Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour review – the dullest Nintendo game ever made

Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour – who’s bright idea was this? (Nintendo)

Only two Nintendo-made titles were released for the Switch 2 launch and the one that’s not Mario Kart World is one of their strangest games ever.

Considering they’ve had more than eight years to prepare, the Nintendo Switch 2 software line-up feels surprisingly undercooked. Mario Kart World is great, albeit with some caveats, but Donkey Kong Bananza is the only other big name first party title to be announced so far and it’s not one of the two Nintendo published launch titles. Instead, that honour goes to Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour.

Nintendo describe Welcome Tour as an ‘interactive exhibit’ and that’s pretty accurate. You could also compare it to a coffee table book but in video game form; except they usually feature vivid imagery and interesting page design, whereas Welcome Tour is presented in the most boring and clinical way possible.

Welcome Tour has already been compared to Astro’s Playroom on the PlayStation 5, since both are short form releases available at launch, that are meant to introduce you to the new hardware features of their respective consoles. Except Astro’s Playroom is a vibrant, imaginative, and fun-filled diversion, whereas Welcome Tour tries to make the launch of a new console seem as exciting as doing your homework.

The obvious difference here is that Astro’s Playroom is a 3D platformer, whereas Welcome Tour isn’t really a game at all. We’ve seen some describe it as a minigame collection but it’s not really that either, as there’s not many games and they’re all designed primarily to illustrate a different element of the Switch 2’s design, rather than being created simply to be fun.

Welcome Tour isn’t interested in fun – the concept of fun never even seems to cross its mind – as you slowly plod from one exhibit to the next, wondering why you’re not playing Mario Kart World instead.

The conceit behind Welcome Tour is that you’re visiting an exhibition composed of giant-sized recreations of the Switch 2 and its various peripherals, big enough for you to walk on and in. Much of your time is taken up with reading ‘insights’, which are text descriptions of how the Switch 2 works, often going into a surprising amount of technical detail about everything from what VRR is to the type of metal alloy the Switch 2 stand is made of.

It is interesting, on some level, but the text is mostly very dry and your reward for reading a whole section is a multiple choice quiz, which you have to repeat if you get even one question wrong. There’re no voiceovers but the text is in British English and occasionally there is a hint of humour, such as when one assistant describes the insight they’re in charge of and says, ‘doesn’t that just sound FASCINATING?’ in block capitals. Whether that’s meant earnestly or sarcastically is impossible to tell, but we took it as the latter.

You don’t technically have to complete any of the quizzes to progress, as instead access to each of the 12 different areas is dependent on you finding all the stamps from the previous area. These stamps relate to different components of a device, like buttons on a controller or the ports on the console, but are hidden until you get very close to them. Often, it’s not at all clear where one will be and you have to slowly creep around every inch of the screen until one pops up, because the game refuses to give you any clue as to where they are.

Beyond that excitement, the other two categories of attraction are minigames and tech demos. These can be quite similar sometimes, but the latter generally require no skill and are simply illustrations of a particular feature, like 3D sound, HDR, or super resolution. They’re often quite impressive, even if the presentation remains as minimalist and low-tech as the rest of the game. Strangely none of the tech demos are concerned with the overall graphical power of the console, which Welcome Tour only vaguely hints at.

The majority of tech demos and minigames are focused on just two subjects: mouse controls and HD rumble 2. The immediate problem with this is that we can’t help thinking that HD rumble 2 is exactly the sort of thing that companies show off at the launch of their new console and then are barely ever heard of again. After all, how many Switch 1 titles can you name with unexpected or inventive use of HD rumble, after launch game 1-2-Switch?

Now watch HD rumble 2 never get mentioned again ( Nintendo)

There’re generally only one or two tech demos per area, but usually at least double that for minigames. Although calling them minigames doesn’t seem quite accurate, as they’re essentially just longer and more interactive tech demos, and still usually focused on demonstrating a particular function.

Some are overly technical, like the one where you have to guess the frame rate or spot dead pixels on the screen. Others are more gamified, like a mini-golf game that uses mouse controls and a first person shooter, where you earn up to three medals for how quickly you complete them. However, the time limits for these are peculiarly harsh and even we had trouble getting some of them.

Many of the medals are essentially impossible for a casual gamer and yet collecting medals is the only way to unlock more games or new variants of existing ones, which seems needlessly restrictive. This is especially true as a few, such as what is essentially Twister but with your fingers, can only really be completed with another person in co-op.

The isometric visuals are so dull and zoomed out (Nintendo)

The only minigame that even seems remotely suitable for turning into a full title involves filling in shapes with a marker pen, which is a neat demonstration of how the Joy-Con mouse works in conjunction with motion controls, as you twist the angle of your virtual pen.

Oh, and the camera one, where you have to pull the same face as the cartoon person on screen, is very impressive. Ignoring the fact that you need a camera for it to work, it manages to detect subtle facial movements incredibly well, even though we have ours set up in a very sub-optimal space, under the TV and quite a distance from the couch.

There are some positive things to say about Welcome Tour. We also like the occasional deep cut references to old Nintendo hardware in some of the insights, to the point where we would’ve been much more interested if this had been some sort of interactive encyclopaedia of Nintendo.

We don’t want to give them ideas for a sequel though, as this has been the most bafflingly unentertaining game we’ve ever played from Nintendo. A great deal of fuss has been made at the fact that Welcome Tour costs money, and isn’t free, but that’s not really the issue. It last six hours or more and from a certain point of view you do get your money’s worth.

The real problem is that even if it was free we still wouldn’t advise anyone play it. Not unless you like the idea of Nintendo deflating the excitement of your new console in the most antiseptic and characterless way possible. How on earth this became one of only two first party launch games for the Switch 2 we’ll never know, but now we’ve wasted our time with this review we’re going back to Mario Kart.

Formats: Nintendo Switch 2
Price: £7.99
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo EPD
Release Date: 5th June 2026
Age Rating: 3

Welcome to the future of gaming (Nintendo)

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