Labo's Toy-Cons Trolling Star World

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - In the physical Earth world!

Since January 2019, a game called Fishing Star World Tour developed and published by WFS—a Japanese company that appears to be fully named Wright Flyer Studios (not related to Phoenix Wright... or is it?)—has allowed fishing fans to... fish, on the Nintendo Switch for $30. It's one of the pricier fishing games on the Switch.

While I initially thought that the game's title was meant to be read that it was a fishing tour of Star World (which is the planet I'm from with many locales like Koopa Kingdom and the Mushroom Kingdom), it's actually a world tour undertaken by a fishing star. That makes it substantially less interesting, though the trailer is... unique.

 

*No shit.
(So this is Enguarde's new gig after he got laid off from the Donkey Kong Country games?)

Fishing Star World Tour will be releasing in physical game form thanks to Aksys Games (speaking of game studios named for Wright, why doesn't a relevant game like the Ace Attorney series get that anymore?) at the end of September 2019.

Here's why this matters: This game advertises Toy-Con support. Specifically, the Toy-Con Fishing Rod in a “trolling mini-game.” While I think of trolling as a disingenuous Internet interaction, trolling is a legitimate fishing activity that I can't describe in my own words.

But Toy-Con minigames aren't legitimate activities. That's why the kid has to pretend to look like he's having fun (much like with everything else in that trailer).

As of writing this, the ability to clearly see text and user interface from far away on small Switch screens is a hot topic in our Discord server.
...This is painful to look at, and it HAS to be that way.

What goes through the mind of a game developer to spend time and resources on a mode that a tiny fraction of your player base will be able to play? Unless Nintendo themselves are promoting this game because of this Toy-Con mode (and as far as I can tell, they haven't, or I would've heard of it half a year ago when it released), it's a terrible investment.

But there's more to it. Another developer I've never heard of, Baltoro Games, has released Moto Rush GT three months ago, and this also has Toy-Con support—the Toy-Con Motorbike. As far as I can tell from its trailer, the Toy-Con Motorbike is just an additional controller option, rather than its own mode, much like that update to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. 

The “or” is a very important word here.
I consider additional controller options is less offensive than making a dedicated Labo mode.

Per a search engine query of “toy-con” on Nintendo.com's game pages, Fishing Star World Tour and Moto Rush GT are the only games out there that advertise this Toy-Con functionality. There may be more games I've never heard of that have it.

I suggest avoiding these games, just to send a message to these developers that allowing the Nintendo Labo to proliferate among the indie world isn't acceptable.  ...Though for all I know, the games are bad anyway.

Moto Rush GT is on sale, however, and Baltoro Games is apparently promising some kind of kickback for anyone who buys it... Tempting... interesting...

Hi everyone!

Soon we will have a fantastic news for people who bought our games on Nintendo Switch! #freestuff pic.twitter.com/XjbXcQu78E

— Baltoro Games (@BaltoroGames) July 25, 2019

Ludwig feels slightly bad that this article is more-or-less picking on some random indie developers and their games just for being inclusive of the Nintendo Labo, but the Labo is so dangerous and dastardly that it needs to be said. Plus, this advice goes for first-party Nintendo games as well, like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, though it's too late for the latter.