The Morning After: Zelda: The Skyward Sword and 19 more games are coming to the Switch – Engadget

Earlier this week, Nintendo teased a livestream for upcoming games. Maybe some remastered Zelda titles for the Switch, finally? It is the 35th anniversary of the game series, and Mario got the treatment last year.

Well, yes we got one. The company blazed through 20 new game announcements, saving the best for last: a remake of Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword and a Splatoon sequel.

We’ll come back to the former, but the presentation also revealed a new Mario Golf game, Fall Guys, which is heading to Switch this summer, and Famicom Detective Club, a visual novel style game being localized for the US. Also, a Ninja Gaiden collection and Knockout City, a dodgeball-inspired game coming not only to Switch, but also PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

But back to arguably the main reveal. The original Skyward Sword was a mainline Zelda title that launched, unfortunately, on the Wii U. Nintendo’s beleaguered predecessor to the Switch struggled to sell throughout its lifetime. The game, too, was divisive, with many complaints about filler tasks, a quirky motion-controlled battle interface and, apparently, a harp, which is now a trigger word for those who played the original.

But hey, you got your Zelda remake, OK? Even if it’s not the one you (or I) wanted. Watch all the highlights right here.

— Mat Smith

So let the great American public decide.

Amazon announced its “Day 1” hardware program last year, with Amazon’s Echo Frames being the first hardware to graduate to general availability. Now, the company is expanding the program into “Built It.” It’s directly taking consumer interest into account when deciding whether to sell the products, which include a a cute cuckoo clock, a minimalist smart nutrition scale and a very desirable (just me?) sticky note printer. Notably, none of them looks like Amazon-styled hardware, which is a good thing.

You can order them now, but Amazon will only make them if they hit a sales goal by March 19th. If they do, you’ll get charged and receive the item at some point between July and September this year. The scale is priced at $35, the clock is $80 and the printer is $90. Continue reading.

And a plug for its newest, priciest headphones.

Inside its iOS 14.5 beta, Apple’s 217 new emoji options focus on inclusivity. 200 of these are combination emoji for mixed-race couples. Apple has restyled the syringe emoji to be less, well, gory. When most of us are talking about COVID-19 vaccinations, it seems a better fit. Apple also replaced the generic black over-ear headphone emoji with an icon that more closely represents its AirPod Max headphones in all white. Unless you’re on the iOS beta, expect to see these new emoji later in the spring. Continue reading.

It might be a smaller counterpart to the Sonos Move.

The smart speaker firm is holding a virtual “special event” on March 9th at 4 PM ET. The company’s invitation doesn’t say much, but the photo of someone wandering through nature suggests it might introduce another outdoor-friendly portable speaker. And so do the rumors. Continue reading.

‘Far Cry 4,’ ‘Sniper Elite 4’ and ‘Watch Dogs 2’ are up first.

As promised, the Xbox Series X and S will be able to play a few older games with higher frame rates starting today. The company is rolling out its FPS Boost feature for a few backward compatible Xbox One titles, including Far Cry 4 and Watch Dogs 2. Don’t expect every old game of note to get the treatment, however. The FPS Boost technique doesn’t work for all titles as it would cause characters to animate twice as fast or destroy the way physics simulations work. Continue reading.