Nintendo Switch Hands-On: 10 Things We Learned 

One of the big games being presented on the show floor was 1-2-Switch, a collection of competitive minigames played with each person holding one of the detachable Joy-Con controllers. The experience was reminiscent of Wii Sports, playing to people’s natural competitiveness, and the motion controls in the Joy-Con made this easy to pick up and play.

Several of the game types were available to play, including Quick Draw, Milk, Copy Dance, Samurai Training, Safe Cracker and Ball Count. Quick Draw involves the two players holding a Joy-Con at their side, then quickly lifting and shooting their opponent when the game shouts “Draw!”, and will then show who was quicker and more accurate. Samurai Training is very reminiscent of the playground game of Slaps, as one will swing a samurai sword and the other is attempting to clap at the correct time to catch the sword mid-swing.

This is very psychological and great fun, as players can attempt to psych each other out by faking a swing or even distracting in other ways. Anything goes!

Milk and Copy Dance are for those without shame, as they involve milking a cow while staring intently at another person, and public dancing (which another person then attempts to copy) respectively. As with a lot of Nintendo games, you’ll end up with a stupid grin on your face afterwards, no matter how silly you felt playing it.

All of the minigames are great fun, but the impact would be much better if the game was bundled with the console, like its sporty predecessor. No matter how great they are for a party, a minigame package for the price of a full game is always going to be a tough sell. If Nintendo can pull a 180 and include it with every console, it will be causing hilarity in a lot of living rooms come Christmas.

If not, I’m not so sure.