You can find this review in full at GBAtemp.net:
https://gbatemp.net/review/the-nes-endings-compendium-years-1985-1988.1858/

Now I’ve never reviewed a book before, let alone something as bespoke as this. First learning of it thanks to a news post on our own site I was enthralled, and couldn’t pass up an opportunity to have a closer look.

As products go, this is something you understand as soon as you’ve seen a page or two within. This is nothing short of a love letter to an early era of gaming, and this love seeps into every aspect of the book. Before diving into the meat, you’re given a brief letter from the author (@ReyVGM on the forums if you’re curious!). It sets a tone for what you’re about to read, and tells you why such a thing even exists. From here, my awe for the sheer attention to detail was boundless.

With so many NES games released between 1985 and 1988, the book is split into various eras: 1985 to 1986, 1987, 1988, and the games that don’t quite have an ending worth talking about. I love this. What this ends up doing is telling a story in itself, showing how game narratives to a larger scale developed over time. If I had to find fault, it’d be in the fact the contents page is sorted alphabetically in oppose to chronologically. It would’ve been nice to have had a larger timeline to better contextualise the games, with an index page serving the purpose of alphabetical sorting, but this is largely a personal preference.

Looking to the games themselves, you have a mixed bag of layouts, largely coming down to how much there is to talk about with the game in question. Especially with your ‘endless’ games, you might find as many as five squeezed onto a page with a brief comment and a screenshot to explain why there’s not more. Where this book shines however is in its luscious double or even quadruple-page spreads on some of the hottest titles. Not only do you have incredible detail and personal insight, you also have completely themed surroundings. It’s not just one or two screenshots haphazardly thrown onto a page, instead following design principles closest to publications like Nintendo Power, EGM, or even the Official Nintendo Magazine if you’re in the UK like myself. Reading through its pages brings with it an intense sense of nostalgia not only for the games, but for this style of presentation. It’s baffling just how well they managed to nail this look and feel, but damn did they do it well.

The two physical versions of this book both offer up something unique. Available as both a hardback and paperback edition, there’s a a degree of decision-making to be done based on what you want out of it. On one hand, the hardback edition seems more fitting of a collector. Sturdier and likely looking better on a shelf, it seems the better pick for those wanting something to display and pick up once in a while. On the other hand, the paperback version plays into the same sense of nostalgia previously mentioned. It doesn’t feel like some premium product to be horded and shelved. It takes me back to my own days of reading the Official Nintendo Magazine. There’s a joy that comes with flipping through the pages that I can’t quite explain, and yet one that I’m certain anybody who has enjoyed these publications will surely understand. While I may have preferred a hardback copy to display, I can’t help but feel it’d lose a certain personal touch I felt here.

The NES Endings Compendium, the first volume of what I hope will be many, is a book I can’t help but recommend. Given my young age, I can’t claim any nostalgia for the system at hand, and if I’m being completely honest, I don’t believe many of the games hold up nowadays. Even so, I’m sat here reading, smiling, living the passionate experiences of another person, and I’m in love with it. I want to read the next volume. I want to see this grow, I want to read about SNES games, N64 games. This is a book I so hope does well for no reason beyond wanting to read more, and I wholeheartedly recommend checking it out. Whichever version you choose to pick up, you won’t be disappointed.

You can find this review in full at GBAtemp.net:
https://gbatemp.net/review/asus-rog-keris-wired-gaming-mouse.1849/

As gaming kit goes, I’m somewhat saddened to say mice have never caught my attention. I want something reliable, and something that’s comfortable. Beyond that though, what really makes a mouse great? Is it its precision? The sensor? The lighting? The customisation options? Provided with the opportunity to give Asus’ wired ROG Keris a go, I’ll be diving into this mousey world to give you my thoughts and feelings.

Out of the box, there’s one thing that’s impossible to overlook: the weight. Coming in at just 62g, the Keris is by far the lightest mouse I’ve used to date, and in the beginning at least, it left me with somewhat mixed thoughts. It’s designed to be light, so it’s difficult to hold it against the mouse, but coming from beefier mice and only really having light things in schools or offices, I had mentally associated the feeling with low quality items. After a day or so of use though, the weight just felt natural.

The mouse itself looks incredibly plain, which could be a positive to some. It’s a sleek black design made for use with the right hand with an accommodating form factor. The shape is nothing that’d necessarily prevent a left-handed user from holding the mouse, but it’d be far from an optimal experience. Looking to lighting it’s again somewhat plain. All you’ll get is the ROG icon where your palm sits and the scroll wheel. What I will say here is that it is some of the most defined and clear lighting I’ve seen on a mouse to date. The colour shines through the wheel magnificently without pulling attention too much as to be a distraction.

Though this is a wired mouse, I was somewhat disappointed to see the cable was not detachable. To the cable’s credit, it is the least cable-like cable I’ve seen attached to any product. ROG’s paracord takes a braided cable to the next level. It just doesn’t bend or kink. It flows. If you can imagine a centimetre-or-so-thick piece of string attached to your mouse, that about sums it up. With a wireless Keris available with this very cable being detachable, it’s a huge shame to see it tethered this way, especially when such consideration is placed into longevity elsewhere. With the quality of the cable, I have no doubt it’ll last, but being able to identify such stress points always puts me on edge.

Perhaps the flagship feature for the Keris, the ability to swap out the switches lurking beneath each main button was what initially interested me about the mouse. It’s an incredibly simple operation to swap out the switches, which makes for a really interesting design. Pop out a few rubber caps, remove two screws, and pull away the case. From there, it really is just pulling the switches out and putting new ones in. Even somebody as inept as myself when it comes to tinkering could do it, though I did face some issues lining up the case and putting it back together. I got there in the end. On top of the added longevity of being able to swap out parts should they reach the end of their life, the doors are opened to customisation based on your preference, even if mouse switches aren’t quite as commonplace as their keyboard counterparts.

