Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour

Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is a collection of tech demos, mini games, and education that’s surprisingly not free and simultaneously worth the price of admission.

In case I didn’t make myself perfectly clear in the title and subheading of this review, let me do so now: Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour should have been a pack-in title. It would have been perfect. Much like Wii Sports, Welcome Tour’s minigames, while not as fun as boxing or tennis, do a more than serviceable job of gamifying its native console’s functionalities. Despite that, $10 (which it turns out is only the starting price) is a bit of an ask for what is essentially an interactive instruction manual.

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If you really want to know all about the Nintendo Switch 2 and its various features as a product, there's no better way than playing Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour. But if you're looking for a truly engaging experience, you're in the wrong place.

At reveal, Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour seemed like a charming way to learn about the tech of the Switch 2. A lovely journey through the hardware that would feature some fun tech demos and minigames to show you what your new system could do. And then, like many others, I was shocked to learn that it would not be installed on every Switch 2, but would instead be sold as a separate game. After spending a substantial amount of time with it, I understand why Nintendo is treating it as a premium...

Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is just decent, when you'd expect more for something designed to show a new system.

Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour’s overall experience will depend on how many accessories you’ve picked up at launch. If you don’t have a Nintendo Camera, or a compatible USB 1080p camera, you won’t be able to experience any of the camera-related content. Same goes for the new Switch 2 Pro Controller. And while this makes sense, since Welcome Tour is all about letting users actually experience and learn about these new devices. But for completionists, who might not have every required accessory, it might be an annoyance.

Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is ultimately a curio that won’t live long in the memory. As a literal tech demo for the various components that keep the Switch 2 ticking, learning things about the system can be fun, and the demos and minigame challenges presented each offer something unique. The experience only lasts a handful of hours, though, and you will need a 4K TV and accessories like the Switch 2 Camera in order to see the game through to completion, which is more than a little cheeky in a paid release.

The Nintendo Switch has been an integral part of this website since its inception. We’ve covered the system’s entire lifespan, from reviewing Super Bomberman R back in early 2017 to a deluge of titles to this very day. It’s been more than a thousand Switch game reviews, and we’re now ready for its successor, the Switch 2. More horsepower, more possibilities. But at the same time, there just isn’t a lot of exclusive content to tackle, at least for now. With the exception of Mario Kar...

With the release of any new video game console, there generally comes a means of testing out the hardware. The PlayStation 5, for example, came with Astro’s Playroom, while the Nintendo Wii had Wii Sports, which in itself turned into a huge phenomenon. You could even go all the way back to the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Game Boy, with games such as Mario Bros., Duck Hunt and Tetris.

Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is an interactive exhibit of sorts that offers an inside look at the features and tech that power your gaming experiences. Look, touch, and feel your way through the different exhibits. Switch version reviewed. Review copy provided by company for testing purposes.

Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is packed with practically everything you would ever need to know about the ins and outs of the Nintendo Switch 2. The tech demos are a fun novelty, but they don’t go beyond that — a novelty. The minigames aren’t great, and the quizzes get old quickly, leading to a repetitive experience that is hard to recommend to anyone outside of die-hard Nintendo fans or tech enthusiasts.