Have you ever wondered exactly what makes your hardware tick? You're not alone, and the desire to understand what goes into a new console is something that developers have been catering to for the past several generations, often by including software that is designed specifically to take advantage of the system's unique features. Nintendo is no exception, and their past pack-in titles, such as Wii Sports and Nintendo Land, were fairly well received. In a highly controversial move they have stepped away from this approach with Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour, which is being sold separately on the eShop. Despite its relatively low cost, it begs the question: is this a tour worth the price of admission?
Welcome Tour begins with you selecting an appearance from a queue of faceless avatars, waiting to get into what would best be described as an extensive museum in the shape of a giant Nintendo Switch 2. You'll begin your tour at the left Joy-Con 2 and make your way across the console, exploring it inside and out, with various features being highlighted for your examination. Where something requires further explanation you'll find booths manned by helpful NPCs ready to bring up information panels, and despite its rather sterile aesthetic and faceless character models, the overall presentation of the package is quite appealing. That element of discovery as you crawl across the Switch 2 to uncover its features, both new and old, makes Welcome Tour a far more engaging experience than a simple instruction manual or list of menus.
The little booths that serve as your main point of contact for the tour element of the package are informative, concise, and extremely comprehensive: every aspect of the console is explained, and the game does an excellent job at breaking down its more technical aspects. Like the best museums in real life, the information is neither overly complex nor unnecessarily condescending, and anyone who picks it up will be able to engage with it on some level. If you have some existing knowledge, then Welcome Tour will inform you what approaches were taken with the Switch 2, and if you have no prior knowledge at all, it will teach you something new in a way that is easy to understand and doesn't get mired in specifics. It even goes so far as to inform you that the more technical aspects are "a little bit tricky" with a note in the corner, before proceeding to explain it with a handful of slides (rarely more than 10), complete with illustrations and a short summary of two or three sentences of the main points at the end. Once you've reviewed the information, you'll also have the opportunity to test your knowledge with a short quiz, although these do feel as though they were designed with a younger audience in mind.
Progression in Welcome Tour is tied to the Stamp Rally, which acts as a checklist to ensure that no feature is accidentally overlooked or missed. Small stamp booths will spring up out of nowhere when you approach a feature of note, and once you've found all of the stamps in an area, the next will open up. This can be a little frustrating at times, because although nothing is hidden away to the point that it's impossible to find, it does force you to comb the entire area to find them all before you can move on, and it's entirely disconnected from the rest of the experience. You'll usually just get a stamp to mark that you've seen something, with no additional flavour text or explanation provided. It also means that if you were interested in a particular part of the Switch 2, to get to it you will almost certainly need to go through some other parts of the tour, and it's disappointing that a more open approach wasn't adopted.
Included as part of Welcome Tour are a rather substantial number of minigames and tech demos, which take advantage of the Switch 2's various features. As you might expect, the tech demos are the less engaging of these two activities and are mainly there for educational purposes. You'll likely play them once for the medal that comes attached to them, and to see what they have to offer, and then quickly move on and forget about them.
The minigames are a different story, and although they lack the depth, charm, and characteristic flair of a Mario Party or WarioWare title, they can be quite challenging at times, and there is a good amount of variety between them. Completing minigames will also reward you with medals, which unlock additional levels that gradually become more complex. For example, one of the first that you'll encounter, Dodge the Spiked Balls, initially only requires that you avoid the falling spike balls using the right Joy-Con 2 as a mouse. Once you've successfully completed this, the second level will require that you also collect falling stars. The third level you won't unlock until quite some time later as it requires you to earn a total of 31 medals, encouraging you to return to previous areas at a later point. Fortunately, the ability to warp between areas has been included, making travel significantly less arduous than it otherwise would have been.
Unfortunately, for those who want to experience everything Welcome Tour has to offer, the cost is deceptively higher than just the price of the software itself. You'll also need a compatible USB-C camera, a controller with GL/GR buttons (either the Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller or Joy-Con 2 Charging Grip) and a TV capable of 4K output, which are tied to specific minigames and tech demos, and therefore some medals will be unattainable without them. Although this does allow for a more comprehensive picture of what the Switch 2 is capable of with the right accessories to support it, this is quite a high cost barrier that completionists will want to keep in mind, and it feels a little incongruous to include optional accessories that are not a part of the core package.
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.
6/10
A copy of Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour was provided by Nintendo UK for the purpose of this review
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