You don’t have to spend thousands on a new system for a better gaming experience; sometimes all it takes is a few well-chosen accessories. HyperX is one of the companies we at Engadget often turn to when we need to make recommendations, and today you can save on a selection of headsets, keyboards and even a gaming-focused mic from the HP-owned brand.

Our own Jess Conditt really liked the QuadCast S enough to put it in last year’s game streaming guide, and right now you can save 25 percent at Amazon, a $40 discount. This colorful mic works with your PC (both Windows and macOS), PS4 and PS5. It’ll look great on your next livestream, but it will also sound great thanks to features like four selectable polar patterns — stereo, omnidirectional, cardioid and bidirectional. That means you can really tweak what audio you want it to pick up when you’re streaming on Twitch or YouTube.

HyperX’s headsets have always been standouts, and today you can save up to 38 percent on select models. That includes the wired Cloud Alpha S, a 7.1 surround-sound set that would normally run you $130 but right now you can snag for under $100 — it’s only $80 today, a great deal on a headset that also comes with a chat mixer.

If you’re looking for something with no wires, HyperX has multiple options for you as well. The best deal is probably the massive $60 savings on the CloudX Flight for Xbox, which has the chat mixer built right into the ear cups. It's normally $160, but today it's only $100 at Amazon. Meanwhile, PlayStation gamers can pick up the Cloud Flight instead for only $90 and still enjoy the benefits of super-soft padding and a classic design at a $50 discount.

If you're in the market for a new mechanical keyboard, the sale also includes the Hyper Alloy Origins keyboard for only $70. All of these discounts are part of a daily deal at Amazon, so don’t spend too long mulling it over — the sale ends tonight at 12am PT.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

Console generations are generally thought to last about half a decade, which is what makes today’s Switch anniversary so momentous. Nintendo’s hybrid home-handheld console turns five today, and it shows no signs of slowing down: Though rumors persist, there’s no announced plans for a new console on the horizon. The most we’ve gotten are two redesigns — the Switch Lite and the OLED Switch — and the expansion of Nintendo Switch Online to include more classic console games. But while it’s certainly fun to revisit old favorites like Super Mario Bros., Kirby's Adventure and Earthbound, it’s the games made for the Switch that have captured the hearts of the Engadget crew, along with a few other titles that made their debuts elsewhere but really shined on Nintendo’s portable system.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Regular Engadget readers know there’s no way I would let a “favorite Switch games” post pass without even one Animal Crossing: New Horizons mention. I’ve been a huge fan since the game launched way back in March 2020, and the big update from last fall really rejuvenated my love for it by introducing a boatload of new features — enough for an entirely new game, if Nintendo has decided to go that route. But no, this was entirely free and new players are sure to get more than their money's worth as they work through it all.

The game certainly benefited from launching at the start of the pandemic, leaving millions stuck indoors with nothing to do. Animal Crossing’s bright colors and relaxed pace were exactly what people needed in stressful times. But in another reality, would New Horizons still have been a big hit? I’d say yes: The series has always been a big seller and New Horizons was a huge, accessible improvement on previous installments. Once I achieve the basic in-game goals I always tended in drift off in previous Animal Crossing titles, but New Horizons is interesting enough that I still play it regularly two years after its release. — Kris Naudus, Commerce Writer

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Three Houses is an almost-perfect Fire Emblem game.

I'd been a fan of the series since its English-language debut on the Game Boy Advance, but like many, it was the 3DS games that really made it a firm favorite. 2013's Awakening was more accessible than anything that came before, softening the sometimes brutal difficulty curve, and expanding the support/ship system in clever ways. Fates in 2016 was a truly massive game that attempted to expand on everything Awakening did, but in doing so made the general experience weaker. There was a sense that the developers had ambitions that just couldn't be achieved on the 3DS.

