Sonic the Hedgehog doesn’t need easily readable captions on its mechanical keyboard

When you’re a beloved blue eulipotyphla with the speed of a race car, all the gold rings, a buddy like Tails, and even a pair of blockbuster feature films, you start to feel like you can do everything. This includes typing on a truncated mechanical keyboard with no letters, numbers, or other legends written on top of the keys.

Higround, known for its gaming gear, is today releasing a trio of 65% mechanical keyboards made in collaboration with Sega, as spotted by Nintendo Wire, along with other Sega-focused gear, including keycaps and keyboards. mousepad.

Enlarge / by Dreamcast Sonic Adventure 2 mechanical keyboard.

Brand images show a trio of keyboards brought to life with colorful detailing providing nostalgic images anywhere, according to the Green Hill Zone Keyboard, Loops and Rings in 1991from Sonic the Hedgehog to the contrasting profiles of Sonic and Knuckles from the 2001s Sonic Adventure 2 rainbow-colored arrow keys that mimic console controller buttons in homage to Sega’s latest global console, the Dreamcast.

The dye-sublimated PBT keys on the keyboards are 1.5mm thick, according to Higround, and ditch the informative legends on their tops in favor of a nifty appearance when viewing the keyboard from top to bottom. But from a typical seated position, you should be able to see side-printed legends on the front of the keys. You don’t have to be a typist to use Sega keyboards, but if you’re not, they’ll be harder to use at first than the typical keyboard.

Sonic has to go fast, so it’s only fitting that keyboards use TTC’s Speed ​​Silver linear mechanical switches. They’re rated for approximately 3.4mm total travel, with an actuation point of 1.08mm and an actuation force of 45 grams (if you’re not sure what that means, check out our mechanical keyboard guide). These numbers make them a bit shorter to actuate and bottom out than the common Cherry MX Red switch (4mm/2mm/45gf); however, Higround could have been made shorter with low profile mechanical switches to fit the speed theme even more.

If you’re looking for a quick way to fill out those spreadsheets, Sega keyboards aren’t a winning solution because they don’t have a number pad.

Ultimately you need a combination of Sega and linear typing fandom and the ability to work without a numpad (some tactile typing skills wouldn’t hurt either) for these keyboards to be anything that can help you increase your productivity, rather than an interesting collectible.

But the keyboards aren’t as polarizing as they could be…at least they don’t make you type in Elvish.