In 2018, Nintendo invited me to a meeting in New York City to see a mysterious new initiative. It was teased as an “interactive experience for Nintendo Switch,” which sent my mind to all sorts of places. This is the company that made a weird dual-screen Game Boy and bongo controllers, after all. It could be anything. Even still, I did not guess that I would spend that meeting folding bits of cardboard — or that those cardboard accessories would turn out to be so awesome. That was the moment I completely gave up on trying to guess what Nintendo would do next.
That meeting has been on my mind quite a bit over the last few weeks. While much of the game industry has been on edge in anticipation of whatever the follow-up to the Switch will be,…