1-2-Switch

IGN

Alanah Pearce·Mar 2, 2017

Critic68/100

Agreement—

A successful demonstration of unique hardware, but a shallow, gimmicky game.

GameSpot

Oscar Dayus·Mar 2, 2017

Critic60/100

Agreement—

1-2-Switch gets old very fast, but it's a great ride while the fun lasts.

Eurogamer

Simon Parkin·Mar 2, 2017

Critic75/100

Agreement—

In hopeful pitches delivered to panels of drab-suited, stern-mouthed men, game-makers will refer to their games as bein…

Game Informer

Jeff Marchiafava·Mar 2, 2017

Critic40/100

Agreement—

To call 1-2-Switch a collection of "mini-games" is so charitable it should be tax deductible; these rudimentary tech demos wouldn't cut it at a middle-school game jam.

Nintendo Life

Damien McFerran·Mar 2, 2017

Critic60/100

Agreement—

1-2-Switch does a great job of showing off the unique feature set of the Switch and its Joy-Con controllers, but it's seriously lacking in long-term appeal. When played with a group of friends or family members it's a proper hoot, and has the same social gaming appeal that made Wii Sports a living room tradition for so many households all over the world, but there's no escaping the fact that many of these mini-games lack longevity; some are so basic that they fail to maintain your interest past the first go, no matter how inebriated you and your pals happen to be.For a retail game, 1-2-Switch feels a little anemic, and would have been much better suited as a pack-in title. Nintendo has countered this stance by claiming that it couldn't bundle the game due to cost, but including a download code with each Switch sold wouldn't have incurred any real physical expense – beyond lost retail sales, of course - and that would have been a sensible trade-off when you consider how solid an advert this game is for the system. How many people were sold on the Wii's merits simply by witnessing Wii Sports at a friend's house? By refusing to bundle 1-2-Switch with the base system, Nintendo has missed out on the kind of exposure that marketing simply cannot buy you; as a stand-alone release it feels too fleeting and ephemeral, but as a free pack-in it would arguably have been much more appealing.