Switch swapping isn’t where the Keris stops in terms of cool features though. A bit of an underdog in the feature set, I really came to appreciate the on-the-fly DPI customisation. Where other mice I’ve used allow you to save profiles with set DPI configurations that can be swapped between on the press of a button, the Keris goes further in letting you just use the scroll wheel while holding a button on the bottom of the mouse. With this, you can tweak and finetune the DPI to your liking all without software. You can also just press the button for the more traditional profile swapping to go between in-built presets.

Of course, Asus have their own software too if you want to go to the trouble of making your own presets. Unfortunately, it just didn’t work for me. I have a somewhat jaded history with this kind of driver software, with Roccat’s Swarm being the most recent featured area of misery. Where Swarm crashed, Asus’ Armoury Crate just doesn’t detect my hardware at all. For my curiosity, I also gave it a shot with the Claymore II keyboard I had handy for a separate review, but that wasn’t detected either. I will concede it’s likely a fault with my PC, but with this being the only one available to me, I wasn’t able to check as thoroughly as I’d have otherwise liked. Looking to the software without having a chance to use it though, it seems to tick all your usual boxes. You can configure lighting, mess with calibration settings, and map buttons. If you’ve used Roccat’s Swarm or Razer’s Synapse before, you’ll generally know the range of options to hand.

Now the part I saved for last is by far the area I’m least knowledgeable in, and I’m completely open to admitting that. The sensor. For your enthusiasts, it really can be the make or break of a great mouse. With specific tests, I frankly wouldn’t know where to start, but I can at the very least provide the basic details. The PMW3389 under the hood is a flawless sensor, this basically meaning it doesn’t have any kind of forced modifiers to how it performs. This means no mouse acceleration, no jitter, no interpolation, and no kind of prediction or correction to your inputs. Though a lot of these things can often be configured using software (and perhaps can be configured using Armoury Crate!), the key thing is that they aren’t built into the hardware. I won’t go much further into detail here, but I can say I had absolutely no issues with using the mouse, and after the initial adjustment of switching to a mouse where you forget the DPI settings you had on your previous mouse, I was well on my way and enjoying the Keris. If you are interested in learning more about mouse sensors, I found the information at sensor.fyi incredibly useful.

All in all, the Keris is a fantastic mouse. Even without the configuration of Armoury Crate handy to me, it’s a simple by the books design with a few hidden niceties to make it subtly stand out. With my biggest issue stemming from the non-detachable albeit fantastic cable, I might recommend picking up its wireless counterpart over the one I reviewed. With the wired model retailing for £57.95 and the wireless model coming in at £89.99, you’re paying a slight premium for the flexibility a wireless mouse offers, as well as the peace of mind a detachable cable brings with it. Wired or not though, the Keris is a great choice.

You can find this review in full at GBAtemp.net:
https://gbatemp.net/review/powera-fusion-pro-2-wired-controller-for-xbox-series-x-s.1836/

Having recently picked up an Xbox Series X, I’m eager to to find the best way to play it. Though somewhat enamoured with the latest tweak to the official controller design, there’s always room for improvement. With PowerA offering features comparable to the Elite controller at a much more reasonable price point, is the Fusion Pro 2 the perfect blend of function and affordability?

Now PowerA aren’t some unknown brand entering a new market. We’ve covered many of their greatest hits on the site, most recently looking at their Switch variant of the Fusion Pro, and myself looking at their more affordable Xbox offering a few months back. Unboxing the Fusion Pro 2 is a joy. While around half the price of Microsoft’s Elite Series 2 controller, the Fusion Pro 2 still clocks in at a £80 price point. Make no mistake, this is a premium controller, so it’s good to know the quality is felt from the outset.

There’s a lot to like about the design of the Fusion Pro 2, but a lot of that stems from the design of the Xbox controller itself. It looks official, and it feels it too. The grips of the controller have a rubber lining that feels great to hold, and is a nice step up from the modern Xbox controller’s bumpy plastic grip. The face of the controller is fairly standard, with the exception of the small nub towards the bottom. This allowing you to mute the microphone of an attached headset on the fly, as well as adjust volume it’s something I’ve found really handy, though it is worth adding that it only does this on an Xbox console. If you’re using this with a PC, it’s a useless addition.

The star of the show with this controller is one of the standout Elite features: paddles. Paddles are difficult. Praising PowerA’s enhanced Xbox controller for its buttons on the controller grips, I went in ready and excited to use them for the first time. Unfortunately, I just can’t get on with them. Their positioning on the back of the controller forces me to almost contort my hands if I want to keep them in easy reach. Where the grip buttons would be where my hands rest naturally, the paddles actively get in the way of my natural grip, leading to me either trying to avoid them, or pressing them accidentally. Now that’s not to say they’re bad paddles. They give an incredibly satisfying click, and though it comes with four of them, you can detach them as you choose to use anywhere between none and all four. They’re versatile and they’re easy to map to any face button, or combination of face buttons. They’re just not for me, and I’m okay with that. If like me you don’t get on with them, you can detach the module altogether and put a cover over where they went, giving the controller an entirely flat back.

Customisation goes further than to paddle or not to paddle though, with PowerA including a small but appreciated assortment of swappable parts. The faceplate held in place by magnets, albeit securely, it’s a simple operation to remove it and swap out parts. Your choices are between a black and white faceplate, and a few different lengths of analogue stick. It’s not much in the grand scheme of things, but it’s enough to tweak things to your liking. Unfortunately, there’s no alternative D-Pad though. While the D-Pad is fine, it suffers in a similar way to its enhanced predecessor in its mushiness. It’s not the mushiest I’ve felt, but compared to the crisp and precise clicks of the new standard Xbox controller I have on hand, it really falls short.

While I wasn’t expecting it to stand out so much, the feature I actually ended up using the most was the trigger locks. Using two sliders on the back of the controller, you can lock the movement of the triggers to three different positions, giving you variable limits on how far down they can be pressed. This has a huge assortment of uses. Sure, you might have shooters where you just want to press the trigger down enough and be able to put it back to neutral quickly, but I found great utility with this in emulators and other apps where hotkeys can be mapped. Do you want an easy to access quick save and load button that you can’t accidentally hit? Set the trigger locks and suddenly you find the input doesn’t register because you can’t push it down far enough. Obviously your mileage will vary from app to app, but it’s been a great thing for me.

