Since it started experimenting with different control systems, Nintendo has provided a launch title to show off how they work. Tech demos but ones that provide a ton of fun at the same time. After Wii Sports and Nintendo Land, can 1 2 Switch repeat the successful formula on Switch?

One thing is certain, 1 2 Switch really should be bundled with the machine. I’m sure it will be at some point, but for now it’s an extra £35 purchase that is pretty much essential for showing off exactly how the benefits of the Switch hardware work without all the business of using words and long explanations.

It’s also probably Nintendo’s most basic game to date, you don’t even need to watch the screen to play it. The game provides a series of mini-games which involve using the Joy-cons and, occasionally, the console itself to compete against another person. It does this by providing a quick example with live actors in costume on screen before telling you to look your opponent in the eye for the main game, listening to audio prompts as you do, before turning back to the screen for the score and to find out who won. That’s as complicated as it gets, really.

Games include the tense gunfight, where you stare out your opponent, Joy-con at your side like a loaded pistol, until the game tells you to fire. Split seconds later one of you will have won and a graphic on screen shows you just how close the draw was. Milking is a far less serious effort where you are tasked with performing the actions of milking a cow, again staring at the person opposite you and wondering how on earth you got talked into this in the first place. Baby is one where you’ll need to use the console in tablet form, holding a baby and ensuring it stays asleep, a scary prospect that any new parent will attest to.

Each game lasts a few seconds, in the same spirit as games like Warioware or the Nintendo Land games and it’s quite a shallow affair overall, but it’s a fantastic way to show off what the Switch can do. It’s also a great party game that will have your audience in stitches, but is it worth the extra cost? Well, that depends on whether you really want the chance to pick up a ringing phone and yell “Hello” before the person sitting opposite you does the same.

Nintendo’s launch game may be shallow, even when compared to Wii Sports or Nintendo Land but it’s still an ideal starter game for the Switch, it just should have been bundled with the console from the start.