SWITCH REVIEW | Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour

Just like Astro’s Playroom, Nintendo has a new experience to help you discover all the fancy things your shiny new hardware can do. But unlike Sony’s mascot title, it doesn’t come preinstalled and Nintendo charges an asking price for it. And that’s where they went wrong.

I’ve had some fun with Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour, but it feels just a bit too much like sitting through a school PowerPoint presentation at times and not enough like a game. and there is this feeling I can’t shake that if this came packaged with the console at no cost, everyone would be more positive about it, even though the $10 asking price won’t blow a hole in your gaming budget. Let’s dive in and see what it has to offer.

Things I liked!

• Explore the hardware of your Nintendo Switch 2 | I really like walking around as a miniature person on a giant Nintendo Switch and all peripherals. And it’s cool how they made it feel like an expo you’re walking around in, but at the same time, making the player tiny and using existing popular characters (like, say, the world of Pikmin?) would have been even cooler.

• Play various mini-games | you get to play some interesting mini-games along the way, like detecting the exact pixel where the HD Rumble 2 is the most intense in your JoyCons, but the vast majority of them use the new mouse controls and that gets old fast, especially if you like to play your Switch in handheld mode and have to sit it down on a table every 5 minutes.

• Collect medals | if you’re good at the minigames, you’ll unlock medals which in turn unlock new minigames and harder variations of existing ones. There is a nice feeling of progress as you collect these and complete everything.

• Some games are clever | My favourite minigame was guessing the exact title degree of the console using the kickstand on the back, I had no idea it could track the gyro-rotation that accurately.

Mixed & disliked!

• Lost items | as a random tack-on activity, you’ll find lost items like books or glasses or hats. There is no real quest to return these to the right person; you just have to drop them off at an info point. And you can only carry one at a time, so if you discover a new item and are still carrying another, better screenshot it or have a good memory. It’s pretty silly design and adds zero extra value to the “game”.

• It doesn’t feel like a game | I didn’t want to use the quotation marks every time I bring up the word “game”, but at the same time, it’s hard not to. 50% of the game is just reading facts about the Switch 2 hardware in a lame slide presentation. It’s not playful, and the quizzes at the end don’t feel like an achievement if you get them right. All of these details on decisions made like where the antennas are placed or how they cool the system and even made conscious decisions of how much curve the JoyCons should have or how wide the buttons should be for comfort are kind of interesting, but they are brought in such a boring way that seems unlike Nintendo at all.

• Progression is locked behind finding hidden info boards | Every button or piece of hardware has a hidden info board that only shows up if you move close enough to it. That would be fine, if it wasn’t used as the main mechanic for progressing into the game. Want to move to the next piece of hardware? better find that one hidden thing cleverly tucked away at the edge of a corner. There is no hint system to find these, or a radar to ping them. I even had to resort to an online guide twice just to be able to move on.

• Some games are locked behind owning the right peripheral | If you want to complete all of the minigames, you’ll need all of the shown external hardware. Or go and plug it in. I use my Switch 2 in handheld mode 99% of the time, and having to go to another room just to plug it into a 4K TV was a setback. The good thing is they have an SOS Morse code you can enter as a cheat and still get your medals. The downside of that is that I quickly defaulted to that option instead of actually trying to play the games.

• Over-use of the mouse controls | I get it, the main new gimmick is that you can use the JoyCons as a mouse. So almost all of the minigames focus on this. But it’s just so uncomfortable to actually use the controller as such and induces cramps in my hand and wrist even after a few minutes of use. I could never see myself play as such for extended periods of time, even if it would help with aiming in a FPS. I’d much rather plug in a USB mouse and play with a more ergonomic design.

• It costs 10$ and should have been free | I think EVERYONE agrees with this, outside of Nintendo Japan. If Nintendo of Europe or Nintendo of America had their say in this, I’m pretty sure it would have been packaged in. This would never have happened when Reggie still had anything to say.

How long did I play the review before publishing? 6 hours
How long to beat the story? 5 hours
How long to complete | 8 hours
You’ll love this game if you like these | Astro’s Playroom, PowerPoint Presentations and TED talks.

CONCLUSION

Score: 60/100

If you’re the type of person to read the accompanying leaflet when you buy a new toaster or coffee machine, you’ll be happy to know that Nintendo has made an interactive version of just that for their new console. And while some of the minigames here are fun, they don’t have any longevity and this tech-demo should have just been included for free with your €470 console.