Looking to larger use and comfort, you have all the quality you would expect to find in an official product. There’s a satisfying weight to it, and the combination of the smooth matte plastic face and the rubber grips is a joy to hold. A welcomed upgrade, the controller also uses USB C for its connectivity, coming with a lengthy braided cable. Given the Fusion Pro 2 is wired-only, the quality in this department is much appreciated.

All in all, PowerA’s Fusion Pro 2 is a great pick not only for the player two in your life, but as a primary controller for your Series X or S gaming. While I wouldn’t recommend it for a D-Pad heavy game like Celeste, the controller shines for more traditional console gaming with premium features at an expensive-but-much-cheaper-than-an-Elite-controller price point. It’s one to consider, especially if you happen to value paddles in your arsenal of accessories.

You can find this review in full at GBAtemp.net:
https://gbatemp.net/review/roccat-pyro-mechanical-gaming-keyboard.1837/

Keyboards are to me as they are to many others nowadays; a brilliant passion, a quest to try the newest and the different, but also the familiar and improved. Returning to Roccat for the first time since 2019, I was excited to see how things have changed with their Pyro mechanical keyboard.

The long and short of my original review was that the keyboard was lush, but the software required to get the most out of it was not. Unboxing the Pyro, I get the same overall feeling of quality. The keys again sit atop a brushed aluminium plate, but the keycaps are a noticeably different style. Perhaps my favourite part of the Vulkan was its incredibly thin kepcaps, allowing you to see the lighting through the switches from the side; a bit like pudding caps. The Pyro by contrast is far more traditional. The keycaps are black and reach down far further, covering the majority of the switch. It’s different to the Vulkan, but I’ve really grown to like it. It’s not quite as showy, and for certain setups that can be a good thing. Still allowing for the back lighting to shine through the lettering and between the keys, your canvas for the fancy AIMO lighting engine remains just as versatile.

Looking to the other aspects of the design, we have another full-sized model with a personal favourite of mine returning in the volume wheel. I wish every keyboard had a wheel of some sort. Outside of that though, it’s somewhat by the books. The font used on the keycaps is clean without screaming gamer, despite it featuring a few extra icons for Roccat’s Easy-Shift and Game Mode. Coming with the keyboard is a detachable wrist rest. It’s a firm plastic that attaches with a clip system I’ve not seen before. It’s nothing extraordinary, but always great to have should space permit you to use it. My only real critique of the design is the fact the USB cable isn’t detachable. Though this may be a small gripe to some considering the keyboard is wired by nature, it concerns me that I’d be left with something entirely inoperable should that wire be damaged. I’d even take a detachable micro USB cable over this.

Beneath the keycaps lurks what is to many a deal breaker when considering a new keyboard: the switches. Sporting TTC linears, you have a fairly standard red switch. If you’ve used reds before, you’ll know what to expect. The linear nature of them means you won’t be hearing a click or bump as you type or game. Instead, you get a smooth motion for the key, with the only sound generated being the key physically being pushed down as you type. All the usual benefits of reds apply here. It’s ideal for a setup where you don’t want to be making too much noise. The actuation point for your keypress to register clocks in at 2mm, with the total travel distance being 4mm and the operating force being 45g. To my knowledge, these are all fairly standard figures for your average red switch, so there’s not much that stands out here. Comparing the typing experience to my Keychron K2 I noticed the travel of the keys feel slightly smoother, but this may just be down to the K2’s year of use. It’s also worth adding here that these switches are not hot-swappable, so you won’t be able to change them without significant effort.

As with the Vulkan, the star of the show remains the AIMO lighting. I loved it in 2019 and I still love it now. Discarding the complex and fanciful setups of other software, AIMO lighting aims to be organic and intelligent, changing subtly as you go about your daily business. It sounds like a load of PR buzz words, but it genuinely is a joy to use. You’ll see the keyboard breathing and slowly cycling colours as you sit idle, with lights dancing as you type. If you happen to use other Roccat accessories, you get to see a larger picture as the effects so fluidly leave the keyboard and reach them. I’m also in the process of reviewing the Kone Pro Air, and seeing it all come together is a joy. Naturally, it isn’t without flaws, and its flaws are unchanged.

Under heavy strain, Swarm, the app you’ll need to leave running to have your AIMO lighting operational, does crash from time to time. I will say that it’s a marked improvement on when I was using it back in 2019, with it only really happening as I type quickly, but it’s still a shame to see. I have a strong dislike for running software in the background for this kind of thing, so when I do make an exception, I at least want it to work properly. While it’s just a matter of restarting the app when it crashes, it’s an inconvenience I’d rather not have to face.

All in all though, the Pyro is a solid pick if you’re in the market for a keyboard. It’s a joy to type on and runs what is by far my favourite lighting system, even if it is flawed. At £89.99, it’s also significantly cheaper than the Vulkan was when I reviewed it, and finds itself in a far better position in this rather competitive market. If you can get past the non-detachable wire, I can wholeheartedly recommend it.

You can find this review in full at GBAtemp.net:
https://gbatemp.net/review/epos-h3-gaming-headset.1811/

Taking the H3 headset out of the box for the first time, I felt incredibly conflicted. They’re light. Really light. Before even trying them on, I threw them onto the kitchen scales to see them weigh in at just 274g. The body of the headset is a white plastic with a metal band lying within. It looks cheap. With the weight, you wouldn’t be wrong to say it feels cheap. These are preconceptions you have to get past if you want to experience what this headset has to offer, because to be blunt, this is the comfiest headset I’ve used in recent years. Maybe ever.

There are a few parts that play into this. You have the weight of the headset as I’ve already mentioned, but you also have the headband and unique earcups. Looking at the weight first, you can appreciate exactly why a plastic body was used. I barely feel them when in use, and in the month I’ve owned them, they’ve been used extensively. Up to eight hours a day since they’ve been my go-to headset for working from home. The lightweight nature of the headset is supported brilliantly by the memory foam cushioning on the headband. Memory foam is somewhat self-explanatory, and you can probably see the extent of the peanut head that sits atop my shoulders that I’ve mentioned in other headphone reviews. It’s comfy, it’s light, and it’s thick enough that there’s never any contact between my head and the band lurking beneath.

