Game Information

Game Title: Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour

Platforms:

  • Nintendo Switch (Jun 5, 2025)

Trailers:

Publisher: Nintendo

Review Aggregator:

OpenCritic - 63 average - 25% recommended - 20 reviews

Critic Reviews

Checkpoint Gaming - Erielle Sudario - 6.5 / 10

Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is exactly what it claims to be: an interactive manual with a few bells and whistles. It’s the Wii Sports of the Switch 2 era, helping users understand the console, its features, and how it all fits together. While charging $15 for something that feels like it should’ve been bundled might be a turnoff, the level of detail and interactivity makes the price somewhat justifiable. It’s not a must-have, but if you want a fun way to explore your new console, it’s a decent way to spend a few hours. Just don’t rush through it; enjoy it for its charm.

Dexerto - Brad Norton - 3 / 5

Let’s not beat around the bush. Having Welcome Tour pre-installed on the Switch 2 at no additional cost would have been wonderful. There’s certainly no denying the discourse around it would be quite different, praised as a proper value-add.

While $10 is reasonable for the 6-8 hours of fun here, the additional hardware costs bog it down if you’re looking to get all of the medals.

At the current price, it’s nonetheless well-rounded and achieves its goal. Alongside being plenty of fun, Welcome Tour is a cool showcase. It’s worth diving in and sticking through to the final area to get a sense of what your new purchase is capable of, while also enjoying some fun mini-games along the way.

Digital Trends - Giovanni Colantonio - 3 / 5

Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour should have been a charming pack-in game.

Digitec Magazine - Domagoj Belancic - German - 3 / 5

I enjoyed my time with the “Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour”. For around eight hours, I played my way through various mini-games and tech demos and learned lots of exciting things about the Switch 2 and Nintendo’s past. It’s a shame that the game feels artificially stretched out with unspectacular mini-games, annoying collecting tasks and boring quizzes despite its short playing time. If you’re not interested in the technical intricacies of the console, deduct another star from the rating and give this paid tutorial a wide berth.

Eurogamer - Christian Donlan - 3 / 5

At times, Welcome Tour is Nintendo’s Fantasia.

Eurogamer.pt - Bruno Galvão - Portuguese - 3 / 5

All the charm and wit in this intriguing effort by Nintendo to show off all the features of its new console in a fun way doesn’t allow you to escape the feeling that Welcome Tour should be included with every console and not as a game sold separately.

Game Rant - Dalton Cooper - 3 / 10

Expectations for Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour were low, but somehow the premium tech demo still manages to fall below them.

Gameliner - Rudy Wijnberg - Dutch - 2.5 / 5

Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is essentially a paid interactive manual with a few tech demos and minigames that, while mildly informative, feels more like a missed opportunity—especially given its €10 price tag and limited appeal beyond hardware enthusiasts or those with nothing else to play.

Gfinity - Alister Kennedy - 4 / 10

It’s competent and functional, and some may even enjoy one or two of the minigames, but for what it is, Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is tough to recommend for any new Switch 2 owner expecting something more than a console tech demo with quizzes.

IGN - Tom Marks - 5 / 10

Even if Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour were the pack-in game it feels like it was meant to be, the execution of its charming concept is a muddled collection of quaint tech demos and boring factoids dressed up as an uncompelling completionist checklist.

MonsterVine - Austin Adamson - 4.5 / 5

I was completely surprised by how much I enjoyed every little detail and bit of Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour. The minimal approach to the art design of the characters and world only amplified the beauty of the 3D rendered hardware show. Glimpses into the inner workings of the hardware and the history of Nintendo products scratched a nerdy itch I didn’t realize I had. It’s a bit of a bummer that it wasn’t free, but I found myself unable to pull myself away from Welcome Tour after I started it, and have been thinking about it more than any other game available at launch. I hope Nintendo will add more content to this as new first party hardware is released, and while some of the mini games encourage using two people, adding a sleek way to pull up the catalog of mini games, tech demos and quizzes to offer a better experience to show friends and family would be a welcome addition.

Nintendo Life - Gavin Lane - 8 / 10

Welcome Tour is a calming, surprisingly engaging hardware exhibition with a handful of cool minigames, a trove of interesting info, and some neat demos that showcase exactly what the little system can do. It makes you feel good about buying the thing, which makes the platform holder’s decision not to bundle it with the console utterly baffling. Featuring expensive add-ons you might not own also won’t impress anyone who’s indignant that the company wants another 10 bucks for this.That aside, it’s an undeniably fine demonstration of Nintendo’s thoughtful design approach. It’s cute, it’s fun, and it’s a shame the whole pack-in argument overshadows the delightful software. Anyone interested in tech, design, or Nintendo in general should check it out immediately.

