Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour (2025, Switch 2)

Developer: Nintendo EPD
Publisher: Nintendo
Clear Version: Switch 2
Clear Platform: Switch 2
Clear Date: 6/9/25

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Why should I care?
If you want a technical demonstration of the Switch 2’s awesome power, this mostly serves as that.

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Going ten dollars mode

I really love a little piece of introductory software for a new console. It’s a nice way to feel welcomed to the hardware world you’ll be staying in for the next several years, and if nothing else, it’s a little something to do with your new toy. Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is definitely that, and it offers a promising look at the console’s new and most-intriguing features.

As a quick aside, basically no one has been able to talk about this game without talking about the fact that it costs money. I understand why, but I’m not weighing in on that discourse. I obviously bought it, but I have little interest in talking anyone out of their principled stance that it should have been free or whatever. That’s fine; don’t buy it.

Anyway, the Welcome Tour casts you as a little museum attendee at a huge exploded-view Nintendo Switch 2. You walk around on top of the giant hardware and its accessories and learn about every inch of it. Littered about are minigames that demonstrate the abilities of the console as well as tons of informational signs that preach the design philosophy of the Switch 2.

I found these quite fascinating, if rather dry. The software seems to exist to finally give the hardware designers at Nintendo their flowers. Even the tiniest design detail — like the design of the feet of the Switch 2 dock or the slight size increase of the joycon buttons — is described in reverence of the care that was given to each decision. Maybe that sort of thing isn’t for everyone, but I really appreciated it.

While probably more broadly palatable, the minigames are not especially great. This is simply not a Wii Sports or even Nintendo Land we’re talking about here. These are bare-bones games designed solely to demonstrate the hardware’s features and not to have any lasting entertainment value. Despite their rather uninspired nature, they did at least excite me for the potential to use the Joy-Con 2 as a mouse. The games that used the mouse controls were nice and responsive, and the Joy-Con 2 felt pretty good to use in this way (although I could see a little plastic peripheral being released by a third party to give the controller a wider, more mouse-like shape). They should open the door for some more PC-oriented genres to do well on Nintendo’s machine.

Perhaps because of the “new toy” feeling described above, I 100% completed this piece of software. A “benefit” of a rather lean launch lineup, I suppose! Looking forward to Donkey Kong Bananza next month to hopefully properly put this thing through its paces.

Until then, I have plenty of backlog to keep me busy.