The real stars of this show are the earcups though. Featuring an oval shape to better fit the shape of your ears, they block out sound in a way as to match and perhaps outperform the only real noise cancelling I’ve had the pleasure of trying in the Bose QuietComfort earbuds. I don’t want to mislead people here, there’s no active noise cancelling on offer, the fit is just so perfect that little sound manages to make its way in. My only complaint is that I’ve missed more than a few doorbells while working because of this.

Of course, comfort is only one part of the equation. No amount of comfort can save a poor sound. Fortunately, this isn’t an issue here. Despite there being no fancy bells or whistles, the H3 perform admirably in their intended use case. Game audio is clear and sounds as it should, with a rocker on the right earcup to adjust volume on the fly.

Where some may feel somewhat let down however is in the odd choice of cable to connect the headset. To give due credit, the cables provided are of great quality. They’re braided and you get one for your single-jack devices like phones and consoles, and another for your PCs where you need a separate jack for your input and output. If you happen to misplace the one you need though, you’re stuck looking for it, instead of just being able to reach for one of many standard cables you may have lying around.

The microphone is a large part of the H3, quite literally. A bulky offshoot of the left earcup, the headset features a non-detachable microphone for your gaming convenience. Being attached to the headset it features auto-mute functionality when moved to the upright position, but whether this is enough to balance the non-replaceable nature of it will vary from person to person. The bulk and overall look of it also goes a long way in detracting from the headset’s usability as a normal set of headphones, for those of us looking for an all in one solution.

Small gripes aside though, I did appreciate the microphone a lot. Using this as my primary working from home headset as previously mentioned, the muting functionality has been great for me in meetings, and the quality is more than adequate for Microsoft Teams or calls to friends. If you want a clearer idea of what it sounds like, you can check out my recent GPD Win 3 coverage where I used the headset to record my voice clips.

All in all, the EPOS H3 is a headset I didn’t expect to like half as much as I did. Though my first impressions left me underwhelmed, its comfort and build quality won me over. Lightweight and easy to wear for long durations, this has become my most used headset by far, and will likely continue to be for the foreseeable future. I cannot recommend it enough.

You can find this review in full at GBAtemp.net:
https://gbatemp.net/review/lucidsound-ls50x-wireless-headphones.1799/

Fairly new to the gaming accessory business, LucidSound entered the gaming peripheral space in 2016 as a small team of game industry veterans wanting to make their mark. Acquired by PowerA in 2020, they’ve released a series of headsets targeting different systems. Up for review today is their Xbox-centric flagship, the LS50X.

On the surface, the LS50X is a wireless headset that’ll work on modern Xbox consoles with no mess and no frills, but when you look a bit deeper, you’ll see there’s a fair bit more to it. Out of the box, you begin to get a feel for LucidSound’s overall aesthetic choice. At a glance, I wouldn’t assume the headset to be specifically gaming oriented. Rather a stylish high end generalist product, garnished with a sewn headband and cool metal frame. Everything about this headset screams premium, and at its $249.99 price point, it’s a good thing it does.

Each earcup is designed with a layer of cooling gel and memory foam to make them as comfortable as possible through long play sessions. Even wearing glasses I’ve found them quite comfortable, my only real want being a bit more cushioning on the headband for the peanut-headed like myself. The earcups detaching incredibly easily, you’ll also have no problems should a pet sink their claws into them, or if they just happen to need replacing down the line. Looking to the outer side of the earcups, you can find two sets of volume controls, one on each cup. Controlling these was a bit of a learning curve for me, but it was worth it in the end.

The headset features two modes: gaming mode and Bluetooth mode. Gaming mode connects to the USB dongle for low latency gaming goodness, while Bluetooth mode will connect to, as the name might suggest, any Bluetooth device you have handy. One of my favourite things about this headset is the fact it can simultaneously connect to its dongle and a Bluetooth device, with the active mode affecting which device you’re interacting with using the earcup controls. Using this with the Xbox, it would also allow you to connect to your phone or PC to use something like Discord to talk while still being able to hear the game audio.

It’s about this point I’ll say I don’t actually have an Xbox, though I’ve still been able to make great use of the headset thanks to the USB dongle being detected as an Xbox controller on Windows. Through this, you’re able to select it as an audio output and input device as normal. I mention this here because if you’re not actually using an Xbox, the controls on the right earcup don’t really do much in gaming mode. Usually allowing you to mix the game audio and voice chat to your liking, I haven’t found it to make any difference running on Windows, this something you can easily do by playing with sound settings anyway. You can still press the button on the right earcup to mute the microphone though. In Bluetooth mode, the right wheel allows you to move to the previous and next track.

The left cup houses the same wheel and button, the wheel this time controlling volume. Holding down the button will let you switch between gaming and Bluetooth mode, with the volume wheel affecting the device of its respective mode. Using this, I was able to tweak the audio balance of the music I was listening to via Bluetooth mode, and the game audio I had from my PC in gaming mode. It’s all seamless once you know how it works. Tapping the button in gaming mode will also mute all audio, while tapping it in Bluetooth mode is your traditional play/pause button.

For how few components there are, you have plenty of control to be working with. As previously mentioned, this did take me a short while to fully get accustomed to, but in the end it was definitely worth the effort. 

Looking to the audio quality, it just sounds right. No matter the game I put against these, the audio comes through exactly as it should. It doesn’t have the frills or enhancements I came to love with Creative’s SXFI features, but it doesn’t feel lacklustre either. The microphone is also clear and incredibly easy to detach and put elsewhere should you want to take the headset on the go. With up to 20 hours of battery life in gaming mode, and going beyond that if sticking with Bluetooth devices, it really is a headset for every occasion.

Having said that, is it worth the £249.99 LucidSound are asking? Maybe. For people like myself without an Xbox, there are far more competitive offerings at a similar price point, and while this does work brilliantly with Windows, you’ll find there are cheaper alternatives that work just as well. If you are in the market for a great headset for your Xbox and beyond though, and have a decent budget, they’re definitely one to consider. With a slimmer market of compatibility and quality, the hefty price is at least a little easier to justify, and the premium product will make sure you don’t regret it.

