Latest news with #WelcomeTour
Metro
8 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Metro
Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour review - the dullest Nintendo game ever made
Only two Nintendo-made titles were released for the Switch 2 launch and the one that's not Mario Kart World is one of their strangest games ever. Considering they've had more than eight years to prepare, the Nintendo Switch 2 software line-up feels surprisingly undercooked. Mario Kart World is great, albeit with some caveats, but Donkey Kong Bananza is the only other big name first party title to be announced so far and it's not one of the two Nintendo published launch titles. Instead, that honour goes to Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour. Nintendo describe Welcome Tour as an 'interactive exhibit' and that's pretty accurate. You could also compare it to a coffee table book but in video game form; except they usually feature vivid imagery and interesting page design, whereas Welcome Tour is presented in the most boring and clinical way possible. Welcome Tour has already been compared to Astro's Playroom on the PlayStation 5, since both are short form releases available at launch, that are meant to introduce you to the new hardware features of their respective consoles. Except Astro's Playroom is a vibrant, imaginative, and fun-filled diversion, whereas Welcome Tour tries to make the launch of a new console seem as exciting as doing your homework. The obvious difference here is that Astro's Playroom is a 3D platformer, whereas Welcome Tour isn't really a game at all. We've seen some describe it as a minigame collection but it's not really that either, as there's not many games and they're all designed primarily to illustrate a different element of the Switch 2's design, rather than being created simply to be fun. Welcome Tour isn't interested in fun – the concept of fun never even seems to cross its mind – as you slowly plod from one exhibit to the next, wondering why you're not playing Mario Kart World instead. The conceit behind Welcome Tour is that you're visiting an exhibition composed of giant-sized recreations of the Switch 2 and its various peripherals, big enough for you to walk on and in. Much of your time is taken up with reading 'insights', which are text descriptions of how the Switch 2 works, often going into a surprising amount of technical detail about everything from what VRR is to the type of metal alloy the Switch 2 stand is made of. Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. It is interesting, on some level, but the text is mostly very dry and your reward for reading a whole section is a multiple choice quiz, which you have to repeat if you get even one question wrong. There're no voiceovers but the text is in British English and occasionally there is a hint of humour, such as when one assistant describes the insight they're in charge of and says, 'doesn't that just sound FASCINATING?' in block capitals. Whether that's meant earnestly or sarcastically is impossible to tell, but we took it as the latter. You don't technically have to complete any of the quizzes to progress, as instead access to each of the 12 different areas is dependent on you finding all the stamps from the previous area. These stamps relate to different components of a device, like buttons on a controller or the ports on the console, but are hidden until you get very close to them. Often, it's not at all clear where one will be and you have to slowly creep around every inch of the screen until one pops up, because the game refuses to give you any clue as to where they are. Beyond that excitement, the other two categories of attraction are minigames and tech demos. These can be quite similar sometimes, but the latter generally require no skill and are simply illustrations of a particular feature, like 3D sound, HDR, or super resolution. They're often quite impressive, even if the presentation remains as minimalist and low-tech as the rest of the game. Strangely none of the tech demos are concerned with the overall graphical power of the console, which Welcome Tour only vaguely hints at. The majority of tech demos and minigames are focused on just two subjects: mouse controls and HD rumble 2. The immediate problem with this is that we can't help thinking that HD rumble 2 is exactly the sort of thing that companies show off at the launch of their new console and then are barely ever heard of again. After all, how many Switch 1 titles can you name with unexpected or inventive use of HD rumble, after launch game 1-2-Switch? There're generally only one or two tech demos per area, but usually at least double that for minigames. Although calling them minigames doesn't seem quite accurate, as they're essentially just longer and more interactive tech demos, and still usually focused on demonstrating a particular function. Some are overly technical, like the one where you have to guess the frame rate or spot dead pixels on the screen. Others are more gamified, like