Nintendo’s first console in eight years is here! And with it launches a gaming curiosity—the Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour.
This is kind of a tech demo with added mini games. You have to pay £8 for it, which has added to the firestorm of vitriol in the gaming community about the console (more on that in our Nintendo Switch 2 console review shortly).
In amongst all the outrage and effing and blinding from people who don’t own the console and haven’t even played it… Welcome Tour is actually very good indeed. In fact, it’s a total delight. Thus, have a gander at its intricacies.
The Surprising Joys of Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour
When this game was announced, we didn’t expect to buy it. Not least as Nintendo was charging for it, which triggered off online fury (see our Switch 2 review coming up at 5pm for details).
However, when Nintendo Life sang its praises we decided to fork out the soul-shattering total of £8 to Welcome Tour a whirl. And we’re bloody glad we did.
We do think it should’ve been a free launch title for gamers to experience, but can also understand why it isn’t. There’s a lot going on in this title, it’s packed with information, mini-games, and other gubbins.
It is a tech demo, though, where you take control of a human and go exploring on a giant Nintendo Switch 2. The goal is to:
- Find and identify bits of the console
- Discover how the console was made
- Complete little mini-games demonstrating what the console can do
- Bask in the educational gaming joys
Nintendo has tried to make this accessible as possible for all ages, so even if you’ve got kids they’ll have fun in Welcome Tour. Not least through some of the fun little mini-games dotted around the experience.
We must say, we were genuinely surprised by Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour. You have to go around and find out about the console, with Nintendo providing candid information about it.
This was all very intriguing for us, with gems of information about how the magnets work, what triggers the inbuilt controller vibrations, and how the mice function.
It genuinely was enjoyable finding out the details, with the mini-games letting you get to grips with your new system in an accessible and clever way.
Despite negativity from the gaming press (see below), this is genuinely good fun.
We think it’s been a big surprise for many gamers, as Welcome Tour topped the initial Switch 2 launch charts. Leading some to embrace the doom and gloom about the console’s launch with the notion people chose this over Mario Kart World.
With the cheap price tag, we think many people will have randomly given the game a go and then been pleasantly surprised by its intricacies. An unexpected surprise, then, and well worth your time if you fancy an accessible, detailed tech demo with those fun, fun mini-games.
The Intriguing Media Response to Welcome Tour
Reaction to the game has largely been negative. IGN gave Welcome Tour 5/10 and called it boring but charming. Metro gave it 1.5/5 and called it the “dullest Nintendo game ever made”, which just shows the reviewer wasn’t around in the 1980s.
British freelance journalist The Jimquisition gave it 1/10 in a ridiculous review that concluded:
“Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour might be the laziest piece of shit a publisher’s ever put out. I don’t give a fuck that using the L word is considered poor form. This appalling paid-for tutorial is inexcusably lazy on top of being just plain inexcusable to begin with.”
Our issue with that, asides from the tedious swearing that undermines his stance entirely as he can’t control himself, is calling the game “lazy”. When Nintendo has clearly put a lot of care and attention into the game.
The entirety of Jimquisition’s analysis is him being infuriated it costs £8. It’s poor form to write a review in that way based on an intemperate attitude problem and lack of restraint.
From all the negative reviews, the main complaint has been you have to pay for Welcome Tour. That’s why the scores are so low, which we don’t consider a legitimate reason to criticise its gameplay.
Nintendo focussed publications, such as Nintendo Life, have been much more positive. They gave it 8/10 and Nintendo World Report handed over 7/10. Now, many gamers will claim that’s due to Nintendo bias, but the former in particular doesn’t hold back if it thinks something is negative.
Various publications have been free from hyperbole during this time, such as Nintendo Life, The Guardian, Destructoid etc. Always welcome to see in a world of engagement bait online.
Being a self-important and superior publication, this is why we at Professional Moron provide Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour the following score:
701 billion out of 10
You may call us biased if you so wish, but that is simply as you cannot comprehend our vast superiority over your pathetic machinations.
Absolutely no clickbait here. Just good old-fashioned objective honesty based on pure journalistic standards minus any entitled petulance and immature bouts of profanity as rage bait (poopy pants).
Seriously, though, the game is good fun and all for £8. Not worth working yourself into an incandescent rage over, you either fancy picking it up (or not).