Through the 3DS era, there was a growing schism inside the Fire Emblem series where the various mechanics and tones didn't quite gel. The move to the Switch for Fire Emblem: Three Houses restructures the game for the better. Centering things around "castle life" integrates relationship building, recruitment and battling in a way that just feels natural. And the way the game's multiple plot paths are handled is so, so, so much better than in Fates.

The battles themselves are probably the area with the most room for improvement. Generally there are only a handful of maps that require you to carefully think about your approach, and the difficulty is only softened by the ability to rewind moves if you mess up. It's rare that you actually encounter the series' signature permadeath mechanic, which on one hand means you really love all the characters by the time one of them dies, but on the other takes away a lot of the tension.

But yet, I pumped 215 hours into this game through 2019, driven by the cast of characters and the genuinely divergent story paths you can take. My final playthrough also introduced me to my favorite map in the game — the different paths actually have some genuinely different levels. At this point I think I've experienced everything the game has to offer, but after replaying Awakening and Fates during the various coronavirus lockdowns, just writing this has made me realize it's time to start Three Houses all over again. — Aaron Souppouris, Executive Editor

The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles

Playing DS back in the early 2000s was probably my peak gaming era, not just because I was working at a gaming company (Pokémon) but also because it was around then that I was introduced to various franchises and genres that would become lifetime interests for me. One was Animal Crossing, another was the Ace Attorney series. The DS wasn’t where the series first appeared, but it is where it was first released in the United States. I’ve played every installment since and am now a big fan of visual novels as a genre. However, I was disappointed when I heard the prequel series, Dai Gyakuten Saiban, was unlikely to get an American release due to the difficulty of localization.

Well, until last year when they went and released it anyway as The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles. And, while it doesn’t feature familiar faces and some gameplay techniques introduced in the previous titles, it still has plenty of new tricks and charm to offer both new and returning players. Instead of hiding the game’s Japanese origins, Great Ace Attorney embraces them fully, and the resulting experience is as rich as it is fulfilling. The story somehow has even more twists and turns than previous installments, and I like how everything weaves together into a cohesive whole by the end. I only wish I had time to play it last year so I could have included it among Engadget’s favorite games list of 2021. — K.N.

Hollow Knight

Hollow Knight wasn't a Switch exclusive, but after spending dozens of hours exploring the murky depths of Hollownest, I'll always feel like it's inextricably tied to Nintendo's handheld. It stands out from the crowded field of Metroidvanias (and the subset with Dark Souls elements), with its elegantly atmospheric aesthetic, gorgeous sprites and a soundtrack that evokes the melancholy of exploring a lost kingdom. It's tough, but unlike the Souls games, it never feels overtly punishing. (Can't beat a boss? Try exploring another corner of the map, collect some charms and upgrade your trusty Nail.)

What truly hooked me, though, was being able to take the experience of Hollow Knight anywhere. I played it on my couch when I should have been working, during flights across the world and while I was stuck with a newborn sleeping in my arms (a fun balancing act, for sure). While I could have played Hollow Knight earlier on my computer, or on vastly more powerful systems, the Switch ended up giving me a level of freedom I didn’t know I wanted. — Devindra Hardawar, Senior Reporter

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

It’s worth acknowledging that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild didn’t invent the open world genre. But, it did bring the format to a series that was beginning to get too reliant on its formula of “explore a dungeon, use this item to beat dungeon boss, repeat.” Breath of the Wild instead offers players the ability to explore literally any corner of the world they can see in any order they choose. Even the short intro section on Hyrule’s Great Plateau offers very little in the way of guidance.

Zelda games have always encouraged exploration, despite the linear dungeon-based format, but Breath of the Wild took this to new heights. Hyrule is positively massive, on a scale unlike any prior game in the series, and the lack of traditional guidance means every player will have an entirely different experience with the game. I poured dozens of hours into Breath of the Wild when it came out and eventually beat the game’s main goal, but I’ve gone back to it on and off in the years since to keep finding more dungeons and challenges. I don’t think I’ll ever be done exploring this exquisitely rendered version of Hyrule. — Nathan Ingraham, Deputy Editor

Metroid Dread

Metroid Dread faced a tall order when it launched in late 2021. It was the first all-new Metroid game since 2010’s disappointing Metroid: Other M, and the first new mainline, side-scrolling game in the series since Metroid Fusion way back in 2002. Fortunately for Metroid fans, Nintendo pulled it off. Dread works just as well whether you’ve played all of Samus Aran’s earlier adventures or if it’s your first time giving the series a shot.