You can find this review in full at GBAtemp.net:
https://gbatemp.net/review/retroflag-nes-style-hard-drive-enclosure.1786/

A company known mostly for their range of Raspberry Pi cases, we’ve previously covered Retroflag’s latest and greatest NES-themed design. While the case was nice, and you can find Shaun’s thoughts on it here, one part jumped out to me in particular: the drive enclosure. Where 2.5 inch drive support is a great feature in itself, Retroflag went all out to match the theming, which brings us to where we are today, looking at their standalone NES style hard drive enclosure.

If you did take a moment to read our NESPi 4 review or happen to own one yourself, you’ll know Retroflag aren’t exactly reinventing the wheel here. The NES cartridge enclosures were already included with the NESPi 4 after all. What held this back from a more mainstream use case however is the fact the case simply wraps around the cartridge, preserving the usual SATA interface at the bottom. While this could still have appeal if you wanted to mount them in the glass window of a desktop case, you’d realistically only be using this with the Pi 4 case it came with. All of that is different now though, thanks to the similarly well-themed cartridge case.

Every time I look at the enclosure and the “enclosure enclosure”, I can’t help but smile. Retroflag really did an incredible job in matching the look and feel of a NES cartridge, the only real discrepancy being the smaller form factor as to snugly fit a 7mm 2.5 inch drive and little else. The drive is secured to the back of the cartridge with two screws, with the two halves of the cartridge held together by a further two screws. Needing a screwdriver handy to replace the drive can be a pain for some, and does detract slightly from the overall ease of use. If you’re just going to be putting an SSD or HDD in this and never changing it though, I doubt this will be an issue. Putting the cartridge into its enclosure case is as seamless as putting a NES cartridge into a sleeve, which could open a market for selling the cartridge cases separately to the sleeves for those with a good few drives lying around like myself.

Assessing the performance of a drive enclosure is somewhat difficult, since there’s a myriad of external factors to consider that may make my experience different to yours. For the sake of simplicity, I decided to run the same few basic tests with the same Kingston SSD (SA400S37/240G for those wanting the specific model) and cable in both the Retroflag enclosure and the Stockplop I’d been using previously. You can find the results below, with the Stockplop being tested first, and the Retroflag enclosure second.

From the brief tests above, you can see both enclosures have similar offerings in terms of performance. While it is a little disappointing to see a USB 3.0 Micro B port over a USB C on the more modern Retroflag enclosure, I don’t see it quite as sinful as a standard Micro USB on some of the more premium products we’ve reviewed.

Coming in both gold and grey with a black sleeve to wrap it up, Retroflag’s drive enclosure is something special. Capturing the feel and design of these traditional cartridges, it’s a well-built and affordable option at $20. If you’re needing a new external solution or just somewhere to stow a surplus drive, I can’t recommend it enough.

You can find this review in full at GBAtemp.net:
https://gbatemp.net/review/monster-hunter-rise.1770/

I love hunting monsters. I want to preface my review with that. Joining the series many moons ago with Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate on both Wii U and 3DS, I’ve found myself excited for each new release, even going out of my way to play the 3DS games 4G and Double Cross before they hit western shores. It’s a marvellous series of grinding for the sake of grinding, and having a great time doing so with friends. Quite happily, I can say Rise is no different in this department.

The setting of our latest entry to the series is Kamura Village, a traditional Japanese-themed environment. As a recently-qualified hunter, it’s your job to go out on quests and strategically hit things to death with an assortment of fun weapons. The game doesn’t give you much in the way of plot to sink your teeth into. Monsters are getting angrier than usual and attacking the village in what is known as a Rampage. This is the first time it’s happened in 50 years, and you’d better be sure you’re going to find out what’s causing it! After a small bulk of text to introduce you to the village and the various shops you’ll no doubt be frequenting, you’re left to your own devices as to how you want to progress through the game.

As with the majority of previous games, World excluded, quests are split into two categories: Village and Gathering Hub, with quests further split between low and high rank. Typically speaking, village quests are where you’ll find the game’s story. Featuring monsters with weaker attacks and less HP, this is the exclusively single player portion of the game, and the ideal place to start for newcomers or those who want to explore what little narrative there is. Hub on the other hand is where the multiplayer content, and often the bulk of the quests lie. Featuring tougher monsters that are usually balanced to tackle multiple hunters at once, hub quests are where the real challenge and meat of the game can be found. Wanting to experience all that the game has to offer, I decided to start with village.

Village quests are broken down much as they have been in previous games. You have different ranks of difficulty, denoted by stars, with you needing to beat set quests in each rank to progress to the next. Rinse and repeat until you’re playing quests in the highest rank. One of the most significant quality of life changes jumps out to you as soon as you enter the quest menu: key quests are marked. And you don’t need to beat every key quest to progress. What this means for people who perhaps don’t want to meander through every quest is that they can pick and choose the ones that sound best for them. Not having to check a guide online to find out what’s required is a brilliant bonus too.

Looking at the quests themselves, I find myself mixed. As you work through what’s on offer in Kamura Village, you’ll find yourself constantly put against new threats. That’s great. It keeps things fresh. Where my problem lies is in the fact that these new threats are the vast majority of the content; that is to say a quest that requires you to hunt a single monster. I like hunting monsters, but I want more. With Generations Ultimate as its Switch predecessor, I almost feel spoiled for just how much was available to me. There were double monster hunts, hunt-a-thons where you’d be required to hunt at least three, quests based in the arena, standard three, four, five monster quests. More than anything, there were quests, numerically speaking. Looking solely at the low rank village offerings of Generations Ultimate, I could count 189 available quests on my incomplete save file. Village quests here total 53, with more than half of these being a single monster hunt to make said monster available to you. One pleasant surprise to village questing is how it does actually have an impact on your hunter rank now, the number that dictates which quests you can take on in the gathering hub. Traditionally, these are entirely disconnected, requiring you to hunt all the same monsters again. Now though, you’re given special licence quests to complete after achieving so much in the village. These quests are absolutely brilliant fun, and completely stand apart from the rest of the village offerings in the challenge on offer. Beating all three of these quests as they come up will propel you to high rank in the hub, which is especially nice given there’s no high rank village quests.