a mini-golf game that uses mouse controls and a first person shooter, where you earn up to three medals for how quickly you complete them. However, the time limits for these are peculiarly harsh and even we had trouble getting some of them. Many of the medals are essentially impossible for a casual gamer and yet collecting medals is the only way to unlock more games or new variants of existing ones, which seems needlessly restrictive. This is especially true as a few, such as what is essentially Twister but with your fingers, can only really be completed with another person in co-op. The only minigame that even seems remotely suitable for turning into a full title involves filling in shapes with a marker pen, which is a neat demonstration of how the Joy-Con mouse works in conjunction with motion controls, as you twist the angle of your virtual pen. Oh, and the camera one, where you have to pull the same face as the cartoon person on screen, is very impressive. Ignoring the fact that you need a camera for it to work, it manages to detect subtle facial movements incredibly well, even though we have ours set up in a very sub-optimal space, under the TV and quite a distance from the couch. More Trending There are some positive things to say about Welcome Tour. We also like the occasional deep cut references to old Nintendo hardware in some of the insights, to the point where we would've been much more interested if this had been some sort of interactive encyclopaedia of Nintendo. We don't want to give them ideas for a sequel though, as this has been the most bafflingly unentertaining game we've ever played from Nintendo. A great deal of fuss has been made at the fact that Welcome Tour costs money, and isn't free, but that's not really the issue. It last six hours or more and from a certain point of view you do get your money's worth. The real problem is that even if it was free we still wouldn't advise anyone play it. Not unless you like the idea of Nintendo deflating the excitement of your new console in the most antiseptic and characterless way possible. How on earth this became one of only two first party launch games for the Switch 2 we'll never know, but now we've wasted our time with this review we're going back to Mario Kart. In Short: A bizarre attempt to celebrate the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2 in the most boringest way possible, with a limp collection of unentertaining minigames made even duller by suffocatingly clinical presentation. Pros: The insight information and tech demos are genuinely interesting at times and some of the revelations about how the console is made are a real testament to Nintendo's ingenuity. Cons: None of the minigames are fun and the insights are presented in the most undynamic way possible. Minimalist presentation is very unappealing, and the gating of areas and attractions can be very frustrating. Score: 3/10 Formats: Nintendo Switch 2Price: £7.99Publisher: NintendoDeveloper: Nintendo EPDRelease Date: 5th June 2026 Age Rating: 3 Email gamecentral@ leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader's Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. MORE: Silksong release date teased for Christmas by Xbox but it could be sooner MORE: Games Inbox: Does Mario Kart World have the best Nintendo soundtrack? MORE: Persona 4 remake, Keeper, High On Life 2 and the best of Xbox Games Showcase
Engadget
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Engadget
Truly completing Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour will cost you
Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is a $10 museum-like experience dedicated to playfully explaining features of the Nintendo Switch 2, and technically, it costs a lot more than $10 to truly finish. As Eurogamer writes and multiple Nintendo webpages note, you can't actually finish the game without using all of the Switch 2's many accessories. All 12 of the different areas in Welcome Tour are accessible whether you're plugging in a camera or not, but to play and beat every minigame, "additional accessories [are] required," according to Nintendo. Those accessories include a USB camera, a controller with GL and GR buttons (the kind in the Switch 2 Pro Controller's grips) and a 4K-compatible TV. If you wanted to go the official route and use Nintendo accessories, that means paying $55 for the Nintendo Switch 2 Camera and $85 for the Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller, assuming you already own a 4K TV. No one needs to 100-percent complete Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour, of course, but it is funny that price was one of the biggest complaints about the Switch 2's answer to Wii Sports , and now to totally complete it you might have to pay even more. The patient among us (who didn't pre-order) can wait and see if the hidden secrets of Welcome Tour are truly worth spending the extra cash on accessories. For the rest, you might be better off spending your time unlocking characters in Mario Kart World .
