Many of us have seen the meme format that reads “If only I had a coin for every time [X happened], I would two coins. Which isn’t much, but it’s weird that it happened twice, isn’t it?”. It’s a term we could apply to a wide range of gameplay scenarios, but after playing Everybody 1-2-Switch!, the successor to 2017’s game 1 – 2-Switch, we couldn’t help but be reminded of that.
Basically, “if we had a coin for every time Nintendo followed up a series-defining Zelda title with a mediocre party game, we’d have two coins. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice.”
1-2-Switch was released as a launch title for the Switch back in 2017 alongside Breath of the Wild and a handful of other games that made up the console’s relatively small catalog at the time. One of them spawned one of the most anticipated sequels of all time, while the other was left as an ultimately forgettable blip on the Switch’s otherwise strong inaugural year (no prizes for guessing what’s what).
Six years later and after the release of that much-discussed sequel (Tears of the Kingdom, in case you were wondering), Nintendo dropped the surprise announcement that the company’s other “big” launch title would also be getting a sequel in the form of all 1-2-Switch! The first game was harmless fun, but pretty forgettable overall, so could the second take advantage of the six-year gap that followed to improve the formula in any significant way? Answer: unfortunately no.
Being slightly cheaper than its predecessor (remember, the 1-2-Switch launched at full retail price), Everybody 1-2-Switch! on the surface it is a more attractive purchase. True, there are fewer mini-games on offer this time around — 17 compared to the original’s 28 — but with a more respectable price of £24.99 / $29.99 and multiple variations of the 17 games at your disposal, this one certainly offers more. for your money.
The actual quality of what was said powder (by which we mean the mini-games themselves, of course) it’s pretty much the same as we saw in the first title, albeit with the added bonus of being able to connect and play using your phone. All in all, the mini-games are a mixed bag. Gone is the ‘tech demo’ appeal of the first title where we could look past the shortcomings of a particular game’s objectives as it showed us one of the Joy-Con’s cool features; now we know what the Switch is capable of, so the games need to be able to stand on their own two feet.
And, for the most part, they do. Mainly. Many of the games are nothing new, and anyone who has played more than one round of Mario Party (or even the first 1-2-Switch) will find very few surprises. ‘Balloons’ let you hold the Joy-Con horizontally and move it up and down to inflate the on-screen balloon to its maximum size before it pops; The ‘Relay Race’ is a typical affair of sprinting to victory as you mimic a sprint, passing the controller between teammates to run each leg; ‘Statues’ are attempts to get to your goal undetected, walking with your controller and freezing when the child on the screen looks at you. It’s fun for a round or two, but we can’t see ourselves ever going back for more.
Breakouts are when the game includes a WarioWare-esque quirk and encourages you to laugh at everyone playing the game instead of thinking about the competition. ‘Hip Bump’ sees you and a friend standing back-to-back, thrusting your buttocks in rapid succession to try and push your opponent’s avatar out of the ring; ‘UFO’ is all about repeating strange movements in unison to welcome extraterrestrial life to planet Earth. They’re stupid, yes, but at least they’re not that forgettable.
The main game mode is ‘Team Competition’ where you choose between 20, 40 or 60 minutes of fun and race to be the first team to collect three, five or seven wins. There are also ‘Quiz Party’ and ‘Bingo Party’ modes where teams play either a quiz or (you guessed it) bingo instead of the standard mini-games, but lacking any objective-based game mode like Wii Party Board Game Island or even 1 -2-Switch ‘Team Battle’, many games lack a sense of replayability.
Fortunately, the new mobile phone connectivity provides some different ways to play that don’t always feel like covering old ground. One of the unique features of Everybody 1-2-Switch! is that you don’t need to have the required number of Joy-Cons for everyone to play, with 12 mini-games offering the chance to use your phone as a controller (four of them only use mobile or smart devices).
Selecting ‘Smart Device Mode’ from the game’s home screen displays a QR code that you can scan to register your device as a controller. This opens up a range of mini-game possibilities to also make the most of the camera and touchscreen capabilities, creating something more like new party game in process. ‘Color Shoot’ lets you use your camera to match the “trending color” on screen, while ‘Ice Cream Parlor’ lets you make notes on your phone’s touchscreen and then relay orders back.
Many games give you the opportunity to use your phone or Joy-Con, both offer gesture control, which at least gives more people a chance to get involved – and, as any entertainment gaming pro will know, these gaming experiences live or die by having a willing group of players.
All 1-2-Switch! it can play up to 100 people in device mode (something we can only imagine being used at events and rarely by the average player) and after playing all the mini-games, we can see that this is a title that was designed with large groups of people in mind .
We tried the game with two, three and four players on separate occasions and the lack of people in the first two instances was immediately clear. Each of the games is a team game, and a lot of fun is lost in a 1 on 1, 1 on 2 or even 2 on 2 scenario. In ‘Relay’, there was no one to pass the baton to, and ‘Musical Chairs’, which deals with the last surviving man, ended is before it even started.
We can imagine that with a group of 10 or more willing friends many of these games would be more enjoyable, but without a single player mode and team objectives dominating most of the options, you’ll have to get minimum of the four players involved to make the most of the games offered. And we know that it is not always easy.
Conclusion
All 1-2-Switch! is a perfectly useful game for fun when you’re playing through one of the mini-games that offers something new, but those moments are few and far between. Other games are not at all bad, but they fail to stand out against the already crowded slate of Nintendo party titles. Combine this with a noticeable drop in quality when playing with fewer people, and we’re left thinking that this is a game that will only appear in very specific circumstances. It’s a perfectly harmless fun game, but it doesn’t come close to what Nintendo has accomplished in the genre in the past.