Developer MercurySteam kept the familiar Metroid loop of exploration that leads to new weapons that opens up new areas that were previously inaccessible, but it also added a major stealth element this time out. Some areas you explore are populated by an E.M.M.I. robot that you’ll need to avoid until you find the appropriate power-up to defeat it, and those robots can kill you in one hit. So sneaking around is key, but the game mercifully gives you plenty of opportunities to retreat to safe ground and reconsider your strategy. It adds a whole new wrinkle to Metroid Dread — but the game’s focus isn’t solely on stealth. There are plenty of monsters to battle, caverns to explore and huge bosses to take down. It’s the complete Metroid package, whether you’re new to the series or not. — N.I.

New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe

Super Mario Odyssey may be the Mario title that got the most attention in the last five years — but don’t sleep on the awkwardly titled New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe. If, like me, you grew up worshiping at the altar of Super Mario World, U Deluxe is the best side-scrolling Mario game Nintendo has released in decades. It’s right up there with all-time greats World and Super Mario Bros. 3.

The game was originally released for the Wii U, a system that got no traction in sales, so plenty of Switch owners had never experienced its joys when the game was released in 2019. And, while it’ll feel familiar if you’ve played any side-scrolling Mario game before, the level designs are fresh, the challenges are just the right amount of hard and the world looks just gorgeous. It doesn’t exactly break new ground, but New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe shows that the original Mario format still has a place in 2022. — N.I.

Sayonara Wild Hearts

Sayonara Wild Hearts was once described as "Give Carly Rae Jepsen a Sword: the Game." If that alone doesn't sell you on this gem, I don't know what will. It's an ultra-stylish fever dream of an arcade game tied to a killer pop soundtrack.

It should take just over an hour to propel through the 23 levels, which are packed with slick visuals and clever gameplay ideas that'll keep you on your toes. There's so much to take in that, if you're anything like me, you'll replay the whole thing at least a few times over (especially if you want to complete the Zodiac Riddle objectives).

There are some tricky sections, but Sayonara Wild Hearts is a forgiving game with a ton of checkpoints and an option to skip parts you might struggle with. The developers are determined to help you reach the emotional finale and find out whether the protagonist can repair her broken heart. It's absolutely a worthwhile journey. — Kris Holt, Contributing Reporter

Super Mario Maker 2

Super Mario Maker 2 did what Breath of the Wild couldn't. It convinced me to buy a Switch. As a lifelong Mario fan who didn't buy a Wii U to play the original Super Mario Maker, I wasn't going to miss out this time around.

I love knowing that, at any moment, I can pick up my Switch and play a Mario level I've never seen before. I might even be the first person (other than the creator) to try it. Sure, there are a ton of garbage stages filled with too many Bowsers, but it doesn't usually take long before I play one that puts a smile on my face.

I've dabbled in making levels, though there's only one I liked enough to share. It's a puzzle stage inspired by, of all things Marie Kondo. That's kind of fitting, given how many times Super Mario Maker 2 has sparked joy for me. — K.H.

Stardew Valley

Of all the Switch games I’ve played, Stardew Valley is one of the very few that I continuously go back to — particularly when I need some “me” time. Growing up, I spent a lot of time playing games like Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life, so Stardew fills that hole for me now as an adult. I love the repetitive humdrum of building my farm up from nothing, cultivating a pleasant little green space where my character and all their chickens, rabbits, cows and goats can flourish. Harvesting pumpkins, strawberries and corn has never been more satisfying, and I’m always eager for the change of seasons when I can kick the dirt up on all of my plots and start fresh with a plethora of new veggie and fruit seeds.

