Over the last eight years, the Nintendo Switch has become one of the most successful and influential consoles of all time – so it’s incredibly exciting that the Nintendo Switch 2 is finally starting to magnetically snap into the hands of millions. Unfortunately, we did not receive a Switch 2 ahead of its worldwide launch on June 5, so we don’t have a review of Nintendo’s new hardware ready for you right out of the gate.

That said, we will be working as fast as we can to tell you all about it once it arrives, as well as all the games and accessories that accompany it. I’ll be the one reviewing the console itself, and the plan is to have a review in progress up sometime Friday with my initial impressions, then a final, scored review ideally by the end of the following week, once I’ve had time to take it to some rooftop parties and the like. And that’s in addition to coverage of all its biggest games.

If you are looking for some very early impressions right now, you can check out our hands-on preview from a couple months ago, as well as a final previews of both Mario Kart World and Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour from our very own Logan Plant this week (who will also be doing the full review of Mario Kart World). In the meantime, if you’re wondering why I’m going to be the one to review the full system, let me tell you a bit about myself. My name is Tom, and I’m the Executive Reviews Editor for games at IGN. I’ve been here for eight years next month and have reviewed quite a few Nintendo games in that time, including The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. I also served a stint as a regular on our Nintendo Voice Chat podcast. The keen-eyed among you may also notice that this isn’t the first time I’ve reviewed a Switch, either: I did both our 2018 updated review of the base Switch, taking a look at the system after a year of regular use, as well as our review of the pocket-sized Switch Lite in 2019. After all of that I’m extremely familiar with Nintendo’s original hybrid system, and while I truly love that console, I’m also very aware of its shortcomings, from performance woes to joystick drift. Because the Switch 2 feels like more of an iterative successor that doesn’t set out to flip the table on what Nintendo was already doing, I am going to be taking an eye toward those longstanding issues and how well they have been addressed (although, for something like drift, we likely won’t have a clear answer for many months to come). A History of Nintendo Hardware – 1977 to NowI am also extremely curious how its new flagship features are going to work outside of the controlled environment of a preview event – most of all, its mouse controls. If that option works as well as I hope, it could be a massive gamechanger in terms of what kinds of games can be comfortably played on a console. But if it is poorly implemented or uncomfortable to use for whatever reason, it’ll just be the latest in a long line of gimmick control schemes that we hope aren’t awkwardly forced into every first-party game (I’m looking at you, motion controls).Speaking of games, alongside the system review and reviews of the two all-new launch games, Welcome Tour and Mario Kart World, we’re also planning check-ins on major games that are getting Switch 2 revisions. That includes Cyberpunk 2077, Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom, and Civilization 7, as well as games with less flashy updates like Pokemon Scarlet and Violet.Needless to say, we’ll be covering this console launch from every possible angle, and we are excited to dive in alongside everyone else.