Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour - Review

Welcome to your new gaming partner!

Console: Nintendo Switch 2

Of all the Nintendo Switch 2 launch titles Nintendo's very own ‘Welcome Tour’ is by far the cheapest… and the most controversial online. I do get why many give this title the stink eye. The entire point of this little piece of software is that it is an interactive introduction to the Nintendo Switch 2. Instead of reading that you can use the new joy-cons as a mouse, why not show you? Grab such a feature and use it in a surprising way. 

It's very weird, borderline stupid, then that you have to pay for this Welcome Tour. Yes, that's right. The introduction, the demo, the hands-on presentation, don't come for free. You have to pay about 10,- to experience it. That is not a graceful move Nintendo. Not graceful at all...

Even so, I'm not in a position to complain much. After all, I'm one of those idiots who put down the 10,- to play it. Me and many others if those day 1 sale charts are to go by. Price aside, is this fun little bit of introductory software a fun little distraction or something best left alone? 

Let's talk about it. 

What Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour reminded me of when I first learned about it is Astro's Playroom. The free tech demo that the PlayStation 5 came with is also presented as an exploration of the console with tons of gaming trivia. In execution though the two games couldn't be more different. 

Where Astro's Playroom was a platformer and more of a 'game', Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is essentially an interactive exhibition. Each 'wing' of the exhibition is a different part of the Switch 2. The entrance hall is the right Joy-Con, the tablet is the main hall and the (optional) camera is an observation tower. They even allow you to go inside the console and see things like the motherboard, SoC and more. 

The artstyle. Very simplistic, colourfull characters on a very detaild console. 

I like this presentation and the art style they chose to go along with it. This digital exhibition gives you the feeling that you are exploring an actual Switch 2 unit. It even gives you a simplified view of what you normally never get to see such as the inside of the console. 

The art style for human visitors and other exhibition elements is very simple. One-tone colours, barely to no shadows and faceless models, Stuff that mesh surprisingly well with the very detailed Switch 2. It keeps everything visible even at this zoomed-out angle and makes for a clear contrast with the 3D style of most tech demos and minigames. 

Speaking of the tech demos and minigames, those are the meat of the experience together with the stamp collecting and quizzes as the bones. It's more activities than I honestly expected this title would pack. Getting through most of it took me 5-6 hours or so, quite a chunky number for an experience. 

First up are the stamps. These are very simple: hidden near both major and minor features of the Switch 2, from its face buttons to the little lights, are stamp posts that explain what you are looking at. Find them all and you can move on to the next ‘hall’ of the console. 

Up next are the minigames and tech demos. I lump them together because they are so similar but with a simple difference. In the tech demos you, say, blast fireworks into the air repeatedly with the game going through different settings to show how the new screen compares to the old one. The minigames are, well, actual minigames. They are short, arcade-like experiences that also use the Switch 2's unique features but focus on actual gameplay experience. 

Use the new mouse controls to dodge as many spikey balls as you can while also collecting stars, for example. It's one of the first and best minigames in my opinion. They are well put together, and some of them are really fun, but they are not as creative as I’ve come to expect from Nintendo. The above minigame is something we've seen plenty of before and I can't say that using the joy cons to 'swim' was all that interesting either. 

The very first, in to me best, minigame.

They are all well-made but the best I can put it is the minigames here miss that certain ‘magic’ that makes you keep coming back to them. That kept me from trying out the harder versions of these minigames when they popped up. 

Thirdly come the quizzes. These not only give you the very basics on the console itself but they also explain to you the inner workings, the design process and even dive a bit into the history of some features in Nintendo hardware. An example: I never knew how rumble worked. Now I not only know that they achieve this effect, to put it as simply as possible, by oscillation but they used to achieve it by rotation. You can certainly learn this stuff by searching for it online but it's a lot more fun learning it here in this interactive environment. 

Now to circle back to the playtime. 5-6 hours is a good time for any 10,- title. If you focus on getting all the prize medals you can with the minigames you could stretch that by a couple of hours. The issue I ran into is that by the end, it felt like a slog. 

In each hall, of which there are 11, you keep doing the same type of things. I played this title in a day or two, as I feel it is intended, and by the end, I was pretty tired. I like the quizzes but the last few areas have so many of them with lots of repeated information too. Would some more variation and better distribution have been too much to ask? Maybe some unique activities for each hall like helping find a lost kid?

This all brings me to the biggest problem I have with Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour: that it doesn’t come for free with the console. I know, I know. People made a fuzz about this the moment the game was revealed but I have a deeper reason than just 'I don't want to pay for it'. NOT including with every console undermines the entire point of the game. 

The software was made to introduce the Switch 2 to its exciting new owners. By making it paid, you limit its audience because not everyone who even knows about the game will be willing to pay for it. It's also a game with an expiration date. Do you really think many people will give it a go after weeks of already playing the Switch 2? I don't think so. 

Conclusion

To introduce audiences to their new console in an interactive way like with Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is a very Nintendo thing to do. What they created sadly is not a standout. It's a digital exhibition full of trivia quizzes, tech demos and minigames that are fun for just a little bit. It's presented well but the actual meat of the game, the tech demos and minigames are very much one-and-done experiences. They show off the Switch 2's features well but are not particularly captivating.

In short: it’s a neat but skippable piece of software.