Introducing Stinky the Gaming Footboard--yes, playing with your feet is going to become a thing

Here's the silliest-named thing in gaming since the Wii—who on earth would be proud to say, "Oh, yeah, I'm going to play with my Stinky tonight?" Turns out some guys might know better than I, because they've just successfully crowdfunded a gaming peripheral by that name. The Stinky Footboard aims to join the keyboard and mouse in a competitive gaming trifecta, allowing you to almost-literally stomp all over your foes.

Stinky was born out of a need unique to us PC gamers. Ten fingers to use on mouse and keyboard buttons just wasn't cutting it anymore, apparently, and its Montreal-based inventors were keen to get other body parts in on the action, so they added four new buttons to control with one's feet. Stinky's Kickstarter campaign concluded successfully today, raising nearly $80,000 to put towards production of the new USB controller. The very first footboards will be on their way to backers at the $129 within just 20 days. Give it a couple of weeks, and we'll soon be hearing stories how playing footsie with your PC might just make you a better gamer.

I could definitely see this being a boon for competitive games happy to drop a hundred bucks on that split-second advantage. On the other hand, gaming controllers get notoriously filthy after they've passed a few hands at a party, so you probably don't want to bust this out to your friends at your next housewarming. Unless you've got a thing for collecting sweaty sock-fluff, anyway.

No word on when non-backers will be able to buy their own Stinky, but given that it was in development for two years prior to the crowdfunding campaign, it'll likely be coming soon—keep an eye on the Stinky website for details.

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