There are a ton of side storylines and quests to complete, and I love that I can do them on my own time, or not at all. Maybe I spent too much time tending to my cows and sheep and missed the deadline to deliver a bunch of leeks to Evelyn. It’s OK, she won’t hold it against me… too much. And when I feel the urge to get a little dangerous, there are plenty of mine levels to explore with treasure to discover, monsters to defeat and prismatic shards to desperately search for. However, Stardew doesn’t have the highest of stakes, and sometimes I’m in the mood for tougher battles and the possibility of death (preferably by Lynels). But nothing beats going back to the farm that you built from scratch and picking up where you left off once again. After all, there’s always something more to do. — Valentina Palladino, Commerce Editor

The following contains moderate spoilers for the first three episodes of ‘Star Trek: Picard’ season two, but not much more than what was seen in earlier teasers and trailers.

The first season of Picard was controversial, to say the least. Many fans were happy to see old friends again; others weren’t so thrilled at the grimdark direction Starfleet and the Federation went in the 20 years since we’d last seen their 24th century incarnations. Still, we got a look at how technology evolved, met some intriguing new characters and in the finale, at least, everything seems to have been put right.

It’s that brighter world where the second season of Picard begins, with synthetic beings now legal — which is handy, given that at the end of last season Jean-Luc Picard was transferred into an android body. It left me and much of the audience wondering if and how this would affect future stories. The answer comes pretty quickly in season two, now with new showrunner Terry Matalas at the helm. It doesn’t really matter. It’s not made clear exactly who does and who doesn’t know, but Jean-Luc Picard is still subject to the ravages of age while enjoying all the legal protections he would have had as a flesh-and-blood being (he still owns the vineyard, for one thing). Even Q, when he inevitably appears, treats Picard as the same being he’s always been.

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Viewers may be familiar with the “Ship of Theseus” thought experiment, recently brought up in the finale of last year’s WandaVision. Basically, the idea is that if you slowly replace the parts of a ship over time, and then reassemble the old parts into another ship, which one is the original ship? In Picard, they suggest that the essence of a human being is their intelligence, so the real Jean-Luc Picard is the synthetic being that’s walking around on Earth right now. The problem with this, however, is that this hasn’t always been how Star Trek worked. While characters like Miles O’Brien and Harry Kim were replaced by duplicate versions of themselves, “Thomas” Riker was decidedly not given the same courtesy. It seems that duplicates are acceptable only when they replace someone we’ve otherwise lost.

During press interviews, even Patrick Stewart admitted the synthetic body issue was “a real mess.” Thankfully, the show smartly moves past it. It’s been at least a year and a half since the events of the first season, meaning we’re now in the 25th century. Picard has returned home and assumed the chancellorship of Starfleet Academy. Both Rios and Raffi have gone back to the fleet, and even Elnor is now attending school as a cadet (as the first full-blooded Romulan at the Academy). It’s the nice shiny future we’ve always loved to see on Star Trek, complete with some banging costume design and fun updated tech. Last season I noted how nice it was to see the continuation of the “synthetic being” storyline that ran through The Next Generation, and having all the characters settled into new positions leaves plenty of room to explore other facets of 25th-century technology and society.

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However, Picard hasn’t become a happy show overnight. A new crisis quickly emerges, with a rift in subspace demanding Picard’s attention and putting the entire fleet at risk. This is where Q comes in, shunting Picard and his close compatriots over to an altered timeline where the genocidal “Confederation” rules the Alpha Quadrant with an iron fist. This isn’t the Mirror Universe that we’re familiar with from previous shows like the original series, Deep Space Nine and Discovery. In this version, Earth is still very much in charge, having wiped out multiple species with the Borg next on its list.

