1-2 Switch was the game that had everyone cringing after its announcement at Nintendo’s January 13th event. This was especially due to the fact that the game looked to be lacking in substance and was a clear way of demonstrating the technology built into Joy-Cons.

The good news is that 1-2 Switch does in-fact have quite a bit of substance. There’s 28 mini games which all vary in depth and enjoyment. You’ll need to play through seven of them in order to unlock all 28 mini games and you’ll also get party mode and a shuffle mode to go along with them.

I found that playing through the first few mini games left a bitter taste in my mouth. I was honestly shocked that gamers could be paying $70 for something that didn’t feel like much more than a power point presentation.

When I got a few games deeper and involved my non-gamer significant other as well as my nephew, I realised that when not taken too seriously, 1-2 Switch was actually a lot of fun for at least a few hours.

Games such as Table Tennis which has you using audio cues to hit the ball back and forth, is at first silly, but once you get the hang of it it’s actually a lot of fun. Then you’ve got Milk, which has you squeezing a virtual utter which is both as hilarious and simple as it sounds.

There’s a bunch of other great mini games including Safe Crack, Wizard and Ball Counting which all really well utilise the Joy-Cons and all provide unique experiences that I’ve never had on other consoles. Yes, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is the best Nintendo Switch launch title, but it doesn’t utilise the technical brilliance of the Joy-Cons anywhere near as well as 1-2 Switch.

Unfortunately though, whilst it does make use of the advanced gyroscope, accelerometer and IR sensor, it does highlight some pretty big flaws that the Joy-Cons have too. For instance, a lot of the games are made to sound complex but literally just involve you waggling the Joy-Con frantically in order to have success.

Secondly, you’re made to constantly put on and take off the wrist strap, depending on which mini game you’re playing. Whilst it isn’t so bad to put on and take off for extended play periods, when you’re literally doing it multiple times every few minutes, it highlights just how painful they are to put on and take off. Unfortunately, just as I began getting into the collection of mini games, the fun was over due to the fact that there’s only 28 mini games and only a handful of them are fun to play (and only for a few times each at that). Once I’d gone through each of them twice, I felt like I’d mastered them and had no reason to return.

The draw of this game is definitely in the fact that anybody can pickup and play and I admire that. If I’m being honest, it did make me laugh more than any game in recent memory and for that it is to be commended. It’s got that cooky Warioware art style about it as well an opening scene for each mini game which are honestly just ridiculous.

You’ll spend most of your time in 1-2 Switch Battle which allows you to play with anywhere between 2-8 players (using two Joy-Con). This essentially places you into two teams fighting to get to one side of the game board before the other. When one team wins a mini-game, they’ll get to roll a dice to choose how far they advance. For the most part, it’s completely random as Nintendo’s party games have always been. I was able to win majority of the mini games and still lose, but that’s all part of the fun.

CONCLUSION

It’s hard to recommend 1-2 Switch at $70+. It’s a fun collection of mini games that for the most part do a really good job to show off the potential of Nintendo’s new Joy-Cons. However, you’re only likely to want to play each mini game once and they’re that damn cringe-worthy, that you’ll only want to pull this game out for a certain bunch of friends or family.

The Nintendo Switch version of this game was used for the purpose of this review.  You can read our review policy HERE.