Like any good Nintendo game, you start out by learning the basics: You get instructions from your Switch, punch out the required pieces, crease them just so and connect notches. That's the vast majority of the Labo experience. Of course, things get more complicated for larger kits, but you'll never stray too far from those core skills. It's the same principle at work in a Mario game. Things may get harder, but ultimately you can beat them with what you learn in the first few levels.

While you could just jump straight into the Labo Robot Kit, the Variety package is the smarter choice, because it offers more to do and a gentler learning curve. It also features the simplest Labo project, the RC Car Toy-Con, which should take you around 10 minutes to build. It's nothing more than a piece of cardboard folded to accommodate two Joy-Cons. You can move it around remotely from the Switch using the HD rumble vibration feature.

Sure, that might not seem exciting, but it gives you a glimpse at Labo's real secret: unlocking crazy new uses for the Switch's hardware. Plenty of kits use HD rumble in some form, but they also take advantage of the accelerometers and gyroscopes in the controllers. Most interestingly, Labo finally puts the right Joy-Con's infrared sensor to good use. It can track motion, gestures and distance, and it's something almost every Labo kit relies on. With the piano, for example, it tracks the movement of white stickers behind the keys to figure out what you're pressing. And with the robot, the IR sensor measures the placement of the backpack's pistons, which is how it moves your giant robot arms and legs on the Switch's screen.

That all might sound complex, but Nintendo makes the process of building Labo kits relatively painless. The Switch's on-screen instructions are clear and precise, and it's also pretty obvious that Nintendo's copywriters are having a lot of fun. The tone of their language is breezy and approachable -- at one point while building the motorbike Toy-Con, the instructions reminded me to fold in one obscure notch by saying "don't forget about this guy." That goes a long way toward making the build experience less of a slog. You can use the touchscreen to get a better view every step of the way, by either panning around the 3D models of the pieces or zooming into a specific section. Both are helpful if you're having trouble getting some pieces to connect.

The actual construction process is straightforward, but I quickly learned that the main obstacle with Labo is time. You'll have to devote at least two hours to every kit, and more if you're helping a kid along. It took me three-and-a-half hours to put the bike together, and that's not particularly complex. The fishing rod, which features a unique crank-and-string mechanism, took around four hours, and the piano another three.