NintendoWorldReport - Jordan Rudek - 7 / 10

However, it does feel like it may have served as a very effective pack-in title, perhaps just outside the pantheon of those I mentioned earlier. I get it, though: in a world where many don’t have the patience for or interest in multi-page manuals, Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour fills a role. Ultimately, I come away with a better sense of the capabilities of my new Nintendo console, and that at the very least helps ease the pain of my poor wallet.

NookGaming - Thomas Knight - 7 / 10

Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour won’t be for everyone or even most people, but it is very good at what it sets out to do. It nicely shows off all the features of the new console, includes some entertaining gameplay, and is surprisingly informative about how the technology behind it all works. If nothing else, it gives a hint of how future games may use some of these new features.

ProjectN - Paulo Victor - Portuguese - 73%

Welcome Tour isn’t exactly a game in the traditional sense, but it’s also far from being just a disguised manual. It’s an interactive experience carefully designed to introduce the Nintendo Switch 2 in a creative—and often charming—way. Overall, the title does a good job of being both playful and informative. However, at times it lacks depth and challenge, which can make the journey feel brief and somewhat unremarkable. In the end, Welcome Tour is a lovely introduction to the console, but it might have worked better as a complimentary welcome gift rather than a paid title.

Rocket Chainsaw - Adam Ghiggino - 3 / 5

Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is a unique oddity that certainly teaches you everything you could possibly want to know about the Switch 2, but doesn’t always make it fun.

Shacknews - David Craddock - 7 / 10

Quote not yet available

Spaziogames - Italian - 6 / 10

On one side, Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is a good entry point for whoever wants to discover the console’s potential, but on the other side you have to pay for it as you would any other game, without nothing more to show for it.

TheSixthAxis - Dominic Leighton - 6 / 10

After a day of playing Mario Kart World and Fast Fusion, Welcome Tour was a light, engaging way to wind down from high speed thrills. While it could arguably be a free pack-in exhibit, the £8 asking price is low enough that you shouldn’t feel too hard done by for the curious. If you want a undemanding and easily digested introduction to the way the Switch 2 works, then look no further. If you want an actual game, buy one of the other launch titles.

ZdobywcyGier.eu - Paweł Bortkiewicz - Polish - 6 / 10

Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is a pleasant game to play for an hour or two, but the longer you play, the more boring it becomes. The longer you play, the more repetitive it becomes and you realize that there is no real idea behind the core gameplay. Not to mention that the game requires additional accessories to complete it 100%. One thing is certain. This should never have been a paid game.

  • Noit@lemm.eeEnglish
    5·
    1 day ago

    Absolutely baffling that this isn’t free. I watched RTGame play it on YouTube and can’t imagine how ripped off I’d feel if I paid cash money for it. I had 1 2 Switch with my switch at launch and was instantly bored by it, but at least it was actually a game.

    Bring back Wii Sports.

  • SavvyWolf@pawb.socialEnglish
    8·
    2 days ago

    I’ve watched two people online play the game and both pretty much slammed it. It should absolutely have been free with the console. Is $10 really disposable enough income to spend on what is essentially an ad for the console you’ve already bought and a handful of minigames? 7/10 is a wild score to give it, but I guess reviewers get these games for free anyway so price doesn’t matter.

    • coyotino [he/him]@beehaw.orgOPEnglish
      4·
      2 days ago

      Yeah it’s a bizarre choice. I’d bet the actual developers of the game were not the same people that made the choice to charge money for the game.

  • coyotino [he/him]@beehaw.orgOPEnglish
    6·
    2 days ago

    i recently discovered that OpenCritic has been acquired by Valnet, who also owns some of the trashier websites listed on OpenCritic, so I would really love to move back over to Metacritic since they seem to do a better job of filtering out low-quality critics. If anyone knows a way to create review threads like this using Metacritic, please let me know!

    • Poopfeast420@discuss.tchncs.de
      3·
      2 days ago

      You should do what you think is best, since you’re making these threads.

      I remember back when OpenCritic launched, the dev made a Reddit post to gauge interest. MetaCritic used some weird formula to weight specific outlets of their choosing higher, and apparently people didn’t like that. OpenCritic was supposed to “fix” that. I never really followed that stuff, so I don’t know if that’s still the case, if MetaCritic changed or whatever.

      I don’t care one way or another, and don’t really use these threads or even most of the reviews to decide if I buy a game or not. Looking them over, and maybe see some people freak out because of “too much water” is entertaining though.

      • coyotino [he/him]@beehaw.orgOPEnglish
        2·
        2 days ago

        Interesting. I guess I am curious if others find review threads useful? Generally I agree with you, I don’t care that much about most individual reviews. However, I find the aggregators useful as a way of taking the temperature on how critics feel about a new release. The threads also make a good place to focus discussion around specific games. However, most of these threads get zero comments unless the game is hotly anticipated.