It’s not entirely clear in the first three episodes how this alternate reality was created, or why Q picked the La Sirena crew over any of Picard’s friends from the Enterprise-D. But it’s really just a tool that lets the show dabble in another Star Trek mainstay: time travel. Rather than create some new device or strange spatial phenomenon that sends the crew back in time, their method of traversing through the centuries harkens back to a method seen in the original series, one later repeated in the The Voyage Home. The ship slingshots around the sun, a technique that requires precise calculations that only someone like Spock can provide… or the Borg Queen, in this case. It’s not necessarily scientifically accurate, but it is a nice callback for a franchise spanning over 60 years, especially when fans have a tendency to try to square every inconsistency with their own theories instead of just embracing the chaos.

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And chaos awaits the crew as they slide into the fair year of 2024, just a notch ahead of our own time so there’s very little difference in tech to worry about. Raffi and Seven are aghast at the poverty on display in 20th-century Los Angeles, which points to why the show’s writers chose this year instead of 2022 or 2023: 2024 is the date of the infamous “Bell Riots” as seen on Deep Space Nine’s “Past Tense.”

At that point, the poor and indigent residents interned in “Sanctuary Districts” in San Francisco struck back against the degrading conditions they were forced to live in, eventually prompting higher level changes that would eventually lead to the Federation we all know and love. Whether Picard and friends will end up playing a role in those pivotal events remains to be seen, but the third episode hints at Rios getting some taste of injustice as an undocumented Latino man –though he’s undocumented for a time travel reasons and not because of immigration.

Overall, the beginning of Picard plays like a greatest hits reel: We’re treated to the return of classic baddies like Q and the Borg, other characters are referenced in passing for some fun Easter eggs, and time travel episodes of Star Trek tend to be a blast so I hope that this will be a good storyline. In a way it’s a warm blanket of nostalgia to calm the audience after the mess that was season one. But if you were hoping to actually explore the galaxy and see more of the 25th century, season two looks to be yet another letdown.

I grew up in the era of VHS board games and later, DVD special features that occasionally included little trivia games or interactive fiction (the Home Movies box sets have some particularly good ones). I find them sort of interesting in a “car crash” sort of a way, because they never really worked. Today’s streaming platforms would seem ripe for a revival of the “game video” concept, but even with better technology and storytelling available to creators the examples are still few and far between.

The one that’s made the biggest splash thus far is probably “Bandersnatch,” the interactive episode of Black Mirror. I “played” it and like many I found it somewhat underwhelming: Your choices were somewhat limited and the story fell rather flat (and I never found the scene where you the main character fights his therapist to my infinite and everlasting sadness). Still, it was an intriguing effort. Last week Charlie Brooker tries his hand at the format once again on Netflix, but in a decidedly different genre: old school cartoons.

Cat Burglar is a 12-minute showdown between a cat trying to steal a painting from an art museum and the dog that works as the night guard. As a cartoon it’s a fairly pitch-perfect copy of a Looney Tunes short down to the exaggerated expressions, physical humor and occasional fourth-wall breaking. It could in fact, stand alone without the interactive elements, but if you really wanted an old-school cartoon both Warner Bros. and Disney make dozens of their best animated shorts available on HBO Max and Disney+ respectively. There’s also the Cuphead show on Netflix — which doesn’t interest me as I have never played the game (and never will because I’m just not that good at platformers).

Netflix

So the real draw of Cat Burglar is its interaction, and it even bills itself as a “trivia game” instead of just an “experience.” How does it fare as a game? The gameplay consists of various quicktime events in which you must answer three quiz questions in a short period of time. When you answer correctly the cat succeeds and the scene continues, if you answer incorrectly the cat dies and you are sent back to make the choice again.

If you’re looking for tricky trivia this isn’t it, as most of the questions are easily guessed by anyone over the age of eight. There’s clearly a “right” answer and a “wrong” answer, and the game gives you three lives to lose before you get sent to heaven. As such, it feels even more restrictive than “Bandersnatch,” since you don’t really get to make choices.

