PixlBit

When the Nintendo Switch 2 released earlier this year, one of the launch games was the download only Welcome Tour.  It was set up like a museum, and you controlled a little person as they walked around a giant Switch 2 and its accessories.  You could play mini-games, try tech demos, and take quizzes on facts about the new console.  To me, it sounded like a lot of silly, quirky fun.  And I love games that have museums in them, whether it be Namco Museums or Animal Crossing.  There was only one problem.  They charged you for it.  It really should’ve come with the system, and that’s what it’s going to be known for from here on out.  I really wanted to boycott it and not buy it to support that kind of behavior.  But here’s the thing.  I only believe in boycotting if it doesn’t hurt yourself.  And the game still sounded interesting enough to me that I didn’t want to miss out on it.  Life is too short to miss out on what you think is fun.  So I got it.  It was only ten bucks anyway, and I can spend more money than that on fast food!  So I figured I’d take you all on a tour of the Welcome Tour!

Area A: Left Joy Con 2 Outside

The first place you visit is a giant left Joy Con 2 controller.  There’s an information desk and a lost and found and everything.  There are two games you can play here.  One is Dodge the Spiked Balls.  You use the mouse mode on the Joy Con 2 to move a UFO around to avoid falling spiked balls as you catch stars for points.  It’s really hard, especially when you must control two UFOs at once!  The other mini-game is Find the Strongest Rumble.  Here you use the mouse to move a cursor on a grid.  The controller will rumble harder as you get closer to a point, and you must try to pinpoint where it is the strongest.  And it’s really hard, too.  Finally there is one tech demo called Maraca Physics where you shake the Joy Cons like maracas.  You can choose to have a bunch of little balls or one big ball and you can feel the difference!

Area B: Nintendo Switch 2 Console Outside (Screen)

To unlock the next area in the sequence, you must get all the stamps in the previous area.  They’re not hard to find as they are around the main parts of the devices.  I only had trouble with one at the very end of the game.  Anyway, I hear these kinds of ‘stamp rallies’ are popular in Japan.  Anyway, the next area is on the main Switch console where you walk around the screen.  You can even skate and slip and slide on the smooth screen surface!  The first game here is Guess the Frame Rate.  I’m not one of those people who can pinpoint the exact frame rate of something.  I can sometimes tell if one frame rate is smoother than the other, but I can’t tell if it’s 30 or 60 or whatever FPS.  The next game is Touch Ten, and it’s really fun!  It’s like Twister, but you use your fingers instead of your hands and feet!  Two can play at the same time, too.  It shows off how many touch points you can have on the screen.  I’m surprised the makers of the Twister board game haven’t tried to make a Switch 2 game out of that!  Tech demos include HDR Fireworks, where you can toggle the brightness of the fireworks to show off the Switch 2 graphical capabilities.  Super Mario Bros. 4K is really cool.  You can play the first stage of SMB with today’s resolution, so the stage is really tiny!  I wish they let you play the whole game like that!  The last tech demo is Noise Reduction, where you can speak into the microphone and it shows how it can only record your voice and not any noise around it.

Area C: Right Joy Con 2 Outside

Next up is the top of the Right Joy Con 2.  The first mini-game is called Guess the Angle, and here you must use the Switch screen and stand to move it to the right angle.  Believe it or not, I aced this one.  I guess I’m good at telling angles.  The next mini-game is called Speed Maze, and here you use the mouse controls to move a ball through a maze without touching the walls.  Kind of reminds me of Irritating Stick.  It’s really hard, though.  The one tech demo is HD Rumble 2 Sound.  The vibrations of the Joy Con 2 can make sounds as well, so this lets you test it out.  The original Switch could do this as well.  I remember playing Kirby Star Allies and getting to a secret area where they played a lick of the Green Greens theme coming from the controller vibrations!  Pretty cool!

Area D: Right Joy Con 2 Inside

Now you can go inside the Right Joy Con 2 and see all the circuitry inside.  The mini-game here is Speed Golf.  You have to use the mouse controls like a putter to get the ball into the hole as quickly as possible.  I really don’t like the mouse controls, so I wish they gave you more time.  I think it would be fun if they did.  The tech demos are Dual HD Rumble 2, where you can attach the Joy Cons to the console and use it in handheld mode to simulate rolling around balls.  Super Resolution lets you slide a bar back and forth to view pictures in different resolutions.  I couldn’t tell much of a difference, but maybe my TV isn’t high tech enough.  Or my eyes aren’t high tech enough.

Area E: Joy Con 2 Strap

Yes you can even walk on a giant Joy Con 2 wrist strap!  Not a whole lot here, considering you’re walking on a piece of rope.  The mini game is Quick Click, where you use the mouse controls to hit targets.  Since the mouse controls kind of suck, this one ends up being really hard because the time limit is so strict.  The tech demo is HD Rumble 2 Saw where you simulate sawing different types and thicknesses of wood, and can feel the difference in the rumble.