Metro
5 days ago
- Business
- Metro
We've got a Nintendo Switch 2 console - here's when to expect our review
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Nintendo Switch 2 consoles are just now arriving with press but it's going to be a long time before there are any full reviews. The Nintendo Switch 2 is out on Thursday, June 5 but as you'll have noticed, nowhere on the internet has any reviews of either the games or the console itself. We have new hands-on previews of Mario Kart World and Welcome Tour but those are based on preview events from a couple of weeks ago. Nevertheless, we now finally have an actual Switch 2 console of our own, so we'll be able to work on some actual reviews. The console turned up this afternoon, as you can see below, along with the official camera, the new pro controller, and a physical copy of Mario Kart World. That's all that was in the parcel that arrived, but Nintendo has promised to send download codes for Welcome Tour and the Nintendo Switch 2 Editions of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild and Tears Of The Kingdom on Thursday. There's no point asking why it's being done like this, because it's Nintendo, but they've clearly told third party publishers to follow the same pattern, as we're not getting those download codes until later today or Thursday. As far as we know this is the same situation for all outlets, so that's going to have a big impact on when reviews start to appear. The wider problem here is that it's not-E3 week. To what degree Nintendo was aware of that before they picked the launch date it's hard to say, but they themselves have not yet announced a Nintendo Direct, even though they've always previously had one in early or mid-June. They are an official partner of Summer Game Fest on Friday though, so they can't pretend they didn't know about that. But it's not just Summer Game Fest. Tonight there's Sony's new State of Play, IO Interactive has an event at 2am on Saturday revealing their new James Bond game, and then there's the Xbox Games Showcase on Sunday evening. Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. And that's just the big ones, there's also Day of the Devs and Devolver Digital on Friday, Future Games Show Summer Showcase on Saturday, PC Gaming Show on Sunday, and literally many more. All the smaller events must surely know they'll get little to no coverage, especially this week, but that's the situation. We'll do everything we can to give equal coverage to everything (we hear on the grapevine that there are some major announcements coming for Summer Game Fest and the State of Play) and that is going to further impact our Switch 2 coverage. One of us will do an all-nighter tonight, to try and get a review in progress ready for Mario Kart World on Thursday, but it's going to be next week until there's a scored review for anything, or any kind of formal review of the console itself. More Trending As we said on Tuesday, we don't think Nintendo is purposefully trying to hide anything with all this. Instead, it seems to be an unfortunate mix of bad timing and Nintendo's usual overcautiousness, in this regarding day one patches (which we assume relate to online play, when it comes to Mario Kart). That said, there certainly are some puzzling aspects to Mario Kart World, in regard to the lack of integration between the open world and the rest of the game, that perhaps Nintendo were keen not to have discussed until the last moment. Ultimately, this all comes down to the publishers' longstanding inability to use a calendar sensibly (never mind release dates, why was the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct the same day Trump's tariffs were announced?) or to accept that they are not the only company in the games industry. Although we've rarely seen those deficiencies cause such turmoil as this before. On Thursday, ordinary people will be receiving their Nintendo Switch 2 pre-orders and the internet will be awash with first impressions and, no doubt, false information. Just be cautious and recognise that no one at the moment has spent any significant amount of time with the Switch 2 and so it's far too early to draw a definitive conclusion about it or its games. Email gamecentral@ leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader's Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. MORE: TwitchCon 2025: European streamers time to shine MORE: Mario Kart World doesn't have 200cc but it is easier to dodge blue shells now MORE: New God Of War game is 'smaller scale' 2D Metroidvania claim insiders
Metro
6 days ago
- Business
- Metro
Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour hands-on preview
Welcome Tour is the only first party launch game for the Nintendo Switch 2, other than Mario Kart World, but what exactly is it and how does it work? There's an unspoken rule with video game previews, that you never say anything too negative, unless it's obvious the game is irredeemably awful and there's little to no chance of it ever being anything else. Which leaves us in a bit of a quandary as to what to say about Welcome Tour, which we would call one of the worst games Nintendo has ever made… if it actually was a game. Nintendo themselves describe it as an 'interactive exhibit', that explains the features and technology behind the Switch 2 and how it works. That's fine in theory – if you want to spend all day reading little text boxes about how the console's magnet connectors work – but the problem with Welcome Tour is that Nintendo expects you to pay for it. It is cheap but if this was free it'd be something you put on out of idle curiosity and turn off five minutes later, out of boredom and frustration. The fact that it partially fulfils the same role as the wonderful Astro's Playroom on PlayStation 5, which actually is free, makes things even worse. Astro's Playroom went out of its way to show off the full capabilities of the PlayStation 5 in terms of graphics, fast loading, and the new DualSense controller. It looked amazing, it was packed with fun references to classic PlayStation games and hardware, and it was filled with charm and character – and amazing songs. By comparison, Welcome Tour is bland, clinical, and purposefully unexciting. Why it's that way we can't begin to fathom but we can only assume it's because Nintendo know the content is so staid that it would've been disingenuous to have Mario jumping around, trying to make it seem more engaging. Instead, you control a tiny little stick figure, looking down from a great height on an isometric world that is presented like a giant Switch 2 console, that other stick figures