However, while I said “most” of the questions are meant to be easily answered, the game will occasionally try to trick you up. I’ve died a few times in the game because my thumb twitched or I misread the answers (there’s one sequence full of double negatives) or, in one particular case, I just hated the question. (I still maintain that an Emperor Penguin is more powerful than the Emperor of Japan; I knew what answer the game wanted but it just made me mad for being so dumb.) The game will throw three questions at you each time but even getting one wrong will lose you the scene and thus, a life. But dying just means going back to the beginning and doing it all again, and even then it’s not everything — the game will skip over short bits of animation you’ve seen before that aren’t relevant to the overall plot.

Netflix

When you beat the game by successfully stealing a painting, your new acquisition goes on display in a gallery that carries over to subsequent playthroughs. There’s six of them but so far I’ve only played enough to get half. When you win — or even when you lose — the game lets you start over, with the characters promising a “completely new” experience. That, in my evening of playing, is decidedly not true as I’ve already seen certain interchangeable scenes more than once. Either there aren’t that many options or I just have weird luck. But you’d hope the game would be programmed to avoid repeats at first.

Ultimately I think Cat Burglar works better as an experience than “Bandersnatch” did because it’s just much shorter; if I wanted to replay “Bandersnatch” I have to ask myself if I have an hour or more to kill just to see one or two story paths. Knowing that Cat Burglar is going to be quick certainly makes it less daunting, and it’s not even a bad option for kids as long as you don’t mind gratuitous cartoon violence.

The following contains spoilers for season four, episodes eight and nine of 'Star Trek: Discovery' and season one of 'Star Trek: Prodigy.'

In the initial pitch for Star Trek, way back in 1964, the series was described as “Wagon Train to the Stars.” This was mostly in reference to its sense of exploration and discovery, but it also hints at something else that would become a hallmark of the series: the travel. Lots and lots of travel. It may take days, weeks or, in the case of shows like Voyager, years, for the crew to get to their destination and as such, it allows plenty of time for adventure and character growth. However, new technologies introduced in shows like Discovery and Prodigy have eliminated that travel time, fundamentally changing the nature of their plots.

That’s keenly on display in this week’s episode of Discovery, where the ship must continue their pursuit of Cleveland Booker and Ruon Tarka. Last week we discovered that the planet-killing Dark Matter Anomaly was basically a piece of mining equipment from an unknown species, and Book and Tarka’s desire to destroy it would make for a very unpleasant first contact, one that could potentially start a war. The pair had already stolen a prototype spore drive and fitted it into Book’s ship, meaning they now had access to the ability to leap across the galaxy in seconds. As the only other vessel in the fleet with a working spore drive, this meant the USS Discovery was now in the uncomfortable position of hunting down one of its own.

CBS

Some of the episode is focused on the crew’s feelings about this; Admiral Vance can’t trust Michael to hunt down her boyfriend so he even assigns Commander Nhan to the mission to step in if things get messy. There’s even some dialogue between minor crew members like Nielsen and Rhys and how they feel about the whole thing. It’s nice to see them get some screen time, but it also shows how little we get to hear from them in a typical Discovery season.

Consider how many classic episodes of the franchise took place during, or were about a long trip between planets. It’s in the title of the original series’ “Journey to Babel,” where we meet Sarek for the first time and get to see the relationship between him and his son Spock. “Data’s Day” is a Next Generation episode about a typical day in the life of Commander Data, which also involves transporting a diplomat while there’s also a wedding on board the ship. This was the first appearance of Keiko O’Brien, a character who would later go on to play a large role in Deep Space Nine when her husband was part of the main cast.

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Meanwhile, the chances for our recurring characters to shine have been few and far between. Last week’s installment did have Owosekun kicking ass, but not in any way that really gave us deeper insight into her character, with her best development remaining “New Eden” back in season two. We haven’t even seen Jett Reno much this year, though that’s due to actress Tig Notaro avoiding travel during the pandemic. The background character that’s gotten the most development thus far is Airiam, who had an entire episode dedicated to her — because she was about to die.

