Tsubasa Sakaguchi is beaming at two Bafta awards arranged neatly on a table in front of him. The ingenious mashup of video game and cardboard scooped the family and game innovation categories at last week's Bafta games awards. "It was a very great honour to receive two awards," he says. "And especially to receive awards in completely different categories. That made me very happy … We always wanted to make a widely accepted game, but at the same time something new, something which has never been seen. Innovative games often exist on the fringes of popular culture, exploring challenging themes, testing game design convention, or prodding mischievously at the definition of what a video game is. But for Sakaguchi, Labo's ambition is to deliver this kind of innovation to the living rooms of young families. "At the end of last year, sales of the Labo kits reached 1.4m," he says. "We think that this product isn't something that you play with for a while and then forget about.

Released in April, Nintendo Labo was one of the more unusual games of this year – or any year. The box contains cardboard sheets, rubber bands and string along with a game cartridge, inviting players to build ingenious little cardboard models that, when combined with the Nintendo Switch console and its controllers, become working interactive toys. It's rather like cardboard Lego, presented in a way that gently introduces the basics of engineering. Labo is not as playground-popular as Minecraft or Fortnite, but it's a rare video game that provides educational value as well as fun, and does so without forcing it down kids' throats. There are three Nintendo Labo sets available: the Variety Kit, the Robot Kit and the Vehicles Kit.

Third-grade students at the Douglass G Grafflin School in Chappaqua, New York, participate in an interactive learning session with the Nintendo Labo: Variety Kit for the Nintendo Switch system, led by Rebecca Rufo-Tepper, Co-Executive Director of the Institute of Play. Nintendo Labo is going to school. The video game maker is teaming up with the non-profit Institute of Play to bring its Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Labo cardboard gaming kits to 100 elementary schools around the country. "Our goal is to help teachers and students have fun with the basic principles of science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics, collectively known as STEAM," says Nintendo of America President and COO Reggie Fils-Aime. "We believe Nintendo Labo can be a powerful learning tool to foster 21st Century skills such as communication, collaboration, creativity, critical thinking and problem solving."

Nintendo Labo is a weird idea. Nintendo considers itself a toy company, not just a game company. That's one reason so many Nintendo products are more than just games, whether that's the Wii motion controllers or the amiibo line of toys or even, to some degree, the retro Nintendo consoles. Nintendo Labo takes the Nintendo Switch and uses it, along with cardboard cutouts, string and censors, to create a variety of interesting, interactive creations. These range from a robot pack you wear on your back to a piano that actually plays sounds.

Nintendo Co. got its start in 1889 as a successful manufacturer of hanafuda (playing cards made out of stiff paper). Now the game-maker is embracing the same materials for its next trick. The Kyoto-based company on Friday started selling an unusual collection of attachments for its hybrid Switch tablet-console: cardboard add-ons called Nintendo Labo. Priced at $70 and $80, the build-it-yourself cardboard kits, with accompanying software, will let users transform the Switch into a miniature piano, motorcycle handlebars, robot exoskeleton and other objects. The goal is broadening the Switch's appeal beyond the core gamers who fueled its estimated 17 million in first-year unit sales.

Sam Baig plays with Nintendo Labo. If Nintendo is going to make a splash selling the creative Nintendo Labo cardboard gaming kits that become available Friday, Labo must appeal to grade schoolers like my 11-year old son Samuel, not to mention dads and moms. Judging by Sam's high praise, Nintendo has a hit on its hands. "Good job, Nintendo," Sam told me. At the same time, while Sam was engaged as we built and subsequently ran a remote-control car made of cardboard, I can't predict if his enthusiasm will wane over time.

Once again, Nintendo has done the impossible. Going into 2018, the Nintendo Switch is on track to sell 20 million units in its first year. That means it has already outsold Nintendo's 4-year-old Wii U and is the fastest-selling U.S. console ever, taking the honors from Nintendo's Wii console a decade ago. With Switch, Nintendo is back on its game and eyeing a return to its glory days. In the last 20 years, Nintendo has fallen on its face as often as it's succeeded.

Mario is getting together with the Minions. Video game company Nintendo Co. says a movie starring the plumber from the Super Mario franchise is in the works, co-produced with Chris Meledandri, the chief executive of Illumination Entertainment, the U.S. animation studio behind the popular "Despicable Me" series. Nintendo's star game designer Shigeru Miyamoto told reporters Thursday the script is mostly finished. He's promising a "fun" movie, since Meledandri shares his thinking on creative projects. The movie, two years in the making after a meeting between Meledandri and Miyamoto, is set for global distribution through Universal, which co-owns Illumination, according to the Kyoto-based owner of the Pokemon trademark and developer of the popular Switch game console.

Weird Nintendo is often the best Nintendo, or so it is said. After all, two of its biggest successes (the Wii and the Switch) are far from ordinary consoles. Now, with a year of huge Switch sales behind it, Nintendo is getting even weirder with Labo -- cardboard accessories that kids can built themselves and use to immerse themselves in a game's world. So far, Nintendo has shown off a mini piano, fishing rod, robot fighting suit, remote-controlled robot walkers ... and what amounts to a cardboard house with your Switch screen built right into the middle. All of these are controlled in some way by the Switch Joy-Cons.

Ever play a racing video game and wish you could build your own physical handlebars to drive? Or a play a fishing game and want to go cast an actual rod to grab your virtual catch? If you have a Nintendo Switch you soon will be able to. Called the Nintendo Labo, the Japanese video game maker announced two new accessory "kits" for the Switch, allowing players to build their own physical, cardboard add-ons to go along with corresponding games. The first option, called the "Variety Kit," comes with software to connect the accessories to the game, plus the cardboard, rubber bands, and string necessary to build a fishing rod, motorbike, piano (with functioning keys), a house and remote-controlled cars.