Probably best not to do on the train
IT WOULD BE SAD if Nintendo – a company that tried to persuade the world that both a set of bathroom scales and a pair of bongos could be a gamepad – ever abandoned weird peripherals. Well, right on time, the company has introduced a brand new weird controller to go alongside the already pretty weird Switch.
It’s called the Ring-Con, and it’s unsurprisingly ring-shaped. It’s rubberised, so can be squeezed and twisted, and it has an adapter to put one Joy-Con in, and a leg strap to put its twin in. Both will help track movements.
Confused? Here’s a video to either make things more or less confusing. Press play and find out which.
As you can see, it’s Nintendo’s way of making exercise fun, which may cause you to roll your eyes if you happen to have a Wii Fit board gathering dust under a pile of pizza boxes, but this does at least look more gamified this time.
Ring Fit Adventure is an on-rails game that comes bundled with the controller. It’s a full-size action adventure where you move by physically walking or jogging on the spot, with inclines requiring more effort and occasional fitness challenges to test your arm, leg and core muscle groups. There’s even silent mode – a version of the game that only delivers low-impact exercises to prevent your neighbours hating you too much.
“It’s in Nintendo’s DNA to keep thinking of new ways to entertain players and put smiles on their faces, and Ring Fit Adventure for Nintendo Switch is a new kind of game where fitness meets adventure,” said Stephan Bole, Nintendo’s European president.
“I hope that once players hold the Ring-Con, put on the Leg Strap and start playing for themselves, they’ll be immersed in a journey that will keep them motivated to come back and have fun exercising every day.”
No word on pricing yet, but given we know it’ll launch on 16 October, we should find out soon enough. Hopefully, other games will support the Ring-Con, and you’d imagine they will – even the Gamecube Bongos got three Donkey Kongas and a platformer, after all. µ