Something Nintendo does better than anyone is providing software that properly showcases new hardware.

From Wii Sports to Nintendo Land and 1,2 Switch, each system has that software which helps you get to grips with their unorthodox innovations and give a flavour for what might be possible through the entire generation.

With Nintendo Switch 2, it’s Welcome Tour. A fairly robust package for a nominal fee that shows every inch of the new console, explains what everything does and even fills your head full of technical information, quzzing you on it afterwards.

Basically, if you wanted to go on Mastermind with Switch 2 as your chosen specialised subject or you’re down the pub quiz and happen to get a question about the HD Rumble 2, you’ll be glad you played Welcome Tour.

When I first stepped into this though, I couldn’t help but think I’d stumbled on some Nintendo exec’s wild and wacky interactive presentation. And the other execs liked it so much, they felt it shouldn’t stay behind closed doors and suggested it should go on the eShop. Don’t know if this is a true story, but for a company like Nintendo, you wouldn’t put it past anyone.

It is a far cry from the charm of Wii Sports and Nintendo Land, of course, those games were really special in the way they crafted an experience that felt like a vintage Nintendo experience but crafted it around glorified tech demos. This has some fun mini games in it, and some cool little experiences, but these games are quite limited and good for a few plays versus something you’ll dip into again and again.

Still, I’d say Welcome Tour is the best example of how effective the JoyCon 2 Mouse can and might well be this generation. Most games do center around it, between putting a golf ball into a hole to dodging spiky balls. Each game has a set number of medals for you to collect, often time or score based, and should you beat those, you can then unlock the second part with increased difficulty.

Welcome Tour definitely shows off just how sensitive, responsive and flexible the JoyCon 2 Mouse is. It actually really excited me for the possibilities – bringing more RTS games to Switch 2 and opening up a whole new genre, complimenting it with Touch Screen. But you can also feel how potent HD Rumble 2 can be, from subtle pulses to full on throbbing. It’s powerful and effective and really helps games come to life. Just in Mario Kart World alone, you can sense the difference.

And it’s also a showcase for other elements too. You may have already seen the tech demo for Super Mario Bros on a 4K TV where you’re essentially playing out the entire level from one side of your TV to the other in absolute minor detail, showing what’s possible on a large screen and at a high pixel resolution. It’s very impressive, if a little awkward to play.

Similarly, there’s another game where you have to try and find 5 to 10 stray pixels on the screen, highlighting them with your mouse pointer. It’s a game full of small moments like this, games that create mini memories, especially when shared with friends in the room, though they’re not ones you’re particularly likely to go back to.

Welcome Tour is basically one elaborate, interactive tutorial on Nintendo Switch 2, done in the most typical Nintendo way. You explore each component of Switch 2 in detail as a tiny person, running around on top of it ala Pikmin. For instance, you stand next to a button on the JoyCon and you’ll find a stamp for it that you add to your collection, with a brief explanation on what it does. And the aim is to find all stamps on each piece of equipment to move onto the next.

As you might expect, it’s all very meta too. From climbing down the top of a JoyCon going inside it with someone at the top of the ladder telling you not to go down there and try this at home. It’s a tongue in cheek shot at those people who are already taking their Switch 2 consoles apart and stripping them down to look at the insides to learn more about the technicalities.

You’ve even got Nintendo dev-splaining frame rates to people. Yes, really! There’s a game where you watch a ball bounce across the screen, side by side and have to say which is running at 40 FPS and which is at 60 FPS. Considering the gamer obsession with frame rate in 2025, this definitely felt on the nose.

But here’s Nintendo out here, showing off unique possibilities with 4K TVs, trying to introduce people to the concept of a mouse, all while making silly faces on their cameras in one package. Welcome Tour is definitely more straight-laced than other titles, but still keeps things charming with people chattering amongst themselves, bragging about their stamp collections and knowing more about Switch 2 than you.

You can skate across the Switch 2 screen only to fall on your ass and spend time actually learning about a wrist strap. Only Nintendo, folks…

But isn’t that just the point? By the end of Welcome Tour, you may just have learned something about your Switch 2 you didn’t already know, used functionality you may not have checked out yet, and potentially opened up your mind to the possibilities of what’s to come. We know Metroid Prime 4 uses a combination of Mouse and Analog control for instance, maybe you’ll feel more proficient playing that way than on your Pro Controller?

The quizzes are presented in a playful way, showing you everything in clearly explained ways and the 3D models for each part of the Switch are beautifully recreated in game, stunningly preserved and in 4K, which is in surprisingly low number for launch titles. But necessary for the mini games within.

Oh, and here’s a random one for you as well, this has one of the best uses of fast travel I’ve seen in a game in ages. Getting around on the map is so fast, so clean and takes you right where you need to be at all times, which is inherently satisfying.

I didn’t love everything about it, though. I actually found its placement of mini games to be a tad chaotic when it probably would have been better clustering mini games for each piece of equipment in the same area. Whereas I’m playing touchscreen one minute, then having to dock my console the next. It’s a small thing, but having to chop and change my configuration multiple times in one area got a bit annoying.

The difficulty of some games is also quite brutal, even on the early stages. Some games don’t have much of a build up to them and literally cast you in at the deep end, which might make it really difficult for some people to get all medals,, particularly with some of the precision required and even from an accessibility point of view, without help some people are never going to be able to see those pixels or feel the slight rumbles.

And then there’s the price tag. For me, the £7.99 part was never a huge issue, especially as there is some longevity here and quite a lot to digest, but it’s also a hard pill to swallow when the much more robust and replayable Wii Sports was a pack in for the Wii and I was still picking that up to play several years later. I doubt I’ll be feeling quite as enthused about Welcome Pack, sadly.

But what’s here is entertaining with some really cool and clever mini games. It’s not all perfectly presented and can be a bit messy, plus if you can get past the idea this should have been a free release, this game is worth the investment and likely the best use of JoyCon 2, at least for the time being. Worth a look!

Verdict

Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is a really interesting release with some clever mini games and cool ideas. It gives you a really thorough look at the console and provides opportunities to see exactly what it’s capable of. There is a chaotic presentation to some of the materials, some games don’t really click and the difficulties are a wild mix. Plus there’s that price tag discussion. But this game really has a lot going for it and does do a great job of giving enough variety to the Switch 2 launch lineup, offering some surprises along the way.

Pros

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Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is out now

Played on Nintendo Switch 2

Code Kindly Provided by Nintendo for review purposes