything if you have the imagination for endless fun. Though VR isn't ready to take off into the main-steam, especially with it's high entry price, the Nintendo Labo VR Kit is a good starting point for younger gamers, or adults who love the less gritty, dark style that developers thing all adults want in games. If you're even a tad interested and have the spare change, I say you should check it out, even just to please your curiosity. The Nintendo Labo VR Kit is set for a release on April 12th, 2019.