are walking over and exploring. It's separated out into several sections and you can only progress from one to the other once you've found all the little info descriptions for the hardware functions in the current area. This involves slowly exploring every little corner, like a bad graphic adventure game from the 90s, until you stumble upon an interactive spot that informs you that you're standing next to a button or a speaker or whatever is nearby. This in itself is so staggeringly dull and frustrating – given how easy it is to miss a spot – it almost feels like a joke, but it's not. At least not intentionally. More Trending Although the info points are technically the most important in-game objects there're more detailed text descriptions that usually have a multiple choice quiz associated with them, as well as a (surprisingly small) number of mini-games and tech demos. We already played a couple at the preview event in April and predictably the ones later in the game don't get any better. The one demonstrating the difference between different frame rates is still the only one that's close to interesting (even though its most useful function is to illustrate how little difference 120fps makes visually) with the highlight of our latest preview being a version of a wire loop game that's used to show how the mouse controls work. As with Mario Kart World, we won't be able to give Welcome Tour a scored review until next week, but there's no point doing a review in progress as it's very clear to us that the game, or whatever you want to call it, is not worth the attention. It's nothing to get angry about, given how inconsequential it is, but it's so perversely uninteresting we're absolutely baffled as to why it exists, no matter whether it's free or not. Formats: Nintendo Switch 2Price: £7.99Publisher: NintendoDeveloper: NintendoRelease Date: 5th June 2025 Age Rating: 3 Email gamecentral@ leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter, and sign-up to our newsletter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader's Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. MORE: Mario Kart World hands-on preview – the Nintendo Switch 2's best game MORE: Why there'll be no Nintendo Switch 2 console review this week MORE: Nintendo Switch 2 available on launch day morning at this UK store
Metro
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
5 reasons why I'm not buying a Nintendo Switch 2 this year - Reader's Feature
A reader is convinced it's best to wait before getting a Switch 2 and lays out five reasons why he's going to hold back until at least next year. Nintendo's new console is going to be out in just a few short weeks and I am excited about it, but it's been pretty obvious to me for a while that there is no point in buying it at launch. I do like Nintendo games, and have been very happy with my current Switch, but there's no getting away from the fact that the Switch 2 is very expensive and that makes me, and I'm sure lots of other people, very wary. I've come up with five good reasons why I don't think buying it at launch is a good idea, despite all the talk of it being a big seller, and while some of them apply to most new consoles I do think there are particular concerns that are specific to the Switch 2. 1. There's obviously going to be an OLED Model and probably quite soon. Nintendo always releases multiple versions of all their consoles, especially handhelds, and I'm sure it won't be long till the Switch 2 Lite turns up. An OLED version is even more likely though because they had to downgrade the base model back to a LCD screen. There's no way they're going to stick with just that for long, and we even got a sort of confirmation for that with Samsung's recent rumours. 2. There's only one exclusive. If you discount Welcome Tour, which I'm certain almost everyone will except Nintendo (discount… get it?) there's only really one properly appealing Switch 2 exclusive this year and that's Mario Kart World. There's also Metroid Prime 4 but that's only a remaster and is really a Switch 1 game. I'm sorry, but that's just not enough for me and it's a much worse start than the Switch 1 had. Instead of Splatoon 2 and Super Mario Odyssey later in the year we're getting… Hyrule Warriors 3 and Kirby Air Riders 3. 3. They have not proven their third party credentials. This is related to the previous point but it's something a bit different, in that while I'll take it for granted that Nintendo will make lots of great games for the console, I have no such faith when it comes to third party publishers. Very few third party games have been shown so far, with Microsoft and Ubisoft not announcing anything. Plus, the only big third party game – The Duskbloods by FromSoftware – is an exclusive Nintendo had to pay for. I want to see proof that third parties are going to support the Switch 2 all the time, without needing to be bribed to do it. 4. I'm worried about technical problems. I was quite upset to find out that the new Joy-Cons do not have Hall Effect sticks, as I thought that had been confirmed earlier. The fact that it hasn't means that they could still have joystick drift and even if they didn't there's a whole world of other technical problems they could suffer from, that will only be discovered by early adopters. I'm still not convinced about those magnet connections, especially as there was nothing wrong with the old method, and would prefer to wait and see if it's an issue. More Trending 5. There're no new game ideas. If I had one complaint about the Switch 2 it'd be that it didn't use its success to introduce much in the way of new IP. There was ARMS early on but that was about it, and it was pretty minor anyway. The Switch 2 shows no sign of being any better, as the only new franchise they've shown is the basketball game whose name I can't remember but which looks like a bad indie game. I really needed to see something better than that before I hand over my money and I until I do I'll hold my fire on getting the Switch 2. By reader Himbo The reader's features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro. You can submit your own 500 to 600-word reader feature at any time, which if used will be published in the next appropriate weekend slot. Just contact us at gamecentral@ or use our Submit Stuff page and you won't need to send an email. MORE: Nintendo Switch 2 is going to be a third party port machine – Reader's Feature MORE: PS6 is Sony's chance to wipe the slate clean and forget the PS5 ever happened - Reader's Feature MORE: The truth is digital video game downloads are better than physical games - Reader's Feature
