Remember when the Nintendo Labo VR Kit launched and a small handful of Switch games — including The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and Super Mario Odyssey — received improbable Labo VR mode updates? We might not have spent hours exploring Hyrule with Nintendo's VR Goggles held to our faces, but we certainly enjoyed the novelty of playing around in other games with that mostly-cardboard peripheral.
We recently looked at how Team Nintendo Life is keeping active at the start of 2021, but even when we're not pumping iron or doing burpees in the living room, we would welcome any excuse to get up off the sofa while we're playing our 'normal' games, too — anything to keep the ol' blood circulating! With certain regions around the world either entering another lockdown or on the verge of new restrictions to combat the third wave of the pandemic, we're looking for any little shred of novelty we can find these days. Fortunately, we know a company that's a specialist in that area, and we've been thinking about another Nintendo peripheral that a great many of us have access to: namely, the Ring-Con that came bundled with Ring Fit Adventure.
While some (but not all) of Team NL have been using it daily over the past year or so, we wouldn't mind trying it out with other Switch games, just like we did with the Labo goggles. To that end, we've brainstormed some ideas for Ring-Con compatible modes Nintendo could potentially add to its Switch library with a cheeky update or two.
Are these suggestions entirely serious? Why yes, every single one is a stone-faced, sure-fire winner and Nintendo would be fools — FOOLS! — to not hastily implement each and every one to keep us entertained during the next wave of social distancing and confinement.*
So, let's have a look at what Ring-Con modes for other Switch games we dreamt up...
*Jokes! With the exception of a few fun ideas, they're all rather silly... OR ARE THEY?
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch)
Although it's possible to play the VR mode in Breath of the Wild indefinitely, spending hours with the Labo goggles strapped to our face is not how we want to play it. Still, it was a fun novelty to experiment with and we think a little Ring-Con implementation would work far better.
The most obvious mode would be to use the controller as your bow — Link's Crossbow Training 2, anybody? We're thinking a mini-game accessed via an NPC on the map where you pull on the ring to charge an arrow and let go to fire at a target — Octorok, Keese, balloons, whatever.
Alternatively (and as suggested by stalwart NL contributor Gonçalo Lopes), how about races against NPCs or long-distance marathon courses on the tracks and trails latticed across the kingdom? Holding the Ring-Con and jogging to move — just as you do to run around the world in Ring Fit Adventure — you could race against people or perhaps deliver mail across the kingdom in a host of side-missions to earn some new swag or the Ring to use as a weapon. The Ring Fit outfit, perhaps?
Hey, if Link's got a Nintendo Switch t-shirt in his inventory, there's no reason he couldn't earn some other cross-promotional gear, too! Throw in a gorgeous sunset and who could resist going for a cliffside jog?
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Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Switch)
Wait for it..., you'll never guess this one. The Ring-Con... is a steering wheel. Unprecedented! Genius! Revolutionary!
Of course, this has already been tried, and even works to a certain degree. Unfortunately, it's tough to drift or fire items while the Joy-Con is locked in firmly at the top of your Ring-Con in a mighty Con-fluence of Con-troller. If Nintendo were to patch an official Ring-Con mode into Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, at the very least it would need some motion-based shaking or squeezing to activate items.
Still, of all our ideas this is probably the easiest to implement and most plausible.
Splatoon 2 (Switch)
Splatoon 2 has plenty of weaponry already, and we're certain Sheldon could get his hands on a Ring-Con-like shield which soaked up paint while raised and blasted it back at enemy inklings when squeezed. Navigating the world with any alacrity whatsoever would be difficult, so this would probably have to be broken out into its own mode in a smaller arena where everyone had a Ring-Con. Fun would then ensue.
Alternatively, how about some sort of PvE mode where the (massively OP) Ring-Con player is stationary and the others must work together to take them down? Pah, this game dev stuff is easy. Next!
Luigi's Mansion 3 (Switch)
Luigi trades in his Poltergust G-00 for a Ring-Con with a funny name — the Vacuum Screamer, something like that — which sucks up absolutely everything in a large radius when you pull it and blasts ghosts around the room when you squeeze.
Again, simple navigation might be an issue outside the on-rails world of Ring Fit, so this might work better as an optional co-op mode; the Ring-Con player vacuums up all the money while perched on the sholders of the main player who busts the ghosts and moves around like normal.
Mario Tennis Aces (Switch)
Quiet, please. Tennis racquets are so 19th century — wouldn't it be more fun if you used a big ring disc-thing to blast floaty balls at each other using gusts of air?
It would probably work better as an optional 'Volleyball' mode or something, perhaps with one player controlling the body of the character on court while the Ring-Con player concentrated on making shots. Either way, it's something we'd definitively fire up and play for, oooh, four or five minutes, at least!
