What even counts as a video game? Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour has made me ponder this existential question numerous times during the five hours and change I've spent with it, and even at its most expansive definition, my mind still balks at lumping Nintendo's odd Nintendo Switch 2 experience in with, say, Breath of the Wild. Technically, factually, Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is a video game in that there are interactive elements digitally portrayed, but it's really mostly a fancy toy and not much more.
Much of the conversation about Welcome Tour even before release has been about whether it's worth the $10 it costs digitally or if Nintendo should have just packed the thing in with the Switch 2 console in the first place. When I first got my hands on the title at the initial Switch 2 reveal event back in April, I spent a surprising amount of time with it (in part because the demo stations were regularly open) and came away calling it "a baffling, fascinating toy that still makes no sense to me."
