Review: Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour (Nintendo Switch 2)
Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is an interactive introduction to Nintendo’s newest console. Think of it as a playable instruction booklet that delves into the inner working of the system in fun and quirky ways. With quizzes, minigames, demos, and collectibles, there’s plenty to do, and guess what? It’s absolutely worth the admission price.
Before we get to that sensitive topic, though, let’s look at the game itself. It’s evident almost immediately there’s a lot more to Welcome Tour than meets the eye. You begin at the entrance to what appears to be a unique type of amusement park. Here you can choose from a seemingly infinite variety of avatars to represent yourself (this can be changed later) before entering the park and starting your quest for knowledge. Yes, knowledge!
The idea behind this title is to learn about the Switch 2. What Welcome Tour does well is balance this scholastic approach with a light-hearted, even cartoony vibe. The game is divided into twelve sections, each based on a particular physical aspect of the Switch 2. Your journey begins in Area A with the left Joy-Con before Area B opens up to reveal the Switch 2 console itself.
Your avatar can wander all over the place, including the occasional stairway into a hidden nook or cranny. You can rotate your view with the R-stick while controlling yourself with the L-stick, allowing you to get the best view for the area you’re in. Along the way you can interact with any other characters visiting the park, conversing briefly with them about their surroundings.
Welcome Tour features four main objectives. Firstly, there are quizzes. These present you with several screens of information to read (it’s not arduous, I promise) before it’s time to answer a few simple questions. These details are super interesting, teaching you facts about the Switch 2 you would never have even considered before. For example, you know how the Joy-Cons snap into place via magnetism? Well, did you know that the magnets are only on the console side of things, not the Joy-Cons themselves? Learning how the touch screen works, the mouse controls, and more is going to appeal to anyone who loves reading and learning.
The quizzes are deliberately easy, although I somehow messed up a couple of times when I wasn’t paying attention and took a guess. You’ll need to answer every question correctly to earn your stamp, but the friendly quizmaster is happy to let you try again as many times as you like. They even highlight the information you should re-read before answering. With a whopping 170 trivia questions to work through, there are plenty of chances to test your knowledge.
Next up are minigrames. These are arguably the most important aspect to most players as these are designed to keep you coming back for more. Each minigame is centered on a specific feature, such as mouse controls or the touchscreen. Whether it’s dodging space rocks or trying to touch on-screen colors in a crazy version of Twister, there are multiple medals to earn, high scores to beat, and further levels to unlock. There are 20 minigames to discover, providing plenty of variety.
There are also demos to try. These feel more like toned-down minigames that highlight another feature of the Switch 2 in a non-competitive, interactive way. For example, the demo on HDR allows you to launch fireworks into the night sky by pressing a button. You can also pause these fireworks, which demonstrates the screen’s capabilities as you toggle between HDR and SDR. It’s simple, neat, intuitive, and interesting.
The final aspect is collectible stamps. These are scattered all over the place in the form of invisible booths that appear when you move close. There’s a ridiculously high number of these to collect with 150 in total. Although this is the simplest aspect, they can be tricky to find. They also serve as the means to unlock the next area.
Graphically, Welcome Tour features a deliberately simple aesthetic that’s reminiscent of the Wii U’s Mii Plaza. The colors border on pastel in their hues, but everything is clean and crisp with plenty of white space that doesn’t detract from the main attraction of the Switch 2 itself.
Alright, let’s talk about that controversial element of the price tag. The thing is, objectively speaking, Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour presents tremendous value at only $10. There’s plenty to do in this simplistic world, which will take many hours to complete. The setup is like a completionist’s dream, with checklists to complete as you go. Although the technical aspects won’t appeal to everyone, they’re presented in a way that makes them fun and appealing. Nothing is ever presented in a way that’s too hard to understand, making it as accessible as possible.
On the other hand, there’s been so much backlash from the community about whether or not this title should have been a pack-in that its reputation was tainted before it was even released. Not only are most people not willing to pay for it, but the reviews tend to reflect the price alone and not the game itself. Just check the low user scores on Metacritic; there are plenty of zeroes present, driving the score down. And this game is certainly worth more than a zero.
At the end of the day, Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour probably should have been a pack-in release; not because it’s not worth the money, but because it’s turned into a PR nightmare. It also feels like the perfect game to include with a new system. Having said that, it’s not free and it most likely never will be. Nintendo does what Nintendo does. So, here’s my final opinion on the matter: if you have any interest in diving into the inner workings of your shiny new Switch 2, please give Welcome Tour a chance. If it doesn’t interest you, leave it alone. Someone at Nintendo worked hard to put this together, and I, for one, am glad I was able to experience it.