Comments 39
I want to play Bakugan with the Ring-Con
It would be fun as an option though I wouldn't use it for long.
While they're at it, Nintendo should also retroactively update all of these games so that they can be played with Wii Vitality Sensor, definitely maybe improbably finally coming late 2021, expected to be the hottest gift this Christmas!
Pre-orders close 31st March, 2021. Never to be repeated. I repeat, never to be repeated!
How about playing Mario Kart 8 Deluxe / Super Mario Odyssey with DDR Mat ? 😆
Yeah....I don't see these happening. And if they were added they would be forgotten after 20 minutes.
Just detach your Joy Cons and start flailing! Pretend it's the Wii days and you'll burn all the calories
Better yet, add more content to Ring Fit. A few Super Mario levels where you have to fight Goombas and other enemies before Bowser at the end would be awesome.
Pyo puyo tetris with the ring con LOL
Zelda does seem perfect for Ring Fit, I would like to run around that world using it and shoot arrows, too.
Nintendo hasn't even added any content via patch to Super Mario Party, the last thing they'd add to it is ring con compatibility lol.
The only thing I want in Ring Fit Adventure is a download of the full game, this is one of those games that you will play every day, and having it digital will make it easier to go in train a little and tune out into another game. One of the few games I regret that comes in a cart.
There was a Tetris game on the Wii which used the Balance Board, but sadly that is locked behind the defunct Wii Shop.
How many games supports Labo VR after years?
Exactly. Nintendo don't care.
oh man, LM3 almost fits too well. i was holding out hope we'd at least get more songs for the rhythm game, so many great nintendo soundtracks to pick from
ARMs! Could be it’s own character.
@boxyguy plus the luigi’s mansion arcade was a rail shooter.
It's easy said then done. Nothing is free to just patch there has to be submission and testing and then testing and then release this is not a easy as 1,2,3 done.
I want to play doom eternal with the ringcon!
I'd Love for this to happen.
Mostly Mario Party.
@KingMike That was Tetris Party. I'm pretty sure there is a physical version of it for wii.
If it's a free update I'd check it out sure. Though I don't think it's really needed considering Ring Fit sells really well on its own. Labo didn't really sell all that great I think so it needed the boost.
I don't see this happening
Please Nintendo. Announce some new games so these people can write something worthwhile.
There was a silly little attachment for the Wii. It was basically a pedometer and disabled the joystick if you weren't jogging in place. No software interaction or anything... but it felt like you had to move for the character to move.
I used mine for HOURS playing games like Galaxy... and I actually lost weight! Something as simple and not especially difficult to pull off would be a godsend for Ring Fit on the Switch.
This seems like a waste of money to invest.
The novelty of using this would quickly wear off and you go back to original controls it’s like soul calibur with a fishing rod it is fun but the controller is always the best option
First of all... TETRIS 99 already has a RFA theme. Secondly... WHY DON'T WE HAVE A NEW Wii SPORTS RESORT!?!?!?
I like all those suggestions! Make it happen, Nintendo.
Cadence. Of. Hyrule.
Seems like there could be a really fun flying mechanic that is controlled with the ring con. Could be in Zelda, or a new Pilot Wings game that allows ring con control.
@KingMike you can get it with cfw but pshhhh
@Muddy_4_Ever how was the attachment called ?
@T0biasCZe There were lots of different ones. This one was probably the most known.
https://purenintendo.com/umove-turn-any-wii-game-into-a-fitness-workout-with-the-blaze-u-move-nunchuck-controller-video/
Ring Fit Resort! They could do some Ring-Con games and also include some that use the base joy-con.
Ring-Con games: archery, volleyball, shooting, flying
Leg strap/joy-con: jogging, rock climbing, kickboxing
Joy-Con: tennis, bowling, golf
But Ring Fit Adventure is designed to give out paced exercises in sensible doses. Slapping Ring-Con support on something like Zelda breaks that and leaves people much more open to hurting themselves. Plus let’s be honest, it wouldn’t be that fun and everyone would moan “why are you doing this and not BotW 2” (even though that’s not how game development works).
Mario Tennis and Party could be fun though, I’ll concede there.
A creative way to get your sponsored links in though I guess.
I want literally all.of those because I'm nearly finishing Ring Fit's story and I don't know what will be of my sanity
maybe for the new world ends with you , and a zelda skyward port
Whilst I appreciate this is a very good tongue in cheek article I would probably appreciate Nintendo making the Joycons work properly with regular games without extra peripherals involved!
Ring Fit Adventure 2
That would be better than tacked on mini-games...
I got the Ring-Con working with Fall guys and Subnautica on the PC and think it works pretty well. It would be awesome for Nintendo to follow some of these suggestions though, they just need to add the Ring-Con to the controller button remapping menu so the user can decide how they want to play.
I wanna play hades with the ring con
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