Latest news with #WelcomeTour
Metro
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
Games Inbox: Is Nintendo the best video game company ever?
The Friday letters page looks forward to the Silent Hill 1 remake, as a reader gets a tip for how to play 3-lap races in Mario Kart World. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@ Outlier reviews Enjoyed the look at the worst reviewed Nintendo games. I was curious to see what they were, as I couldn't really think of any Nintendo games that are thought to be truly bad. Even with Welcome Tour most of the complaints seem to be that it's not free (why would you care if it's free or not, if it's so bad?). The other ones in your list are a couple of low rent Pokémon spin-offs, which you could argue technically aren't even Nintendo games; a download-only DS game and a downloadable 3DS game, and a Wii game that was meant to be on the GameCube. I'm sure they are bad but the only ones that seem to be genuinely awful games, that it's a mystery why Nintendo made them, is Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival and Everybody 1-2-Switch. Interesting that one of those is very recent though and funny that Kirby: Air Ride almost made the list. Overall, I think this actually makes Nintendo look really good. Their only bad games are super obscure ones that most people have never heard of and their overall batting average is fantastic. I really don't think there's anyone else as reliable, that puts out anywhere near as many games as them, and weirdly this list of the worst ones only cements to me the fact that Nintendo is the best video game company of them all. Onibee Random tip I'm loving the Switch 2, especially older games with better frame rate, but I have one game that wouldn't load, which was GRID Autosport. I found online that if you put the Switch in airplane mode the game loads fine, then you can Switch airplane mode off, so if anyone has problems this might be a workaround. 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. I'm loving Mario Kart World as well, even the open world, as I'm finding it a nice change of pace. Some have said they don't like that there isn't a three-lap mode like previous Mario Karts, the problem I've had when these modes have come up is that with 24 players it's just too manic, the whole race feels like chance. I feel that if they do add this mode it might be good to just have 12 players to make it feel more skillful, even my daughter hates the lap modes. The other modes with wider tracks allows for you to use more strategy. Rob GC: There's a sort or workaround where if you choose Random in an online race, and it gets picked, it will always be a 3-lap race. Successful launch Very impressed with the Switch 2 so far. Getting to grips with Mario Kart World has been a heck of a lot of fun – I can see the gripes about the open world, and the wider, more freeform courses vs. the more controlled, tighter levels of Mario Kart 8 but… I'm having a blast. I genuinely can't see a way back from the Knockout Tour style now, it's so good and makes so much sense as an evolution. I can't wait to see what they add over the course of its life. I've also been playing Fast Fusion and again had great fun with it. I've dabbled with Zelda after the upgrades and it's silky smooth, can't wait to get stuck back into them both at some point. More than happy with the price of the upgrade, for what were already games well worth the price as they launched. Lastly, Cyberpunk 2077 – wow, I didn't expect it to stand up as well as it does. I own it on Xbox Series X and can't believe the fidelity on Switch 2. Yes, I get some of the caveats, but they've done a fantastic job; it's a leap beyond what was achieved with The Witcher 3 previously. Excellent start so far. Pugmartin Email your comments to: gamecentral@ Altered plan Clearly the games industry has problems to work out, but my gaming problem is too many games to play and deciding with ones to prioritise. Especially as I have subs to Game Pass and PS Plus Premium at the moment. Game Pass has added Doom: The Dark Ages, Clair Oscur: Expedition 33, Metaphor: ReFantazio, and Oblivion Remastered in the last month or so alone. Then there's games that weren't on my radar but have reviewed well and sound very interesting to me, like The Alters, which is also on Game Pass today. I'm going to bump The Alters up to the top of the list as it sounds a bit different and I do love my sci-fi. Simundo Double dolphin RE: Tolly on the Mario Kart World difficulty; I'm a long term (SNES onwards) but average skilled player, and I actually thought it was easier – so much so I actually finished getting three stars on all cc cups in Grand Prix mode… which really is making me pine for 200cc already! Problem is that it's hard to really give any advice as it's so RNG based, but if you struggle with a certain track, try having a bad start/no boost and slowly creep up on those in front. Dolphin on dolphin bike ended up being my winning combination as well, as closing speed seems way too OP (even managed to jump boost over some people at places like Wario Stadium at the end for 1st!). Oh well, at least I have knockout! All the best – and at least if you're finding it hard, in a way you are getting more value out of it than me (if you persevere!). Johngene NIN In my restless dreams, I see that town Silent Hill is being remade. It feels oddly dreamlike to be even writing those words. In 1999, the first instalment was released and followed the original heroic father character, before there was Ethan Winters. There was Harry Mason and the search for his adopted daughter, Cheryl Mason. A gloomy atmosphere followed. A questionable, devoted, and insidious cult with grand machinations and a drug addicted nurse, tasked with the hospitalisation of Alessa Gillespie, by the name of Lisa. Just a few nuances that made the first title what it is today. I never actually played the first game, since I never owned the original PlayStation; its successor was my first console. So to say I'm pleased to see a remake, from Bloober Team and Konami, is quite the understatement. With this announcement, and the reintroduction of Claudia, it makes it more of a possibility that the third title will eventually be remade, since it's a direct sequel and it follows Harry's daughter, Heather Mason. It also essentially continues the narrative, whilst concluding the original tale. So, it's not a question or a sense of hesitation for me. I will be buying the remake of the first game and it's Japanese sister title, Silent Hill f. Count me in for Resident Evil Requiem and Chronos: The New Dawn. It's a fantastic time to be a horror fanatic. Shahzaib Sadiq Klarna call Was looking at Klarna to see if I'd received a refund for something I noticed you can buy discounted gift cards on the app. I think you could buy a couple