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Fans are less than enthused for Ninja’s new gaming mouse

After all that hype, the mouse looks like a Croc.

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Brittany Vincent

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Posted on Dec 6, 2018   Updated on May 21, 2021, 12:02 am CDT

The gaming mouse borne from a collaboration between popular streamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins (yes, the same one who blurted out the N-word during a Fortnite stream some time ago) and peripheral manufacturer Finalmouse is out in the wild—and people aren’t very impressed. It kind of looks like a Croc.

The Finalmouse Air 58 Ninja comes in two colors: Cherry Blossom Red and Cherry Blossom Blue. It’s marketed as an extremely light mouse, “like air,” the company attests, with “hand-painted and engraved individualized haiku scrolls on every mouse.”

“Some rare, some more common, your Haiku is unique to you. Find them all to uncover the treasure. The path will take you out into nature,” reads the product description.

At this point, we’d like to remind everyone that the 27-year-old professional gamer and Twitch streamer is from Grayslake, Illinois, and not, in fact, Japan. He’s not an actual ninja of course, or some sort of mystical fighter for the powers of good like the animation makes him out to be—no matter how much he wants to hype up the Japanese kanji on the mouse’s scroll wheel, which is all clearly part of the product’s marketing machine.

In the days leading up to the much-hyped mouse reveal, both Ninja and Finalmouse took to Twitter to drop some truly cringe-worthy tweets, teasing pop-up shops with confusing poetry.

You can’t make this stuff up.

And as previously stated, fans aren’t really feeling the Air58 Ninja. Yes, it’s sold out, but it looks like the public reception for the mouse isn’t great, with many disliking it via Twitter: “It’s a recolored version of all your other mice,” one user wrote.

https://twitter.com/THump11th/status/1068969961882820610

https://twitter.com/AzakiusUK/status/1068971083901140994

Fans are also frustrated with the company’s previous claims that the product wasn’t “branded” and was “beyond branding.” The final product reads: “Ninja,” and is branded.

“This is going to be a museum piece,” the company proclaimed of the then-upcoming mouse.

https://twitter.com/ulwainV/status/1068967589278175232

https://twitter.com/SweetSalGames/status/1068971080205955072

https://twitter.com/blucasts/status/1068968165558898688

Fans also state that the mouse was hyped up to be cordless, but very clearly includes one.

As far as recoloring claims go, at a glance, the mouse appears to be much the same as the other products Finalmouse sells, with added text on the right mouse button. It’s also $20 more expensive than the Ultralight Pro Black and White models, but the same price as the brand’s Ultralight Phantom and Ultralight Sunset.

Finalmouse attests that “everything was redesigned with the ground up, but still with the classic shape of the Phantom and ULP” with a “new bottom chassis, new lattice geometry on the sides (that also adds grip), new PCB, new internal frame…the list goes on.”

Whether you love it or hate it, the mouse is sold out.

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*First Published: Dec 6, 2018, 7:57 am CST

Brittany Vincent

Brittany Vincent has covered gaming, anime, tech, and entertainment for over a decade. When she’s not writing, she’s replaying Um Jammer Lammy or Day of the Tentacle for the hundredth time while pining for a Harvester sequel. Find her on Twitter @MolotovCupcake.

Brittany Vincent