Mario Kart World is obviously the big Nintendo Switch 2 launch title that’s going to dominate headlines not long from now, but there are other, smaller experiences coming from Nintendo that will be available on the upcoming next-gen console day 1 as well. There is, for instance, Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour, a game-slash-tech demo-slash-experience that, as its name suggests, is meant to act as a tour for all things related to the Switch 2 and its hardware. Ahead of its release, then, here, we’re going to go over a few key details that you should know about Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour. WHAT IS IT? Let’s start with the basics- what exactly is Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour? It is, in a nutshell, a tech demo presented in the form of a guided tour that is meant to offer key details on the Nintendo Switch 2, its features, and its hardware. It will deliver that information through a mix of minigames, tech demos, and more. HOW IT IS STRUCTURED Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour will see players controlling a tiny avatar character that you will move around on a large recreation of the Nintendo Switch 2 console. You will be able to walk around on the Switch 2 tablet, its screen, its buttons, and what have you, and will even be able to go into the console’s interiors, learning more about it as you go. FEATURES AND TECH DETAILS As you would expect, Nintendo is using Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour as an opportunity to succinctly convey key information about the console’s tech and features to as many people as possible. That means those who want to familiarize themselves with the basics can learn more about the Switch 2 Joy-Cons’ magnetic connectors, how the mouse functionality works (more on that in a bit), and other tech details. EXHIBITS The entirety of Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour will be presented as one giant exhibit, with multiple smaller exhibits for players to walk around and explore. From roaming the different exhibit halls that resemble a giant Switch 2 to discovering and engaging with a variety of minigames, it seems like there will be a good bit of things to do. QUESTION MARKS AND SIGNS As you’re walking around the exhibits in Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour, you’ll spot question marks, dialogue prompts, and the like scattered everywhere. Interacting with these will uncover new information in a variety of ways. Let’s speak about some of those… MINIGAMES As you would expect, Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour will obviously feature several minigames that it will use to demonstrate some of its new features and capabilities. One tech demo, for instance, will turn your Joy-Cons into a virtual pair of maracas, asking you to shake them around and sense and play around with the beads inside to highlight the improved HD Rumble 2 feature. Another HD Rumble 2 minigame will task you with flipping a Joy-Con and using it as a mouse to find a single invisible point on the screen using only the vibrations you feel through the controller. MORE MINIGAMES There’s more minigames to speak of. For instance, there’s Speed Golf, which will have you use a Joy-Con as a mouse to, you guessed it, play golf. There’s also Dodge the Spike Balls, which is exactly what you think- you play as a tiny UFO in mouse mode and have to avoid a barrage of spike balls of different sizes, with the game serving as an advertisement of sorts of how precise and accurate the Switch 2’s mouse controls can supposedly be. Dodge the Spike Balls will also have a more difficult variant, where rather than simply dodging spike balls, you will also have to collect stars that will frequently appear amidst the barrage. Different minigames will also record high scores. QUIZES Scattered throughout the Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour exhibits, you’ll also find what are known as Insights Quizes, which will present you with sets of questions that you’ll pick answers out of provided options for to test your knowledge about the Switch 2, its tech, and its hardware. The HD Rumble 2 quiz, for instance, will ask you about the console’s controllers, how the feature works on the inside of the controllers, and more. TECH DEMOS As we’ve touched on, several tech demos will also be featured in Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour to show off the console’s capabilities and improvements over its predecessor. One tech demo that stands out, interestingly enough, is titled Super Mario Bros. 4K Demo, which has you play through the iconic level 1-1 from the original Super Mario Bros. The entire level is presented on a single screen, and more of it appears as you move and scroll forward. SECRETS Curiously, several times, Nintendo has said that Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour will also feature a number of hidden secrets and surprises tucked away, which likely means that players are going to be encouraged to poke around. Obviously, given the game’s very nature (if it can even be called a game, that is), you probably shouldn’t expect anything too elaborate or meaty, though it definitely does sound like there will be at least some digging to do for those who enjoy that sort of thing. MAP MENU At any time while moving around the exhibits, you’ll also be able to pull up a map menu that will let you conveniently scroll through all of your discovered activities on the side, and jump directly to them if you wish. Activities that you discover and engage with will automatically fill out your map, including the stamps that you’ve discovered, tech demos and minigames you have found, and more. FILE SIZE Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour isn’t going to be a particularly large or beefy game, and as you would expect, that is going to be reflected in its file size. As per its eShop listing, it will weight in at roughly 2 GB, which is pretty small even by Switch 2 standards- which, as we have seen from other games, is going to have larger file sizes than the Switch 1 (though still nowhere quite as large as what we see for most games on other platforms). PRICE Nintendo Switch 2 games are going to be pricier than they were on the Switch (and, in some cases, like with Mario Kart World, pricier than most games are on any other platform out there), but Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour will be much cheaper. The tech demo will be available for a price of $9.99. WHY IT ISN’T A FREE PACK-IN Many have argued that even a $10 price is unreasonable for Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour, given what it is and what it is offering, and arguably, the fact that we have had free pack-ins over the years like Wii Sports and Astro’s Playroom does kind of add more weight to that. Speaking to IGN about the game’s price and the decision to not include it as a pack-in with the Switch 2, Nintendo of America’s Bill Trinnen said, “For some people, I think there are people who are particularly interested in the tech and the specs of the system and things like that, for them I think it’s going to be a great product. It’s really for people that want more information about the system rather than necessarily a quick intro to everything it does. “And for that reason and just the amount of care and work that the team put into it, I think it was decided that, ‘Yeah, this feels like $9.99 is not an exorbitant price. It feels like a good value for what you’re getting out of the product.’ “ DIGITAL-ONLY When Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour launches, those who wish to partake will only be able to do so through digital purchases. Nintendo has confirmed that physical copies of the game will not be made available.