Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour

What I'm trying to say is that if you have the slightest interest in all the technical aspects of how a modern video game console works, you should have this software among your priorities. The same is true if you're especially enthusiastic about everything related to Nintendo itself.

Welcome Tour is a calming, surprisingly engaging hardware exhibition with a handful of cool minigames, a trove of interesting info, and some neat demos that showcase exactly what the little system can do. It makes you feel good about buying the thing, which makes the platform holder's decision not to bundle it with the console utterly baffling. Featuring expensive add-ons you might not own also won't impress anyone who's indignant that the company wants another 10 bucks for this. That aside, it's an undeniably fine demonstration of Nintendo's thoughtful design approach. It's cute, it's fun, and it's a shame the whole pack-in argument overshadows the delightful software. Anyone interested in tech, design, or Nintendo in general should check it out immediately.

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. At the end of the day, it wasn’t included; but it IS fun and interesting. So, if you like the sound of it, give it a go! If not, leave it alone. Someone at Nintendo worked hard to put this together, and I, for one, am glad I was able to experience it.

A fun and clever way to explore all the tech and features of the Switch 2. It’s both entertaining and educational — but honestly, it’s a crime Nintendo’s charging for this. It should’ve been free for everyone.

It’s hard to talk about Welcome Tour without addressing Nintendo’s pricing strategy. As a companion title designed to showcase the Switch 2’s hardware through well-crafted and enjoyable mini-games, it shines. But it’s puzzling that Nintendo chose to sell it as a standalone release rather than include it as a preinstalled game on the console.

The Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is an entertaining and creative interactive tutorial that gives you all the ins and outs about the platform. Educational on the one hand, entertaining on the other thanks to the mini-games you can play. The explanations are clear and the presence of tech demos is also very interesting. That said, it really should have just been free, because it remains an interactive tutorial and it's annoying that you can't finish it 100% if you miss certain accessories. Other than that a fun title to get to know the platform better with it.

I am much more satisfied than I expected to be. You have to meet a few requirements to enjoy this VIP-ticketed exhibition, but if you fit the bill, you'll enjoy every bit of your tour of the show. Are you fascinated by applied technology, engineering curiosities and gaming hardware? Do you want to know why the Switch 2 mouse is unique, why the magnets inside the steering wheel rotate, or feel a new range of vibrations? Are you a fan of Nintendo designs, like me, who used to draw their controllers and logos as a kid? Are you up for any challenge? Then pay for the ticket with your eyes closed.

Despite its polarizing price, this interactive and educational tour offers a surprisingly thorough and entertaining way to explore the new console's hardware through detailed explanations, minigames, and technical demos, though some content may be inaccessible without specific accessories and the format can become tiring if rushed.

I enjoyed my time with Welcome Tour. Just be aware of what you’re getting if you decide to buy yourself a ticket to this, Nintendo’s other museum. It’s not a bad game, it’s just not entirely a game; that, coupled with the higher cost if you want to experience all the program has to offer, results in a product that won’t be for everyone.

Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour takes full advantage of the features and improvements of the new console, but the curious and particular didactic work of its proposal is hidden behind a payment barrier that goes against the intention of the game itself. You shouldn't have to pay to get to know your console.

Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour isn't something I'd recommend to everyone as their first purchase for the Switch 2 if what you're after is fun first. But if you are intrigued by what's going under the hood of your new console, then this is still a highly insightful and playful way of learning about it. And the price of admission is at least cheaper than a ticket to the Nintendo Museum.

My primary impression of Welcome Tour is that it’s more robust than I had initially expected, and it provides a comprehensive, hands-on experience with all of the upgrades offered by the Nintendo Switch 2. I’m eager to return to the game in small bursts to finish off more advanced versions of the mini-games I’ve unlocked, while also being a good student and “studying” for the numerous quizzes that help you learn about the new console and features. Just as the name implies, this tour lingers and doesn’t overstay its welcome. However, it does feel like it may have served as a very effective pack-in title, perhaps just outside the pantheon of those I mentioned earlier. I get it, though: in a world where many don’t have the patience for or interest in multi-page manuals, Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour fills a role. Ultimately, I come away with a better sense of the capabilities of my new Nintendo console, and that at the very least helps ease the pain of my poor wallet.

We used to read instruction manuals in the back of the car on the way home for fun — we didn’t buy them, they weren’t as complex as this — but we’ve already been sold on the Switch 2, so we don’t need convincing again. There are worse ways to spend the same money Nintendo is asking for this, but there are also better.

Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour has some good minigames and technical demonstrations, but it feels like Nintendo is patting themselves on the back far too much. The technology here is impressive and I loved learning about it, and it could serve to teach people not plugged into gaming or tech what all these things do, but the game runs out of steam too quickly and becomes a paid advertisement.

After a few hours in Welcome Tour's company, we can finally answer a very important question: is it a Nintendo game or not? The answer is yes, definitely, because of a whole set of parameters of history, biography, insanity, self-referentiality beyond all limits and a pinch of minimal genius, that '80s soap-and-water video game halo that has no purpose other than to challenge you to do better. The problem, though, is that Welcome Tour's depth, in its never wanting to scratch the surface, is shallow and consequently not very replayable. Part manifesto, part quiz book, part sticker album, snippets of quotes from the past, Welcome Tour is a video game, one of those educational softwares that entertain without ever going overboard.

