10 things I learned from playing Switch 2 for a day last week

A 10-minute drive across Mario Kart's map, some virtual food, a great Switch 2 tour, a round of unexpected golf... plus some clips of the best moments I had with Nintendo's new system.

Mario Kart World. All images and videos in this post captured by Game File from a Nintendo Switch 2.

On a drizzly Wednesday in a secret location in New York City last week, I played Nintendo’s about-to-be-launched Switch 2. I played Mario Kart World for a few hours. I played the surprisingly good Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour game. And I briefly played an old-school Zelda via the Switch 2’s new online GameChat feature.

This is not a review of any of that. I don’t actually have the system and its games, nor have I spent enough time to give any an Official Game File Verdict.

But this is the closest I can get, via one full day of access to the system that launches on Thursday.

Here’s what I found:

1. The Switch 2’s controversial $10 game is really good…

My assessment of Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is based on playing through the game’s “Area E” out of a set of zones that extend at least to “Area I.”

Welcome Tour is a strange game that plays very well, once you find the gameplay parts of it.

It is presented as a virtual tour of the new system, and initially just seems like a glorified instruction manual. That understanding has led many reasonable people to wonder why it’s not free.

In the game, you walk a person across giant versions of the Switch 2 and its accessories. Sometimes, you also go inside those giant controllers, which is pretty cool. Along the way, you can interact with computer-controlled tourists who comment about the Switch 2. You can click on various buttons and chips to learn facts about them. You take quizzes. And… didn’t I say this game is good?

(Watch the above video on YouTube.)

I liked Welcome Tour so much that I stopped my Mario Kart World session early to go back to it.

Why?

Because Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour contains pure, distilled gameplay and vintage Nintendo weirdness.

The weirdness first: There are all these quirky demos of the system’s features.

Shake the Joy-Con controllers as if they’re maracas to feel the rumble?

• Sure.

Listen to the controllers’ rumble change frequencies so that they replicate the sounds of a Super Mario Bros. coin or a 1-up?

• How??

Put the system in tabletop mode and then try to angle the stand so that the Switch 2 is leaning exactly 30 degrees, exactly 45 degrees, etc… and have the system use its tilt sensor to calculate how close you were?

• Yes, indeed. This is what I crave from the publisher of WarioWare Twisted, Wii Sports and Star Fox Guard.

As for the pure, distilled gameplay in Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour…