Our favorite early Black Friday deals

If you want to become an expert of everything Zelda, let this official encyclopedia on the franchise be your guide to Hyrule’s creatures, weapons, items, and more. Just note that the Switch era titles (Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom) aren’t included.

R. F. Kuang’s Babel was one of Polygon’s favorite sci-fi fiction and fantasy books of 2022, mixing fantasy with historical fiction as it critiques British imperialism. It made headlines for its baffling disqualification for the Hugo Awards.

You ought to treat yourself (or a near and dear LOTR fan) to this hardcover version of The Hobbit while it’s almost half off. It contains drawings and full-color illustrations by J.R.R. Tolkien. Use the on-page coupon to save another $2.62.

The story of a boy with a vivid imagination and his best friend (a stuffed tiger, naturally) defined many a childhood. This four-volume paperback box set — also sold as three hardcover books — features every Calvin and Hobbes cartoon that appeared in syndication from 1985 until Bill Watterson’s retirement in 1996. Use the on-page coupon to save $41.66 on the hardcover version at Amazon.

While much tougher to install than a microSD card, Corsair’s MP600 Mini 2 TB M.2 SSD is worth the effort if you want faster storage for your games. But you’ll likely need some tools, like this iFixit Essentials tool kit for $30, to open up your Steam Deck.

LG’s entry-level B4 OLED has many of the same great gaming features as the pricier C4. Its HDMI 2.1 ports and 120 Hz refresh rate will get you the most out of your PS5 or Xbox Series X.

Experience 15 seminal Godzilla films in high-definition digital transfer in a gorgeously designed box set. This just one of a great many Criterion Collection movies currently 50% off through Black Friday.

An all-time classic fairytale of swashbuckling adventure and… is that Lieutenant Columbo reading Fred Savage a bedtime story? Inconceivable!

Nintendo’s follow-up to the incredible Breath of the Wild found a way to go even bigger, both in sheer scale of the world but also in its “Hyrule engineering” system that has allowed players to go very out there with their machinations.

One of the best anime movies of all time, Akira tells the story of two friends, Kaneda and Tetsuo, and some wildly trippy and heartwrenching conflicts that drive them apart. If it’s your first time seeing Akira, the less you know going in, the better. Probably.

Microsoft’s Xbox Series X can really open you up to more games, especially when you also gift a subscription to Xbox Game Pass, which gives you access to many top titles to play from day one.

Combining the freeform irreverence of Lego with the more serious themes of Horizon shouldn’t work this good, and yet (and yet!) what better medium to adapt giantrobot dinosaurs than with Lego blocks? Fanatical is offering 15% off on this game and many others when you use the code FANATICAL15.

Players: 1-4, ages 14+
Playtime: 60 min.

Wingspan designer Elizabeth Hargrave’s latest effort is a fascinating exploration of a legendary — and controversial — experiment. Funded by the Soviet Union in 1958, it involved scientists using selective breeding in the hopes of transforming a wild species into a domesticated partner. Hargrave’s design focuses purely on breeding the friendliest foxes.

Players: 1-5, ages 14+
Playtime: 40 min.

Marvel United: X-Men, with its delightful chibi-style miniatures, lets players build a team of mutant heroes or take control of a supervillain to try to thwart the heroes’ plans.

Players: 2-4, aged 8+
Playtime: 30-45 min.

This lovely tile-laying game is enchanting, easy to pick up, and a great game to keep around for chill game nights. Specific tile patterns and complete sets earn you points, but wasting tiles can set you back. Once all the tiles are gone, the player with the most points wins.

Players: 2, aged 10+
Playtime: 30 min.

7 Wonders Duel is a two-player variant of the classic board game 7 Wonders. Players acquire cards in the interest of advancing either military or scientific developments, with the goal of either reaching their opponent’s capital through military might, or becoming a culturally dominant force through scientific discoveries.

Players: 2-5, aged 10+
Playtime: 20-90 min.