There is some fun to be had with Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour, particularly for trivia enthusiasts and aspiring engineers. Unfortunately, the game can become quite a slog as it goes on, especially as its minigames are very hit or miss.

Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is exactly what it claims to be: an interactive manual with a few bells and whistles. It’s the Wii Sports of the Switch 2 era, helping users understand the console, its features, and how it all fits together. While charging $15 for something that feels like it should’ve been bundled might be a turnoff, the level of detail and interactivity makes the price somewhat justifiable. It’s not a must-have, but if you want a fun way to explore your new console, it’s a decent way to spend a few hours. Just don’t rush through it; enjoy it for its charm.

As it stands, it’s hard to recommend Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour as a paid title. With very niche information delivery, it’s a very interesting game, for some. But for everyone else, it’s a quirky oddity with few key draws to make its hardware breakdown feel essential.

The main funcionalities of the Nintendo Switch 2 are presented under the form of minigames and challenges, and thanks to their clean presentation, simple instructions and hands-on experience, Welcome Tour ticks all the right boxes when it comes to familiarizing the players with Nintendo's new system. As such, Welcome Tour would work much better as a free experience included in every console. If we add its short length, a short-term appeal and the lack of a narrative experience with a sense of progression, there's no obvious reason why Welcome Tour should not be free, it would be a very welcome offer with every Switch 2 console.

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

Welcome Tour breaks down the Switch 2 console and controllers to an impressive degree, sharing a wealth of behind-the-scenes insights into Nintendo's hardware development research. Its level of depth won't appeal to everyone, however, and while its tech demos and mini-games are fun enough they lack longevity, meaning once you've seen everything on offer here your $10 has pretty much run its course.

When you finish finding all the stamps in Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour, your reward is a greeting from the curator, and that's very much the approach Nintendo has taken here. Welcome Tour is an interactive virtual museum exhibit, all centered around showcasing Nintendo's latest piece of hardware. It carries the calm sensibility of a museum, which makes it feel very approachable and good-natured. And like any good museum, it's a decent way to spend an afternoon to marvel at the exhibits and learn a few things along the way. But I sense Nintendo's self-consciousness coming through in the decision to charge for it--the mindset that imagines if it's free, people will conclude that it's worthless. Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour certainly isn't worthless. It's a well-made, often informative, sometimes-frustrating introduction to the new hardware. It's just too bad Nintendo didn't model it after many great museums: with no fee, so the work inside could speak for itself.

Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour fulfils its intended function admirably, quite literally taking you on a tour across the Switch 2. It explains how each part was made in a way that is easy to understand and fairly engaging, and then lets you try it out for yourself with some minigames and tech demos that are fun (or at least sufficiently demonstrative) for a few minutes, and there is quite a substantial amount of content here. However, it lacks the replayability or thematic cohesion of past titles that demonstrated the capabilities of new hardware, such as Wii Sports or Nintendo Land. If you’re at all curious about the technical aspects of the Switch 2, this is more than worth the cost of admission, but otherwise, there is very little reason to take this tour.

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.

Compared to Astrobot, which was effectively a small game with great gaming value, Switch 2's Welcome Tour is a strange hybrid that constantly oscillates between fun, interesting and boring, without ever finding a stable position. Would it have been better if they had given it away? Definitely. Is the price an insurmountable obstacle compared to the value of the product? Not really, 10 euros is a more or less acceptable compromise for a product that is well-crafted in detail, at times fun, but very limited, with the small merit of bringing a pinch of innovation to this strange software launch of Switch 2.

Some creative and fun minigames presented as a visit to a science museum, counterbalanced by dull activities and a tedious progression blocker.

It all feels like after-school study when you just want to be entertained. All the hallmarks of a first-party Nintendo release – overflowing charm and impressive technical aptitude – are here. A lot of thoughtful work went into Welcome Tour to make me understand and acknowledge its $10 price tag, but it’s just not a tour I would recommend taking.

If you’re looking to get the most out of the Nintendo Switch 2 and want the kind of in-depth technical demonstrations that simply don’t exist on other consoles, Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is absolutely something you should play. But pay for? Probably not. I do recommend playing the game, but you’ll enjoy your time with it much more if you manage to have a friend share their Virtual Game Card with you instead of paying money for it yourself.

On one side, Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is a good entry point for whoever wants to discover the console's potential, but on the other side you have to pay for it as you would any other game, without nothing more to show for it.

All the charm and wit in this intriguing effort by Nintendo to show off all the features of its new console in a fun way doesn't allow you to escape the feeling that Welcome Tour should be included with every console and not as a game sold separately.

Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour should have been a charming pack-in game.

Part of me has always thought that Nintendo doesn't really care about technology. The company's made games that look like they're made of paper and felt, and when it dabbled in VR it did it with cardboard. So it feels a bit weird to see Nintendo banging on about HDR and, in the later moments of the stamp rally, diving inside the Switch 2 console itself and letting you walk over its battery and its heat channels and all that jazz. It feels like Nintendo spends a lot of time pretending that this isn't technology at all. It's just imagination and playfulness.

