The Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour seems like a gimmick at first. The “game” turns Switch 2 into a museum, with each feature offering a different exhibit. It offers an inside look at the features and tech that power the latest console.
By creating an entire sensory experience, all of the exhibits allow you to explore the system and better understand exactly what’s under the hood. It teaches the user about he magnetic connectors that keep the Joy-Con 2 controllers in place, the importance of graphic updates, and even the chips inside the console itself.
Get BWT in your inbox!
Get BWT in your inbox!
The best thing about the Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour isn’t just that it tells you how to take care of your Switch 2, but because it takes time to explain how it’s different from your last console. If anything, the attention it gives to not just explaining but pushign the player to engage with their console is unmatched.
This may be a terrible thing to say, but I really couldn’t tell the difference between the standard Switch and the OLED version. I also can’t really tell the difference between 4K televisions and those that aren’t. Except for that, the motion smoothing greatly deteriorates cinematography (but that’s another article).
However, the Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour met me on my terms and, through a series of mini-games, actually taught me about the differences between the screen, the visual quality, and how much different frame rates affect your play. While 30fps versus 120fps is a sizeable difference, between 60 and 120, my eye has a more difficult time catching it. Still, the Welcome Tour taught me.
The Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is all about educating the user, but it’s fun too.
With so much more technology in our lives, it’s increasingly difficult to understand it all. More often than not, people are buying a new console just to keep up with the Joneses and don’t care too much about an upgrade. Sure, we can act like the hardware changes are the reason we’re buying them, but truthfully, it’s FOMO. However, by making a tutorial system that engages your consumer and building that understanding, the Nintendo Switch 2 justifies itself.
Still, the Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour wouldn’t have worked if the mini-games weren’t so cleverly designed. To complete each area, you uncover podiums that detail parts of the console, play minigames to earn medals to unlock more mini-games, and then take quizzes on the console itself.
Finding podiums with information and the quizzes is very low effort. While they both do some work to tell you about the console, the real way to learn what the Nintendo Switch 2 is and has to offer comes from the mini-games. With some locked behind medal gates, it always encourages you to loop back and play more.
In truth, the Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour would fall behind the ASTRO’s Playroom (the free mini-game released to detail the PlayStation 5’s offerings on release) if it weren’t for how clever its mini-games are designed and how they build on each other. While ASTRO’s Playroom definitively defined the space for demos like this, the Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is a masterclass in defining expectations and taking a step forward in trusting that your audience wants to learn about their products at a deeper level.
The Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is a tactile experience that means something.
The Welcome Tour is one of my favorite experiences after almost a month with this new console. It taught me how to appreciate the Switch 2 and the mini-games, which scratch the right area of my brain that just wants to keep going until I get better.
Trying to earn the top medals for each of them also pushed me to understand the Switch 2 better, and my reflexes became intuitive. I don’t think I’ve ever understood the variance of haptic feedback, nor the clear differences in framerate and color intensity.
More importantly, it gives its player the ability to talk about the Switch 2 intelligently and ultimately understand the details it offers. An informed consumer may hold you more accountable, but they also do the work for you. When someone asks me what makes the Nintendo Switch 2 different, I can spell it out. I can mention the changes to haptic feedback and the spectrum of intensity.
The first haptic mini-game is just about stopping the line when you feel the height of the haptic feedback intensity. But where it really steps up is when you shake the Joy-Con 2 as if they were maracas, and you feel the sensation change from being small beads to rubber balls, highlighting the tech in a tactile way and a visual way, by displaying the change in feedback with visuals that work well.
Every piece of hardware should get a game like this, just not for a price.
On top of that, I can talk about the magnets that allow for smoother detaching of the Joy-Con 2, and ultimately, I can tell them that you can use the new controllers’ mouse function on fabric. The Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour also takes the time to display issues that players will run into, like attaching your Joy-Con 2 in the wrong position. Learning what to do is important, but at the same time, knowing the mistakes you can make is also an issue.
Still, I know my Nintendo Switch 2 like I’ve never known a console, at least not so soon. The Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is a masterclass in teaching a user. The only setback is that it’s something you shouldn’t have to pay for. At $10 USD, it’s hard to say that I’d tell someone to pay that price for what is essentially a tutorial. Still, more products need to gamify detailing their products and lean all the way in showing a consumer how and why their money is well spent.
One of the unintended consequences of the Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is that I now understand where other consoles aren’t meeting Switch 2 and where Switch 2 can improve. But a more educated consumer is what we need, but it’s also a reason to lock it behind a price tag for any capital-driven institution. But that knowledge is exactly why Nintendo loses out on converting more people into Switch 2 owners by not making the Welcome Tour standard.
Ultimately, though, the Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is something that every console, or to be honest, any piece of interactive hardware, should have. To fall in love with a console, you should know it; you have to know it. The Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is something we need more of, just without the price gate.