The gathering hub has similar offerings to that of its village counterparts. Notably here though, is the complete omission of gathering quests. There are absolutely none that can be done in a multiplayer environment, and only a handful of small monster hunts. It may be a game about hunting big monsters, but when there’s content that could so easily be made into quests just sitting there unused and your content offering is so limited, it seems foolish not to use it. Of interest, hub quests dynamically scale in difficulty based on the number of people hunting. This means monsters are perfectly manageable solo, and don’t become too easily overwhelmed should you decide to play with others. In my experience, I found quests lasting between 10 and 15 minutes regardless of whether I was playing solo or with others. Though this is far shorter than I’m used to in other games, often exceeding 30 minutes per quest in older titles, monsters still pack a punch. Even in endgame armour, I found myself feeling vulnerable if I let my guard down, regardless of the monster being fought. The quests that are available, though limited in number, have genuinely provided the most fun I’ve had with the series to date, much of this fun supported by the gameplay of World blended with the new Wirebug mechanic.

This game’s gimmick of sorts, the Wirebug is fantastic, and I’ve only come to enjoy its inclusion more as I’ve spent more time with the game. It’s really one of those additions that are what you make of them, and they have a great deal of useful utility. At a basic level, you can aim in any direction with ZL, and propel yourself using ZR, this consuming one Wirebug charge. Using this, you can get around maps and explore in a way previous games just couldn’t manage. On top of this though you have Wirebug attacks, powerful moves unique to each weapon. I’m really fond of how some of these bring back abilities seen in previous games, with several Hunter Arts from Generations making an appearance in this form. With each weapon also having a degree of customisation in the form of Switch Skills, you can tune your hunting experience to how you want to play in a fun and unique way. With my Dual Blade setup for example, I feel like I’m playing a blend of the adept and aerial styles of Generations, with one Switch Skill allowing me to propel myself into the air, and another allowing me to dodge into an attack to deal damage to a monster. This kind of freedom is welcome, and gives you a number of ways to keep the same weapon fresh.

Rise gives you five areas to hunt in. You have the green area, the desert, the ice place, the volcano, and one kind of unique place, as well as a few special arenas. Of the five core maps available, three are new to the series: Shrine Ruins, Frost Islands, and Lava Caverns. Shrine Ruins ties in well with the larger traditional Japanese theming of the game, littered with abandoned buildings, and a large mountainous area to explore. Of the new maps, it’s by far my favourite, with the other two feeling a little more by the books. The best maps of the game for me however were the two I’ve yet to mention: Sandy Plains and Flooded Forest, both originating in the series’ third generation of games. What they’ve done to these two maps is nothing short of magic, and to see the developers at Capcom try to rationalise the spaghetti of previously-zoned maps is a joy. Though the Flooded Forest is notably less flooded than it was in 3 Ultimate and more swamp-like, there are plenty of key areas you can pick out and say “hey, I remember here!”, and even some that made me go back to 3U and realise I never noticed them. I mean, how many of us really noticed the colossal pyramid in area two? I certainly didn’t.

While I found myself really enjoying the maps available, to my surprise I had the most fun with the new arena. The arena itself isn’t anything out of the ordinary. It’s a big circle with a few new destructible towers you can climb up, and the usual button-operated fence down the middle to split up monsters where you’re fighting more than one. What makes this arena more fun than usual is the fact the dividing fence can be scaled, completely mitigating the frustrating minutes of downtime should you accidentally seal both monsters on the other side of the fence from you. The few quests available in this area stand out to me as my shining moments with the game, and goes onto highlight a change made to monster behaviour in other areas.

Of the abilities the Wirebug grants you, one I neglected to mention earlier was Wyvern Riding. Similar to mounting in previous games, you can ride a monster after inflicting so much damage using Wirebug attacks. While you’re on the monster, you actually have some control and choice in what you’re doing. You can move the monster around, and make it fight other monsters with a combination of strong and weak attacks. On top of this, you can launch the monster you’re riding into a wall, or other monsters, to inflict a fair amount of damage. It’s great to actually do something with a mount, and the game really incentivises it with up to three shiny drops being available per monster when attacking a monster while mounted. These mounts ultimately end in a finisher, which leaves the monster knocked down and vulnerable to more typical abuse from hunters. On paper, this all checks out, but to accommodate for the fact the game wants you to bring monsters together to fight each other, a change was made to how monsters interact with one another, and the group hunting them.

Unlike in previous titles, monsters don’t really gang up on you. After using the finisher to immobilise the monster you’re fighting, your mount just… leaves? In my 120 hours of playing, I haven’t used a single dung bomb, these usually handy for making a monster run away from you. They just aren’t needed. If two large monsters are in the same area, you’ll see either a turf war or a small attack sequence that results in one monster becoming mountable. If you finish or mess up the mount, they’ll just leave the area anyway. Monsters fight other monsters–that’s cool! But losing the pressure of having multiple threats chasing you down is a big loss for me. The only time you run into this now is in the arena, where the fence is used to balance the threat in a closed space admittedly well.

When it comes to an endgame for Rise, there’s only really one option for you: Rampages. The hot new thing to grace the series, a Rampage is ultimately a Monster Hunter-themed tower defence game. You’ll place down turrets and face a few waves of monsters, before eventually slaying the leader of the Rampage to secure the victory. Based on how many objectives you complete during the quest, you’re ranked and given rewards to match. I think they’re great fun, but they rely heavily on you playing with other people to bring out their best. Much like hub quests, difficulty is scaled based on player count. This means you can play this game mode solo should you want to and utilise what automatic turrets are available to their fullest. Where I had the most fun though was basking in the frantic nature of the game mode with friends over an equally-frantic voice chat. You can also be paired up with random people, which has been a far better experience than I would have expected. I do feel matchmaking will drop off after the initial hype of launch dies down though.

