Nintendo fans now know who developed Switch 2 launch title Welcome Tour — the mini-game collection that also acts as an interactive instruction manual for the new console, which many have suggested should have been included for free.
While Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour doesn’t state it within the game itself, Mario Party studio Nintendo Cube, formerly NDCube, has now updated its website to confirm the game is its work.
Nintendo Cube is a Tokyo-based subsidiary of Nintendo founded in 2000 that frequently handles the company’s various mini-game collection projects. It developed the so-so Wii Party (not to be confused with the better Wii Play, which came with a packed-in Wii Remote), as well as the disappointing Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival on Wii U.
More recently, Nintendo Cube released the functional Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics for Switch 1, before the infamous Everybody 1-2 Switch — a party game sequel launched with little fanfare that earned Nintendo some of its worst review scores in recent memory. (“Everybody 1-2-Switch might be the first party game I’ve played where I ended up with fewer friends afterwards,” IGN wrote in its 4/10 appraisal.)
But it’s for Mario Party that Nintendo Cube is best known, having taken over as the hugely popular party game series’ main developer beginning with 2012’s Mario Party 9 onwards, and continuing with Mario Party 10, Mario Party Star Rush, Mario Party: The Top 100, Super Mario Party and Mario Party Superstars.
Nintendo Cube’s next launch is (deep breath) Super Mario Party Jamboree: Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Jamboree TV, a Switch 2 update for Super Mario Party Jamboree that makes use of the new console’s mouse controls and optional camera peripheral, due to arrive on July 24.
While a budget-priced release, criticism was levelled at Welcome Tour for the sheer number of its mouse-control games, and the need to have a camera peripheral, a Switch 2 Charging Grip or Pro Controller, and a 4K TV to see everything it had to offer, and complete the game with gold medals.
“Even if Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour were the pack-in game it feels like it was meant to be, the execution of its charming concept is a muddled collection of quaint tech demos and boring factoids dressed up as an uncompelling completionist checklist,” IGN wrote in our Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour review.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social