The immediate travel time also makes itself felt with the main cast, who get to return to familiar locations on a regular basis. Starfleet Headquarters, Earth or any of the various planets the ship has visited before — nothing is off the table for a drop-in, which means that past storylines and characters like Admiral Vance can be readily revisited. That leaves even less time for the audience to get to know the rest of the crew.

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It’s an interesting contrast with Prodigy, which also features super-fast engine tech, the protostar engine. It’s not instantaneous like the spore drive, but it does cut a journey that would have taken Voyager 70 years down to mere days. It’s a natural outgrowth of all the technological development we saw during Voyager’s seven seasons, as opposed to the quantum leap that the spore drive represented to Discovery’s 23rd-century setting.

But even with faster travel times, Prodigy can still focus on character development due to simply having a smaller recurring cast to deal with. On the Protostar it’s just the six kids and their holographic Janeway, and a lot of their time is spent in transit by virtue of the plot — they were on the run from the Diviner and thus couldn’t stay in one place very long, and when the show returns from its hiatus they’ll be running from the flesh-and-blood Janeway. In my interview earlier this month with showrunners Dan and Kevin Hageman, they also said they didn’t want the vessel to just be zipping around, either; there will be limits to what the ship can do, which leaves plenty of time for even more character development. (Even Murf is due for a character arc.)

CBS

After the cursory hand-wringing Discovery jumps straight into the action, with a game of cat-and-mouse as Book and Tarka pursue the DMA and the USS Discovery pursues both the DMA and Book’s ship. It’s a bit exciting, though loaded with technobabble: They can’t outrun each other so the show needs to find sci-fi tricks to keep the chase interesting. But the bulk of the action is still focused solidly on Michael, Book and Tarka, pushing a lot of the usual teamwork and ensuring character interaction usually found in Star Trek shows to the background. It’s still an interesting story, to be sure — it’s just not one that serves its recurring characters very well.

Corsair has made inroads in the gaming accessories market, having purchased companies like Scuf and Elgato to increase its market share, and dabbled in new technology like opto-mechanical keys. Still, it’s Corsair’s mechanical keyboards that we at Engadget love the most – they’re often included in our gift guides and “best of” lists. This year, Corsair is going back to basics with the latest revision to its classic K70 RGB Pro, which packs in a solid enclosure and bright lighting alongside that signature typing experience.

I’m not exaggerating when I use the word love. The Rapidfire K70 that I tested way back in 2016 is still sitting on my desk, as it’s my go-to deck when I’m not testing new keyboards. That certainly makes a head-to-head comparison easy, and putting the two right next to each other brings out the otherwise-subtle design tweaks. The Corsair text logo is gone, replaced by the company’s “sailing ship” graphic, now LED backlit. The font on the keys has been changed, to a narrower sans-serif font that doesn’t scream “gamer” quite as loudly. Corsair keyboards have always been more office friendly than other gaming accessories, but now they’re just office friendly, period. Onlookers might not realize right away that what they’re looking at is a gaming keyboard at all.

Kris Naudus / Engadget

Of course, the most important changes are to the keys and media buttons. Nothing has been removed or replaced from the earlier model, but the media controls have been elevated about three quarters of an inch, making them easier to press. The volume scroll is also wider, with a slightly rougher texture. Both of these small changes should make it easier to find without having to look down at the keyboard.

For a direct comparison of the keys, I chose to receive the new K70 with MX Speed keys, which took me a while to get used to years ago but now are second nature for me. The typing experience is still crisp and excellent, though it seems to require just a tad more force to press. It’s nothing you’d notice on your own, but switching between the two I find the older model a little easier to type on. So easy, in fact, that sometimes I’d brush my arm against the deck and accidentally end up activating the keys. This new one won’t have that problem.