What makes Rampages so good for endgame grinding is the rewards you get from completing them. Frankly, you get a lot, and a lot is exactly what you need if you’re wanting the best gear. While crafting armour and weapons relies on you collecting a set list of things from a variety of monsters and gathering points, talismans are different. Talismans are equipment that come with skills, and slots to put skills in for yourself. What makes talismans so powerful is the fact the skills they offer you are random, and some combinations just can’t be found in armour alone. To get talismans, you need to throw your leftover monster parts into the melding pot. With each part being assigned a point value, you need to put in a set amount of points to be awarded a random talisman. Since Rampages offer a lot of parts, as well as tickets that have a high point value, they’re where you’ll be spending most of your time if you want a constant stream of talismans. It can be frustrating. With so many possibilities, getting exactly what you want is incredibly uncommon, creating a somewhat artificial stream of content to support the lacklustre amount of standard quests. It’s fine, but if you don’t enjoy Rampages, you’ll find yourself running out of things to do once the final boss has fallen.

All in all, Monster Hunter Rise has me conflicted. It is without a doubt the peak of the series when it comes to gameplay and overall ease of access. Where it falls short however is in its sheer lack of content at launch. While I have no doubt this will be rectified over time, with the first major update scheduled for later this month, I can’t hide my disappointment in just how little there is to do for somebody like myself who’s already seen and done it all. For now, I’ll keep doing the occasional Rampage with friends and happily replay 3U on the side, waiting eagerly for when that new content drops.

You can find this review in full at GBAtemp.net:
https://gbatemp.net/review/matias-programmable-ergo-pro-keyboard.1768/

In my time writing for GBAtemp, I’ve reviewed many a keyboard. Big and small, modern and garish, I’ve had a bit of everything. Of those used, I’ve struggled to find a more delightful typing experience than that of the Ultimate Hacking Keyboard. A split ergonomic design, it’s been my go-to for more than a year now. Much to my surprise, it has been dethroned, and by something so unassuming and normal looking–at least as normal as a split keyboard can look anyway. Let me introduce you to the Matias Programmable Ergo Pro.

The Ergo Pro sports a split tenkeyless design, featuring defined arrow keys and navigation buttons. Everything you’d expect from a tenkeyless keyboard is here with no attempt to obscure functionality behind layers as the Ultimate Hacking Keyboard did. This comes with its own set of pros and cons. At a surface level, it makes the keyboard incredibly easy to pick up and use with no real learning curve. And that’s because really there’s nothing to learn. If you’ve used a keyboard before, you’ll find pretty much everything where you’d expect it. The exception here is the quartet of navigation buttons, them now sitting next to the arrow keys in a cluster. I’m quite fond of this location, making them easier to reach and use. Though the Ergo Pro is easier to use out of the box, to say this is better overall would be to entirely overlook the purpose of these layers in other keyboards; they’re designed for ease of use and comfort in the long-term. Once you’ve adjusted to them, you find your hands moving less to reach for keys, and your productivity as a whole increasing. It’s not to say one approach is inherently better than the other, but different people will certainly have their preferences.

As split keyboards go, the options for use are also fairly standard, but still worth mentioning. The Ergo Pro supports three layouts: flat, negative tilt, and tented. This is achieved using three feet on each half that can be folded and unfolded to suit your desired layout. Interestingly, positive tilt just isn’t an option, perhaps because of the negative ergonomic impacts of positive tilt, its only real purpose being to make the lettering on the keys more visible. Thankfully, adjusting to both negative tilt and tented isn’t a difficult process, especially with a keyboard like this. Before going back to my usual tented layout, I did decide to give negative tilt a shot, and was pleasantly surprised by the experience. Tilted will however always be my recommendation where available; it just feels natural. It’s here I’ll also mention you have no option to join the keyboard halves together for a more traditional keyboard. This is an exclusively split keyboard, so just be aware of that before considering a purchase.

Looking to the features of the Ergo Pro, there’s little in the way of bells and whistles. As its programmable title would have you believe, there are a set of keys available to be remapped as you like. These include the twelve function keys, a blank key on the right half of the keyboard, both space keys, and the three (or four if you have a US layout) on the left half that are by default mapped to cut, copy, and paste. These can be remapped without any kind of software or driver by holding down the escape key and the key you’re wanting to remap. After this, you can enter a string of around 60 characters to be saved and reused as you wish. Really I have no complaints about this. It does lack some of the finesse you may find with software-supported macros, such as specified timings, but as a whole it’s a simple function I’m happy to see. A part of me does however wish the three keys dedicated to cut, copy, and paste had a more useful base function. While it’s great to have these keys and to remap them, their base functionality is incredibly redundant, especially on a keyboard trying to emphasise ergonomics. It’s far more straining to have to reach for these keys than it is to just use the standard two-key shortcuts.

The switches under the hood are something somewhat unique to Matias, their own Quiet Click design. Advertised as the world’s quietest mechanical switches, they’re actually a clone of the now-discontinued Alps SKBM Black. Unfortunately having not used those, the best comparison I could make is a similar feel to a brown switch, with a sound profile closer to a membrane keyboard. It’s really quite impressive. I can’t say for sure whether they really are the world’s quietest, but it wouldn’t surprise me. They’re a genuine joy to type on, and I can see them exceling in an office environment, or even for those now working from home and needing to type while on calls to colleagues.

There are however certain eccentricities you may have come to accept as standard missing here. The most notable of these would be a form of backlighting for the keys, though I can somewhat understand the rationale for skipping out on them in this instance. For one they just wouldn’t fit in with the keyboard design, but there is more to it. After a year of using my Ultimate Hacking Keyboard, I can certainly understand why any split keyboard would skip out on backlighting. To be blunt, you’re not supposed to be looking at the keys, and with this keyboard in my opinion targeting the office audience more than gaming, it’s expecting you to be in a well-lit environment anyway. The only out of the ordinary feature you can expect to find on this keyboard is the fact that there’s three USB 2.0 ports built into the right half. I don’t personally use them since my laptop struggles to give the keyboard enough power to get any usable performance out of them, but it’s an interesting addition if nothing else.

