Keymander Nexus is a handy KVM switch for all your gaming devices

By Giovanni Colantonio Published January 6, 2022

Iogear unveiled a new line of gaming products at CES 2022, including its Keymander Nexus Gaming KVM. The device allows players to connect consoles and PCs to one box so they can share a monitor, keyboard, and mouse.

Scheduled to release sometime this spring, the Keymander Nexus is compatible with all current consoles, including the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch. When a monitor and controls are plugged in, players can quickly toggle between devices with the press of a button. Theoretically, this would give players an easy way to use mouse and keyboard on console games without plugging and unplugging accessories when switching systems.

The Keymander Nexus gaming VKM switch sits on a white background. — Image used with permission by copyright holder

The device supports 4K gaming at 60Hz via HDMI 2.1, so it can’t take full advantage of the current PlayStation and Xbox consoles. It has limited support for PS5, as the device won’t work with a DualSense controller at the moment. It can use Switch, PS4, and Xbox controllers, though.

The Keymander Nexus has a few more tricks up its sleeve. It has built-in DAC that reportedly enhances game audio, and it connects to an app that can be used to adjust key mapping, mouse sensitivity, and more.

The device will retail for $200 and Iogear is hoping to have it out by June.

This is just one many gaming products Iogear brought to this year’s show. The company showed off a compact 65% Mechlite Nano keyboard, a full-sized Hver Stealth model, and the Unikomm, a full-featured gaming headset that’ll retail for only $30 when it launches sometime this year.

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Giovanni Colantonio

Section Editor, Gaming

Giovanni is a writer and video producer focusing on happenings in the video game industry. He has contributed stories to…

Gaming

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle R improves an already great fighting game

Jotaro Kujo stands before a battle in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle R.

While Street Fighter 6 was the talk of the show floor at Summer Game Fest Play Days, another fighting game also managed to impress me at the event. That title was JoJo's Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle R, a fighting game based on the popular and heavily-memed anime and manga series JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. The original JoJo's Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle was first released in Japan in 2013, scoring a rare perfect score from the popular Japanese outlet Famitsu. Anime fighting games vary wildly in quality, but this was considered one of the better ones thanks to its thoughtful and rewarding gameplay.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle R continues that game's legacy as an enhanced remaster that does more than visually update the game and turn servers back. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle R adds in new characters, voice acting, and gameplay tweaks that almost make it feel like a different game. In the years since the 2013 game this is based on came out, both JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and the fighting game genre got a lot more popular. Thankfully, my demo showed that this fighting game has only gotten better with age.
To be continued
Although JoJo's Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle R didn't get a remake-level visual overhaul, fans should still appreciate many of the graphical tweaks and just how pretty this game is. Even though I was playing a PS4, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle R was one of the best-looking games at Summer Game Fest Play Days. The anime already has an extremely distinct art style and features a cast of overly-muscular characters, so it transitions to a fighting game almost perfectly. Pulling off special moves that you've seen in the manga and anime or calling out a stand yourself is super satisfying, and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle R will show them in all of their extremely detailed glory.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R - Early Access Demo
Even the voiceovers and character models got updates to match the voice acting and styles fans will remember from the anime. We don't get many video games based on JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, so it's nice to see this one put in extra care to respect the source material and improve upon the original release. That said, graphics will only get you so far in a fighting game. It's the gameplay mechanics that really ensure a fighting game lives or dies.
Thankfully, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle R is a lot of fun to play.
The 2013 original was a 3D fighting game that plays more like Virtua Fighter than Jump Force. The standard attacks, combo, block, and dodge moves to be expected from fighting games are here, but characters can also summon their stands and basically get a second fighter to attack and zone with. Fights also have some other cute oddities, like having an assist character to strengthen some of your attacks or being able to taunt the other player when they are knocked down to take away some of their special meter gauges. That taunt feature specifically is not only hilarious but feels very JoJo and adds palpable benefits to what's usually just a visual gag in fighting games.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle R does add a couple of new gameplay additions that players will definitely notice, including hit stops and jump dashes that give that game more competitive depth, as well as flash cancels that let players quickly cancel their current combo if they don't want to change their approach or the moves they are using

I didn't have enough time to kit out and learn combos and how to string them together, but I can clearly recognize just how these features will positively deepen JoJo's Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle R's meta. With auto combos for new players and revitalized online play too, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle R hopefully won't have a problem attracting new JoJo's Bizzare Adventure fans to this fighting game. Whether you enjoyed the original release or want to see what a good JoJo's Bizarre Adventure game looks like, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle R should be on your radar. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle R launches for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch on September 2. If you want to try it before then, a demo is available on PS4 and PS5 until June 21.

Gaming

iOS 16 lets you pair Nintendo Switch controllers to your iPhone

Two players play Nintendo Switch.

Apple forgot to mention one important detail about iOS 16 at its annual WWDC conference yesterday: iPhone users will be able to play games with their Nintendo Switch Pro and Joy-Con controllers.

iOS 16 won't be released to everyone's iPhones until fall, but it is currently out as a developer preview, giving devs ample opportunities to test out and discover some of the new operating system's quirks and exploits. Riley Testut, the developer behind the Delta emulator and AltStore, shared his discovery of iOS 16 natively supporting the Nintendo Switch Pro and Joy-Con controllers, although they show up as a single device. He reported that "they work perfectly with Delta," which emulates games from SNES, Nintendo 64, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance.

Gaming

How to manage your dreaded video game backlog

Aloy looks over a gorgeous open world in Horizon Forbidden West.

When you hear the term “Spring Cleaning,” you probably think about the old mail you could throw away or that bathroom that needs scrubbing. Usually, it’s a physical process that involves tidying your space. But for gamers, their digital space can often become much more cluttered than their physical one. Case in point: The dreaded backlog.

“Backlog” is a common term players use to describe their piles of untouched games. Bought Horizon Forbidden West, but have been too busy with Elden Ring to start it? It’s in the backlog now. Do you grab free games from services like PS Plus every month, but never download them? They’re stuck in backlog purgatory. Picked up itch.io’s latest indie bundle, which is raising money for Ukraine by offering donors 1,000 products? Your backlog will never recover (but at least that one was for a good cause).