Nobody would be complaining about Welcome Tour if it was free. This little introductory experience to Nintendo’s Switch 2 feels like a perfectly Nintendo way to do things, turning the Switch 2 itself into a giant convention centre, filled with visitors who are there to check out the new Joy-Con 2, like they’re the latest exhibit in the Louvre. The thing is, we’re being charged £7.99 for this introduction, and while, yes, that also feels like a very Nintendo way to do things, it’s a bit too dry, too scientific, and comes with too little actual fun.
You set out by choosing a faceless avatar to be from the surprisingly long queue of potential guests, before heading up the extremely long escalator onto the exceptionally large left Joy-Con 2. It’s literally a huge version of the console, and one where you can run around, talk to other visitors, bother the staff, and play a selection of different minigames. There’s a handy Information desk nestling beneath the analogue stick, where the staff are only too happy to help you work out what you’re doing here.
Weirdly, the first two games over here on the left Joy-Con 2 are ones that showcase the Switch 2’s new mouse functionality, when around 90% of all humans would use the right Joy-Con instead. I’m not the only one who thinks that’s weird, am I? Hand preferences aside, the first minigame has you avoiding spiky balls falling from the top of the screen, quickly moving your craft around using the mouse and trying to stay alive as long as possible. It’s the most mini of minigames, but it is fun for what it is.
Successfully surviving for long enough in the first level unlocks a second level where you also have to catch stars, so I did. Completing this then opens up a further level, but the medal requirements to unlock this are so high it means coming back much later in your playthrough. The whole experience of Welcome Tour is gamified enough that you’ll want to earn the medals it offers to you, but there’s very few minigames on offer here that I’d be returning to in a week’s time.
The thing it does do is teach you about the Switch 2’s mouse mode. It shows you how it feels, how to set it up, and there’s some nice reassuring haptic rumble from both the Joy-Con when you select the game start. There’s not a ton of games to use the mouse with at launch, so as a Welcome Tour of the console, it is doing its job. Maybe you’ll mouse around the main menus?
Next up, the other minigame showcases the HD Rumble 2 of the Switch 2. Yes, that’s a lot of 2’s. Here you use the mouse to try and judge where the strongest rumble is on a line diagram. It doesn’t sound enthralling, and visually it isn’t, but it was interesting enough to take multiple goes trying to perfect my rumble strength sensing. The game also told me it was my forte, and I like compliments.
That’s it for the opening minigames, with the game’s next trick being to show you things, and then giving you a test on what you’ve seen. I’m not sure if multiple choice quizzes are anyone’s idea of a good time, but Nintendo wants to make sure you’ve not just been going about Welcome Tour with your eyes and ears shut, not paying attention. Paying attention is fun, isn’t it?
When you come across one of these quiz zones, you talk to the quiz giver, and they’ll then fire up four information boards for you to watch and read through, before you come back to take the test. If you thought you’d left English comprehension behind at school, think again.
This will all be of interest to a certain kind of person though. If you like watching people dismantle tech – I’ve already watched someone take apart a brand new Switch 2 and if anything it was a bit upsetting – and you’re interested in how things work, there’s some very detailed information about how the tech has been developed, and how it’s changed since the Switch 1.
It definitely gives you a different view of the console you have in your hands, and while I could have lived without knowing that the HD rumble is attached to the rear of the Joy-Con for the best flowthrough to your palm and hand, now that I know, I appreciate the engineering that’s gone into it. Welcome Tour might be, if anything, a bit of a back slapping exercise by Nintendo, but, on early impressions they deserve at least a few congratulatory fist bumps.
Welcome Tour is a very constrained experience though. If holds you back from wildly running around, peering at the odd analogue stick here and marvelling at a steel button there. Instead, you have to fully explore each area and visit every possible feature point in order to advance to the next, sometimes struggling to find the last blasted hidden point of interest is, while the minigames and quizzes also feel like they’re holding you back, slowly showing their hand rather than having their wares on display. It’s not that it doesn’t hang together, it does, but it’s a very particular, controlled kind of fun.
Somewhat disappointingly, a handful of minigames are also locked away behind needing to own a given accessory, even if you can visit those areas. It’s entirely understandable that the camera minigame would need a camera, but it’s a bit daft to have a whole minigame devoted to back buttons that needs a Pro Controller or a Joy-Con 2 Charging Grip.
Undeniably, Welcome Tour is visually charming. The tiny people wandering around the giant console museum look great, and there’s plenty of incidental details, like the distant hedgerows beneath, lost children sat alone on the edge of a controller and the elevator structures linking different levels. That’s followed through with Nintendo’s trademark presentation: clean, concise, and suitable for all ages.