From a design standpoint, it’s something that you’d expect to see in an office too. It’s plain with a black plastic body, and an unassuming wrist rest. Nothing about it particularly screams premium, and this does extend to its choice of ports. The right half connects to the PC via micro USB, and the keyboard halves are joined using a 3.5mm cable, similar to what a pair of earphones relies on. Contrary to how it looks though, the keyboard feels sturdy, the gel wrist rest is one of the comfiest I’ve had the pleasure of using, and Matias even go out of their way to provide several cables of differing lengths for different use cases. On the surface, it’s such an easy keyboard to overlook, but it shines in its performance and usability. There’s even different models for PC and Mac, as well as a UK variant for PC that I always appreciate, as well as the US model available for both PC and Mac.

The Ergo Pro is a bit of a hard sell and I understand that, especially at its £220 price point. It’s nothing to look at, and it lacks the flair to show off as a desk centrepiece. Having said that, it stands above every other keyboard I’ve reviewed in terms of usability and comfort. I genuinely look forward to eventually finding a keyboard to dethrone this, because it’ll really have to be something extraordinary.

You can find this review in full at GBAtemp.net:
https://gbatemp.net/review/targus-strike-gaming-backpack.1730/

Backpacks are probably the last thing on your mind at the moment. After all, in the midst of a pandemic, you’re not exactly planning many outings. Having said that, I’ve found myself with a problem. I have a friend that’s a two mile walk away who lives alone. I like to check in with him and play some games while I’m there, but I’ve never really had the right bag for it. While I love the Sefu bag I reviewed many moons ago, that’s only really useful for the Switch. If I want to bring my laptop, a keyboard, some controllers, maybe even some snacks, you want something bigger, but also something comfier. Having never owned a backpack specifically designed for gaming, I was eager to see what makes Targus’ Strike gaming backpack different to any old bag.

Now pulling it out of the box for the first time was when I realised just how big a 17 inch laptop actually is. The bag designed to house a laptop to this size, I soon realised just how poultry my 13 inch Razer Blade Stealth was. Nevertheless, I began to explore what the Strike had to offer. On the surface, there’s nothing that necessarily screams gamer to your average onlooker. The bag has three key compartments. The largest of these sitting closest to your back is designed to house the aforementioned 17 inch laptop. Moving forward, the middle compartment contains a large pocket to stow a keyboard, as well as a small zippable mesh pouch at the bottom. It’s here I found myself storing most of the random things I carry with me. There’s even a Velcro loop at the top of this section for hanging a set of headphones. It’s really quite marvellous. The front compartment, though the smallest, still offers ample space, and again has pockets for specific items. It’s here you’re expected to store a mouse, an external HDD, and even some spare wires. Beyond these pockets, there’s also again a reasonable amount of space, this being where I keep my spare USB controller.

Outside of the main three compartments, you also have a few smaller pouches. The one right at the front of the bag is somewhat of a mystery to me, and I really haven’t found anything I’d want to put in it. While it’s always nice to have more options, there just isn’t enough give to fit much more than a few wires. On one side of the bag you have a mesh pouch to hold a drink, and to the other a small pocket fit to hold something around the size of a phone. Hidden away on the back of the bag, you have a final pouch that’s completely hidden from view when worn. This one in particular is a really nice addition for keeping your valuables close to you.

Putting the bag on for the first time was an odd experience. At first, it felt like a turtle shell. There’s no real way to avoid this as somebody who has only ever really indulged in smaller bags. The straps being quite heavily padded, they rest on my shoulders incredibly comfortably, with me feeling no noticeable strain after a 20 minute mostly-uphill walk. There’s also a chest strap that I think helps with the weight distribution, but I’ve never been too fond of these myself. It’s a bit of a shame there’s no noticeable way to remove it, but it’s a minor complaint. All in all, the Strike is by far the most comfortable bag I’ve ever owned.

One interesting area Targus put effort in was visibility. This does make a lot of sense should you find yourself cycling or traveling at night, and the majority of their efforts are quite subtle. Including reflective strips in the front of the bag is a nice touch, and complements the larger design while still being functional. There is one more thing they added though, that may not be to everybody’s taste. This is the integrated rain cover. It’s stored right at the bottom of the bag behind a zipper you would probably miss if you didn’t already know it was there. It’s tethered to the bag and provides quick and effective shelter from the rain. My issue with it? It’s luminescent yellow. Don’t get me wrong, it’s functional. I threw some water over the bag and nothing got through, and you would certainly have no issue spotting me on a rainy night. It’s just a bit much for me, though I understand I’m somewhat splitting hairs here.

After all of this, there really remains one burning question: exactly what can you fit into the bag? To run you through my own setup, we’ll again go from back to front. As mentioned before, I don’t actually have a 17 inch laptop, so putting my smaller laptop in the largest compartment feels a bit of a waste. With that in mind, I decided to instead throw my original PS4 in there. It’s a really nice fit, and it feels secure and safe thanks to the padded innards, with some spare space above the console. In the middle compartment, I stowed my laptop and a set of headphones, as well as the power cable for the PS4 in the mesh pocket at the bottom. I also threw in a 65% mechanical keyboard in its designated spot. At the front, I have a mouse and external hard drive, as well as a loose PS4 controller. And that’s everything! It’s worth adding that I didn’t use the frontmost compartment due to it just being too tight for anything else I might want to carry. A phone charger probably wouldn’t go amiss here though, if you’re looking to utilise every available space. 

While it’s easy to say any large bag excels in storage, I’m really fond of the details Targus put in here, especially given this is their only specialised gaming product. Everything inside the bag feels safe, and wearing it is certainly comfortable. Targus have gone out of their way to make sure everything you might want to take with you has its proper place, and that it’ll get there safely. To be honest, I’d love to see Targus experiment a little more with the gaming market to come up with smaller bags with the same quality and comfort on show here for smaller laptops and consoles like the Switch. Ultimately though, the Strike is a fantastic backpack, and I wholeheartedly recommend it should you soon find yourself outdoors again.