Area F: Dock

The dock is the thing you put your Switch 2 into when you want to play it on the TV.  The mini game here is 4K Pixel Hunt.  You have to find a pixel on the screen.  I can’t do this mini game.  I think you may have to have a 4K TV for it to work.  And I don’t have one of those.  Heck, one of the TVs I still use is one I got in 2006 (my first flat screen TV), and the other one I use is one I won in a raffle at our work Christmas party a couple of years ago.  And I doubt they spent a whole lot of money on that prize!  And even if I did have a 4K TV, I doubt my eyesight would be good enough to spot tiny pixels.  The tech demos are Dual Mouse Water Scoop, where you use both controllers in mouse mode to simulate scooping up and playing with water with both hands.  The other one is Echo Generator, where you can record your voice and play it back.  You can even play it back with funny effects, like a high pitched parrot, lower pitched gorilla, or robot.  I especially like the gorilla because it sounds like you’re running out of batteries!

Area G: Camera

There are only two mini games on the camera.  The first is Feel the Shapes.  Use the mouse controls and feel the rumble to guess the right shapes.  It’s actually not as hard as I thought it would be.  The next game brings me to another problem I have with Welcome Tour.  The game is called Facial Impressions.  But you have to use the Switch camera to play it.  Which is sold separately.  So there’s a mini-game I can’t play.  I’m going to assume you use the camera and try and make your face match what’s on screen.  But I don’t really know for sure since I can’t play it.  Another reason why Welcome Tour should’ve been free.  And I’m not buying a Switch 2 camera.  I don’t think I’d use it and I certainly can’t afford it.  The Switch 2 was expensive enough!

Area H: Left Joy Con 2 Inside

We finally make our way inside the left Joy Con 2.  The mini-games here include Color the Shapes, where you use the mouse controls to color shapes, but you can’t go outside the lines.  Man I have trouble doing that in real life coloring books!  The other mini-game is Match the Rumble.  It’s like a memory match card game but instead of pictures, you must match the same rumbles.  It’s actually pretty fun and I was able to do well at it.  The tech demo is called VRR Slider and you can slide a bar to make a moving Switch 2 console change its frames per second of animation.

Area I: Grip

You know that piece of plastic you put your Joy Cons into when you want to hold them like a regular controller.  Yeah that’s what this is.  It works pretty well and I don’t feel like I need to get the Pro Controller because of it.  Which is fine since I can’t afford that either.  The Grip has three mini games but no tech demos.  The first mini game is Balloon Hunt, where you shoot down balloons like a first person shooter.  You use the mouse controls to aim, so it’s a good preview of what Metroid Prime 4 on the Switch 2 will be like.  I only hope the mouse controls on that game will be better.  LCD Pixel Hunt has you finding moving pixels.  So yeah, I can’t do that one.  Finally is Scrape Off, where you use the mouse controls like a scraper to scrape off stains.  It’s about as much fun as doing it in real life.

Area J: Pro Controller

Speaking of the Pro Controller, you can walk on that here, too.  And like the camera, this one has a mini-game I can’t play because you must use the Pro Controller and its extra buttons to play it.  It’s called Open the GL/GR Locks, but that’s all I can tell you.  The tech demo is HD Rumble 2 Maker.  You use the mouse controls to slide around on a graph to increase and decrease the strength of the rumble.

Area K: Joy Con 2 Wheel

Luckily even though the Wheel is an accessory you have to buy separately, you don’t have to have it here to play the games on it.  The mini game here is called Stunt Driving.  You use the mouse controls to steer a car around obstacles, and tilt it on its side to make the car drive on two wheels when you need to go on narrow passages.  It’s hard, but actually pretty fun and I’m surprised they haven’t made a full game out of that idea.  The tech demo is HD Rumble 2 Motorcycle.  You hold the Joy Cons like handlebars and can make motions to steer, rev up, and brake, and you can feel the rumble accordingly.

Area L: Nintendo Switch 2 Console Inside

The last area is the most complex, inside the screen area of the console with all the circuits and such like a maze.  I even had to use a guide to find the last stamp here because it was so out of the way in a place I didn’t think I could walk to.  The mini games here are Breaststroke, where you use both controllers in mouse mode to simulate swimming.  As long as you have a big enough area to make big sweeping motions, this one’s pretty easy.  In Slot in the Shapes, you use the mouse mode to pick up and drag shapes into the correct fitting holes.  But since the mouse controls kind of suck, this one’s hard.  The tech demo is 3D Sound.  This one works best if you have headphones or a good speaker system.  You guide a helicopter around so you can hear it from different angles.  I don’t have a good speaker system either so I don’t know how well this works.  Like I said earlier, all the areas have a bunch of quizzes you can take after reading facts on the console’s features.  Some complained about the quizzes but I didn’t mind them.  At the very bottom of the last area they have one final quiz with 13 questions you must get all right in a row.  And since I didn’t feel like remembering all that, and many of them were trick questions or worded poorly, I cheated and looked them up on a guide.  I guess by then I was a LITTLE bit tired of the quizzes! 

And those are all the areas!  Again, aside from the game not being free, the other problems I had are that you have to own a 4K TV, the camera, and Pro Controller to fully enjoy the whole thing.  And I do wish the mini-games weren’t so hard sometimes.  And with that, that concludes our tour of the Welcome Tour.  Let me know your thoughts in the comments section.  Later!  --Cary