Ticket to Ride: Legends of the West is a high-concept legacy-style campaign game we think you’ll love. Instead of retelling American history, Legends of the West tosses it right out the window. In its place is a transcontinental mystery, with players expanding outward across a landscape that, by the end of 12 linked games, displays only a passing resemblance to our continent. The results are surprising and really something special.

Never lug a console on vacation again with this game streaming bundle. It includes a Fire TV stick, a gorgeous Sky Cipher Xbox controller, and one month of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for streaming games over the cloud.

Forget touch controls or a phone clip; snap this on your iPhone or Android phone to turn it into a premium handheld device, whether you’re streaming Xbox or PS5 titles, playing Genshin Impact. A PlayStation version is also available.

Through 11/23, you can save an extra $5 on this controller (which comes with a USB-C cable) at Woot by entering the code XBOXNOW at checkout.

One of the weirdest crime dramas you can play, complete with its own full-featured Animal Crossing parody. As of this writing, both the Xbox and PlayStation versions are on sale.

Capcom’s cult classic open-world game from the early 2010s got a fantastic sequel, evolving its beloved Pawn system and delivering a huge world to explore.

If you’d rather hook up some accessories to a more compact hub, Anker’s 332 USB-C hub is a cheaper solution at $24.99. It even provides similar connectivity options to the JSAUX docking station, but its power passthrough is slightly lower (yet still acceptably fast) at 85 W.

Here’s a USB-C portable battery that’s touts fast charging speeds for your handheld PC without breaking the bank. At Amazon, you can save an additional amount by checking the box next to the green text.

The Elgato Stream Deck Mk. 2 has 15 customizable buttons that can launch desktop applications, control audio mixing levels, or even adjust the lighting around your home. This version is an improved model of the original, featuring a fixed-angle stand, detachable USB-C connection, support for animated screensavers, and an interchangeable faceplate.

We recommend this two-headed USB-C to any PC gamer who wants to charge or connect two products at once through a single cable.

There’s no need to spend the cost of a new game on a keyboard with a trackpad. Logitech’s K400 Plus is a plug-and-play USB keyboard that works with most products.

Anker’s mini, yet mighty Prime portable battery has the speed to quickly charge most popular USB-C consumer tech products, be it a laptop, tablet, or a portable handheld like the Steam Deck, Nintendo Switch, or Asus ROG Ally. The real-time display that tells you the charging speed (and how much juice is left) is the icing on the cake.

The new mighty handheld console on the block, Asus’ ROG Ally, doesn’t just have the new Ryzen Z1 Extreme chip, but also amazing visuals from its sharp 7-inch 1080p display with support for a smooth 120 Hz refresh rate.

This early 2024 title may have gotten buried since by a plethora of great games, but don’t overlook its stellar tactical gameplay and the signature Vanillaware style, which is always a treat.

A game unlike any other in 2024. Pacific Drive is a survival game where you’ll need to make smart, savvy upgrades to your car to have a chance at escaping the Olympic Exclusion Zone.

Travel back in time with The Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons: 1970-1977, an enormous tome released to celebrate the game’s 50th anniversary. The book reprints Gary Gygax’s first draft of the game along with the material from its original box set and supplements, with extra context provided by historian Jon Peterson.

The book is made with Dungeon Masters in mind, not so much regular players. The Draconomicon is a dragon bestiary within that challenges you create the dragon (and dragon’s lair) of your dreams.

Bose’s stellar reputation was built on products like the QuietComfort noise-canceling headphones. They’re comfortable, with cups that swivel to relax on your chest when not in use, and they sound fantastic. The active noise cancellation is among the best out there, and handy when you need to silence the world.

The latest iPad looks and feels like the pricier iPad Air, but costs a fraction of the price. It brings a larger screen, a faster processor, and more features than the previous generation iPad.

The creators of beloved Persona titles delivered one of 2024’s most memorable (and politically-charged) titles. It retains the franchise’s turn-based gameplay, but there’s a spin on every familiar aspect from previous games that keeps this one fresh all the way through.