Should 'Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour' Be A Pack-In Game?

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Nintendo is no stranger to the concept of a launch day pack-in game. The Wii famously included Wii Sports, the DS came with an impressive demo of Metroid Prime Hunters, and even the Game Boy was bundled with Tetris in North America, forever changing the market. Which is why we’re all puzzled as to why Nintendo is charging for their new game, Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour.

When it was revealed during the Direct, it was sold as an experience aimed around helping you get to grips with the new mouse mode controls of the Switch 2, while simultaneously sharing secrets about the console and Nintendo itself. That sounds like definition of a pack-in title, right? A cool little package that teaches you about the console, just like a certain little PlayStation mascot.

We're sure many Nintendo fans would give a lot to peek behind Mario’s curtain for a glimpse of the in-between phase of their game development. Sure, Welcome Tour won’t show you how the next 3D Mario game is being developed (or will it?) but it plans to offer us a slew of minigames, or as Nintendo is actually calling them, “tech demos.” The latter was a phrase Nintendo wasn’t shy about tossing around during our demo.

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Welcome Tour lets you explore a world through the lens of a tiny human who’s exploring the nooks and crannies of a Switch 2 console. Much like a media event or an exhibition like PAX, you roam around the areas interacting with tiny NPC attendants who teach you and then quiz you on the tech within the Switch 2. We appreciated the depth these quizzes went into and could see how this element in particular could help game developers and even future generations learn about how to creatively use Nintendo’s hardware to develop their dream games.

You’ll also find little booths dotted all around the console featuring minigames run by digital demoists who are ready and eager to walk you through them. Many of them show off features of the Switch 2 and challenge you to identify and engage with them. One game asks you to identify the frame rate, showcasing the Switch's more powerful capabilities. Another focuses on the resolution, looking at the power and output of the system, for example. This combines Nintendo's typical philosophy of entertainment and play with the power of education.

During our time with the game, we got to try a bullet-hell inspired anti-shoot-em' up that tasks you with dodging spiked balls for as long as possible. This is played in mouse mode, and controlled quite well! It was quite fun trying to squeeze our way through any gap we could find as quickly as possible.

However, we were fully expecting the maracas tech demo to give us that “WOW” moment like Ball Game did in 1-2 Switch on the original Switch, but it was much less exciting than we hoped.

Take 2

I tried a few bite sized minigames with this, each one awarding you a medal depending on your performance. One had me using mouse mode to move a UFO to avoid a shower of spiky bombs, another involved moving the mouse along a dial and clicking where the HD rumble felt the strongest. More interestingly, a Pick the Correct Frame Rate game had you watching balls bouncing and other objects doing things at different refresh rates — it’s fitting to see Nintendo educating its users over the core hardware features, but also odd to see the devs drilling down on tech topics they’d typically avoid discussing. Having Nintendo well-actually-ing you on 60 vs. 120fps is an odd sensation, especially when you get it wrong.
Perhaps the most interesting game I played was World 1-1 from Super Mario Bros. rendered at its original resolution on a black 4K canvas. The tiny game screen widens as you move left, scrolling across the TV screen until you hit the flagpole -all before arriving at the right edge of the telly. A fun way to illustrate how far we’ve come.
This is very much a one-and-done gallery game, though. If the price is right, the novelty value will make it worth investigating. But the price should have been nothing given the cost of the hardware. - Gavin

Even with the educational elements, these activities don’t seem to offer up much substance beyond a high score system that rewards you with medals, but we could see ourselves easily falling in love with them. If anything, they reminded us of the fly swatting minigame found in the SNES's Mario Paint — fun, short, and easy to enjoy.



Images: Nintendo

Nintendo has been building and showing off tech demos for their consoles for years now, but it’s fsirñy unique that it’s letting the public get their hands on some of them with Welcome Tour. We’re itching to get our hands on the full package when it hits Switch 2 on launch day - we’re really hoping we find something just as exciting and enticing to get stuck in. Give us a new rock skipping tech demo like Wii Play Motion had, and we’re sold.

Part of us wishes we didn't have to pay for it, especially as it's a launch title. At least, at the time of writing, the game looks like it'll be under $10, but we hope there are some hidden secrets that will make picking this up a necessity for budding game developers.