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NINTENDO'S OTHER LAUNCH TITLE FOR THE SWITCH 2 IS WELCOME TOUR, BUT IT'S HARD NOT TO FEEL LIKE IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN A FREEBIE IN THE BOX WITH THE CONSOLE–HERE'S WHY 15:00, 03
Jun 2025 One of the biggest question marks around the Switch 2 for a lot of prospective buyers has been around price, and understandably so. The console is hardly cheap , and games like
Mario Kart World are launching at £75. And, while there are backwards-compatible titles you can enjoy from your existing collection , that’s a tough sell. It’s against this financial
backdrop that I wonder what Nintendo has to gain by selling Welcome Tour, its new tech demo for the Switch 2’s features, at a price. It's certainly fun, and even educational at times,
but it feels like the company that arguably sold more Wii systems because of its pack-in title is missing the point here. WELCOME, WELCOME Let’s start with the positives, though. Welcome
Tour is fun, offering a museum-like experience themed around the console you’re playing it on. Article continues below Pick your avatar, and wander from Joy-Con to screen and beyond,
learning about various console functions like the speakers, microphone, game-card slot, and those all-important controllers. This is done through a series of tooltips and quizzes, and then
demonstrations show off things like HDR with interactive sections like triggering a fireworks display and switching between dynamic ranges to see how the colours shift. They’re genuinely
helpful, too, and judging the frame rate depending on what’s shown on screen could help a new generation learn about the nerdy, techy bits of the console. Some of the minigames are
fantastic, too, like playing Twister with your fingers to showcase how the Switch 2 registers up to ten touch inputs at once, and even adjusting the kickstand in tabletop mode to see how
well you know your angles. Checking these things out gives you badges, and collecting them opens up new parts of the ‘museum’, but from our limited time with the game, it feels like the
whole thing would be better served as a pack-in with the console. PUT IT IN THE BOX It’s not that Welcome Tour isn’t a fun diversion, but more that given the choice between it and Mario Kart
World, there really is no debate. As nifty as using all of the Switch 2’s functionality is, we’d much rather do so in a game, especially if you’re paying £7.99 for it–almost half the price
of a cracking Switch 1 indie game. It’s also the kind of thing that it feels like Nintendo would have put in the box in the past. To clarify, it’s not as groundbreaking as Wii Sports was
when it launched, but that game helped shift millions of consoles and cemented the Wii in your living room. The fact that the company would just include that with the console less than 20
years ago, while charging extra for Welcome Tour, is a tough one to get my head around, and that’s before looking at what the competition is doing. Sure, Microsoft doesn’t have a history of
pack-in titles, but PlayStation 5 includes Astro’s Playroom at no extra cost, and I’d much rather enjoy platforming adventures with the little robotic goofball than I would do anything in
Welcome Tour. FINAL THOUGHTS That’s not to say there’s nothing of merit included here, and I think Welcome Tour will be fun for parents of budding gamers. My six-year-old will have a blast
hearing how the Joy-Con vibration can make Mario sound effects, but it’s hard not to feel like this should be in the box. Article continues below _PREVIEWED ON NINTENDO SWITCH 2. PREVIEW
EVENT HELD BY THE PUBLISHER._