Almost a full calendar year after the report of its existence went live at Fanbyte, Nintendo has announced a sequel to the unusual mini-game party compilation 1-2 Switch, and it’s launching later this month.
Everybody 1-2 Switch will run you $29.99 when it’s released on June 20, and if you feel so moved, the game went up for pre-order on the eShop alongside its stealth announcement. According to the listing, the game can be played with either the Switch’s standard Joy-Con controllers (perhaps even those new pastel ones) or by using smart devices, which is new for the sequel.
For a game that’s mere weeks away as of its announcement, Everybody 1-2 Switch currently has very little media for any potential pre-orderer to get a sense of what to expect. The eShop listing is just vague enough that it’s unclear what minigames are actually in the thing. The synopsis says the mini-games “feature everything from balloons to aliens, and more” but there’s nothing actually described here. On top of this, there’s no actual footage or images of the game on the listing or Nintendo’s YouTube.
If all of this wasn’t enough of a red flag for you, according to the original Fanbyte report, Everybody 1-2 Switch was apparently bombed in internal testing. Since then, Nintendo has kept the game behind closed doors until it could sort through what to do with it. Now, it looks like the company decided to just drop it with zero fanfare and make whatever money they can off of it.
The original 1-2 Switch hasn’t really had any cultural staying power despite making use of concepts like “HD rumble.” The strange game was a launch title for the Switch in 2017, so a lot of people bought it alongside The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild merely because it was there. But it’s been six years and 125.62 million console sales later and players have more options. Godspeed, Everybody 1-2 Switch and anyone who decides to buy it sight unseen.