to make up the price of a Nintendo Switch 2 or PlayStation 5 or whatever and save 15% at Currys. Always happy to save a bit of cash when I can. Mark Matthews Third party numbers Nice Switch 2 coverage, it hasn't convinced me to jump on board (if Nintendo think Splatoon Raiders and Hyrule Warriors will get them through Christmas they're crazy) but given the state of the industry at the moment opening up another front for software sales is desperately needed. I'm intrigued to know how the first wave of games are selling. Obviously, everyone will be getting Mario Kart World but I do hope upgraders are also putting cash down on the likes of Hitman and Yakuza 0 and not just playing Zelda again. If we end up in the same situation on the Switch 2 as we did on the original Switch, where third parties just don't sell, it'll be bad news for everyone. Anyway, it's interesting that some games work better out of the box, including some games that needed stabilisation, like Bayonetta 3. A big update for No Man's Sky has just been announced and I hope we'll see patches for the likes of The Witcher 3, Doom 2016/Eternal, Batman's Arkham tTrilogy, and even more niche games like XCOM 2 and Divinity: Original Sin 2. Bumps in resolution and stable frame rates would give these 'impossible ports' a second life much more than Nintendo's own titles, that already ran fine on the old machine. How likely this is given the software sales I'm not sure… Astral Chain will sadly surely rot given the churn at PlatinumGames and I'm guessing you could count the number of people who want better performance options for, say, GRID Autosport or Bioshock Infinite with one hand? Marc GC: Well, there's one other person that has mentioned GRID Autosport already today! The attach rate for Mario Kart World is supposedly 95%, so you're looking at over 3 million sales already. It's not clear we'll get any consistent figures for third party sales though. Inbox also-rans Everything about MindsEye feels more like some sort of improvisational comedy skit than a game launch. If the guy making it was the brains behind GTA I'm shocked that things turned out the way they did. Zeiss It'd be very interesting if The Witcher 3 did get more paid-for DLC after all this time. I can't think of any other game that went quiet for that long and then suddenly started to get new updates again. But it makes sense with the sequel coming up. Focus More Trending Email your comments to: gamecentral@ The small print New Inbox updates appear every weekday morning, with special Hot Topic Inboxes at the weekend. Readers' letters are used on merit and may be edited for length and content. You can also submit your own 500 to 600-word Reader's Feature at any time via email or our Submit Stuff page, which if used will be shown in the next available weekend slot. You can also leave your comments below and don't forget to follow us on Twitter. MORE: Games Inbox: Is Mario Kart World too hard? MORE: Games Inbox: When will Mario Kart World DLC be released? MORE: Games Inbox: When will the Nintendo Switch 2 Lite be released?
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Nintendo's unsung Switch 2 launch game isn't Mario Kart – everyone should download it
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Perhaps I should never have been in doubt – it's Nintendo, after all. Like so many others, when it was announced that the charming Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour would not be an included extra when you buy the console, but instead an £8.99/$9.99 extra, I was dismayed. With Mario Kart World coming in as Nintendo's new most expensive launch game ever, it feels sad to know that what looks for all the world like a bundled title is in fact a premium download. Even worse, though, is that after playing it for a few hours, I think it's basically a must-buy for new Switch 2 owners who like their tech. The game drops you into a museum-style exhibition covering all the changed details and upgrades that have come to the Switch 2 compared to its predecessor, and lets you explore section by section. You run around finding stamps to unlock new areas, but you can also take part in tech demos that underscore the improvements made to the console, and mini-games that help you see how new features can actually work. These games award you medals for completing certain objectives, and more medals unlock further stages in the games. If, like me, you were convinced that mouse mode was nonsense, for example, you'll find multiple little games that do a perfect job of showing how fun it could be in the hands of a good developer. Similarly, the tech demos have some jaw-dropping stuff to demonstrate, including vibration engines so precise that they can actually make noises (like the iconic Mario coin sound). This all adds up to a fun structure that only gates harder games behind medals – you can explore the whole massive floor plan just by finding all the stamps needed to move on. Also dotted throughout the museum are trivia desks. These pop up bits of information about specific features – like a set of boards that tell you exactly how the new dock is different from the old one, and why. You can then take a quick quiz to prove you remember the key details. It's like Switch 2 school, and is probably the part where the game feels most like the advertisement it basically is. However, it's also the part I've been enjoying most, weirdly. These information boards go into way more detail than I expected, often about tiny engineering decisions and why they were made. Take that dock – it now has four non-slip feet to stop it slipping around. However, because no slip whatsoever would make it more liable to tip over, one of those feet is actually slightly different, to encourage a little slipping. This tolerance makes it mostly non-slip, but also tip-resistant. That level of detail is replicated all through the game, and I'm finding it genuinely fascinating to learn about – and I can easily imagine it being a great tool to encourage younger gamers to learn about how these devices actually work. If Welcome Tour had been packaged with the Switch 2, I think it would currently be getting garlands – and being placed in the hall of fame of pack-ins, along with Wii Sports and Astro's Playroom from the PS5 launch. Instead, it's in a weird limbo as a paid game that isn't really a "game" per se. Still, I've had my Switch 2 for about 24 hours and I've played more of Welcome Tour than Mario Kart World, which has to tell you something. I think that every Switch 2 owners who finds a spare tenner should pick it up – if only to discover that mouse mode isn't a gimmick.
Metro
09-06-2025
- 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
05-06-2025
- 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
04-06-2025
- 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