Kris Naudus / Engadget

I do have one nitpick about the new K70, though, and that’s what I’ve come to call the “Tibetan singing bowl” effect. It’s something that plagued last year’s K65 RGB Mini: a metallic ring that echoes after each key press. If you’re typing quickly it becomes a constant chime that overlaps and lingers for a second whenever you pause. If you’re wearing a headset or blasting music at your home or office it might not be as noticeable, but in a quiet room it’s incredibly annoying.

This type of metallic echo was also a problem with the original Razer Huntsman keyboard. That was the company’s debut offering with opto-mechanical keys, and I wasn’t sold on the concept at first because of that hollow ringing. But the revision from this past September added padding underneath to cut down on the echo, making for a much better typing experience . I can only hope that Corsair takes the hint and makes similar improvements to its own keyboards if it wants to stay on top. But the new K70 is still a solid, top-of-the-line deck, and you can grab one today starting at $160.

If you owned a Wii back in the day, you owned a copy of Wii Sports, packaged in with most versions of the console. It was both a showcase for the motion controls, an all-ages advertisement for the system and just a plain great time. Its enormous popularity has led many to ask, “will there ever be a sports game for the Switch” and in today's Nintendo Direct we finally got an answer.

Nintendo Switch Sports is an upcoming title for the Switch that features activities like badminton, volleyball, tennis, soccer, chambara (sword fighting) and, of course, bowling. It’s a direct sequel and/or descendent of Wii Sports, featuring similar aesthetics, music and yes, customizable Miis. This time around players will use the Joy-Con controllers for the motion aspect, and the game will even include a leg strap for kicking action.

The title supports local and online play, with friends and random matchmaking. Two updates are planned after launch — the first puts in the ability to use the leg strap to play soccer, and the second will add golf to the roster of sports. As for that initial release date? Pick up this game April 29th, making it a great gift for Mother’s or Father’s Day in the US. (Parents and grandparents loved Wii Sports, after all.)

Mario Strikers isn’t the most popular of the Mario sub-franchises, but it does have its devotees. Today was their day with the announcement of the latest game in the series, Mario Strikes Battle League, for the Nintendo Switch. This is only the third Mario Strikers game ever, following Super Mario Strikers on the GameCube and Mario Strikers Charged for the Wii, released way back in 2007. So yeah, it’s been a decade and a half since we last saw a Mario-themed soccer game, making today’s announcement quite a surprise.

However, as go all sports in the Mushroom Kingdom, Mario Strikers Battle League adds some distinct fantasy twists to the “most beautiful game.” The titular game, “Strike,” is described as a “heavy on offense” five-on-five sport. And by offense they mean aggressively so, with the ability to slam opponents, throw items and even use special attacks. Players can also customize their characters with gear for even more abilities — it’s a lot like the Mario Kart series in that aspect. This new installment will allow up to eight players per match, in four on four teams. And yes, there’s online play, with Club Mode to let you compete with friends, family and strangers over a season.

Because this is a World Cup year, you can expect to see this new title June 10th, though preorders begin today over on Nintendo’s site.

Today Samsung showed off its latest large flagship phone, the S22 Ultra. But users with smaller hands and smaller pockets need not fear being left out, as the company also debuted two smaller phones with the same Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip and triple-camera array. These 6.1- and 6.6-inch handsets will be facing off against powerful phones from Apple and Google — check out all the specs below to see how they stack up, and be sure to check out our hands-on!

Catch up on all of the news from Samsung’s February Unpacked event right here!

It’s February, which means it’s time for Samsung to drop its new flagship phones for the year. This time we’re looking at three handsets, all powered by the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip. The biggest of the lineup is the massive 6.8-inch Ultra, which packs in two telephoto cameras in addition to the now-standard wide and ultra-wide. But is that enough to raise it above a rarified pack that includes 6.7-inch devices from Apple, Google and OnePlus? Check out the specs below for a sneak peek of what the Ultra has to offer against the competition, and take a peep at our hands-on for even more info.

Catch up on all of the news from Samsung’s February Unpacked event right here!