After a day of playing Mario Kart World and Fast Fusion, Welcome Tour was a light, engaging way to wind down from high speed thrills. While it could arguably be a free pack-in exhibit, the £8 asking price is low enough that you shouldn’t feel too hard done by for the curious. If you want a undemanding and easily digested introduction to the way the Switch 2 works, then look no further. If you want an actual game, buy one of the other launch titles.

All in all, the Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is a decent little game that you can finish in an afternoon. The tech demos are fun to try out, and the minigames are fairly amusing as well. However, when it comes to the quizzes and the hidden object sections, the game really misses the mark for me. I definitely wouldn’t spend money on it—especially since it's essentially just an interactive manual and tech demo. In that regard, Nintendo could learn a lot from Sony, which bundled a far better game disguised as a tech demo for free with the PlayStation 5.

Such a simple, visually blank and short game, which is essentially a tech demo dressed up in walking sim robes, should be free. Even the minigames showcasing the console's new capabilities prove insufficiently attractive to explain this cash heist.

While the minigames in Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour are the highlight of the experience and do offer some brief fun, the rest of this package too often feels like busywork to give it a strong recommendation. It’s certainly a relatively cheap entry point, and in a vacuum, there’s enough content here to be worth the cost. If you really need to be convinced of the Switch 2’s unique features, it may even be worth your time. In an age where there are hundreds of excellent games available on the system at this same price due to backwards compatibility, however, it becomes harder to recommend picking this one up for most players.

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.

Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour feels more like a paid manual than a real game. While it teaches you a thing or two, it simply doesn’t justify the €10 price tag. Only worth a look if you're a tech nerd or waiting for payday.

Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is set to go down as one of those "weird Nintendo things" people always refer to. As an interactive instruction manual, it ably showcases all of the new console's bells and whistles, however, it falls well short of delivering anything that comes close to that trademark Nintendo joy.

It’s not worth your money and, even if it were the free pack-in game it feels like it was always meant to be, it would only barely be worth your time.

Sure, it's a very cheap game - that can barely even be called a game - but that doesn't make it any more fun. If you know you don't like a slow pace, lots of text, little interactivity, and studying, you're better off choosing something else instead. But if you're one of those hardcore Nintendo fans who buys the console and all its accessories and is happy to pay to flex your skills, then this will be right up your street.

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.

Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is a crushing dissapointment given the pedigree of developer going into this. I am frankly baffled that a developer like Nintendo would think that any of this was a good idea. Slightly above average mini-games presented in a corporate wrapping that has all the appeal and flare of a wet school trip in the middle of November. I know this will seem hyperbolic, but this is probably the worst Nintendo game I have ever played.

Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is an interactive introduction to the new console’s features - the concept is fun and very Nintendo, but the execution feels dull at times, making the experience feel like doing chores.

It's mildly amusing to rattle Joy-Con like maracas, but a Nintendo table setter should strive to be better than 'mildly amusing'. And that's the strangest part here - Nintendo has not failed with Welcome Tour. It has succeeded in its ambitions. But if the Switch 2 is to match its predecessor, those ambitions had better grow, and quickly.

Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour works fine. It’s totally functional and educational. It just isn’t fun in the same way games like Nintendo Land and Astro’s Playroom are.

In short, Welcome Tour seems designed more to highlight USB ports and air intake vents than give us a game. The climax of our tour sees us trapped inside our new machine, running laps and poking into every corner, praying we'll find the last stamp to open the exit. At this point, one question about Switch 2 remains: Nintendo, how did it come to this? [Issue#413, p.123]

Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is more of a tutorial than a game. Instead of a fun introduction to the new console, it offers presentations, quizzes, and unnecessarily drawn-out content that feels like corporate e-learning. While the technical details are occasionally interesting and a few mini games briefly entertain, the whole experience fails in its most important role – to excite players about the new generation of Nintendo Switch. It should have been free. And it should have been shorter, snappier, and most of all, more fun.

A sleek but ultimately pointless release. Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour feels more like a paid interactive manual than a game—dull, uninspired, and lacking the fun we expect from Nintendo.

A bizarre attempt to celebrate the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2 in the most boringest way possible, with a limp collection of unentertaining minigames made even duller by suffocatingly clinical presentation.

Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is not an enjoyable experience in the least, but it does have a few redeeming qualities. The giant-sized versions of Switch 2 hardware looks cool, and there is more to do than expected. Someone that wants to get 100% will have to buy a couple of accessories and spend a decent chunk of time mastering the mini-games and taking all the quizzes. It's not exactly my idea of fun, but I suppose it's something to do while waiting for more exciting Switch 2 exclusives to land on the platform.

Whereas the Switch 1 had games like ARMS and 1-2 Switch to show off the new tech, NS2 Welcome Tour carries the burden of being somewhere in the middle-ground of those and a free tech demo. If it was a free pack-in, this would've felt like an entirely different experience. But alas, it is unfortunately its own thing, and it's a thing that I hope does not become commonplace.