MadCatz R.A.T. 8+ Gaming Mouse Review

A Closer Look & Performance

If you’ve ever seen a R.A.T. gaming mouse before, you’ll know what to expect. They’ve looked just like this for the better part of a decade and while there have been some tweaks, it’s still familiar to my hand as a fan of the original R.A.T. mouse.

Visually, it’s a stunner, it looks unlike anything else on the market and that’s what I love about it. It’s lower and wider than most mice, and even wider still thanks to that large wing on the left-hand size. That makes it good for a lazy palm rest for those long MMO gaming sessions.

Down the side, there’s quite a lot of going on. There are two switches for the forward and backward navigation buttons. Towards the front, you’ll find a sniper button, albeit that’s fully programmable too.

Recessed into the side/top of the mouse, there’s an infinite scroll wheel that you can control with your thumb. You could use this for a zoom on your sniper rifle, you could use it for a volume control… the choice is yours, it’s all programmable.

There’s a bit of a tool-box of adjustments on this mouse too. Here you can see a small Allen key mount, a quick adjustment of this allows you move the whole left panel and buttons backwards or forwards to suit the size of your hand and fingers better.

There’s a large dial at the back too, which is both the weight tuning adjustment system mount, and the Allen key tool for adjusting the left panel.

If you look closely, there’s a spring-loaded button on the side of the top rear panel too. The numbers on the top show the range of adjustment as this whole panel can move and shorten or extend the length of the mouse quite extensively.

The LMB and RMB are each mounted on their own panels with their own spring systems. They’re backed up with a set of 50M rated OMRON switches that feel snappy and responsive. The long and wide mouse buttons are scooped to promote a good finger position and are very comfortable to operate.

The bottom of the mouse is a metal chassis, which is shaped to look like the diffuser on a super car. Actually, this may be the next Lamborghini, it may be a new mouse… it’s hard to tell.

Recessed into the middle, a nice and large scroll wheel with a soft rubber grip. It’s very easy to control and it has a nice possitive click to it too.

There also a little wing on the front offering up a profile button, albeit that can be programmed, but it’s great for swapping between your work and gaming modes.

Even the underside of this mouse looks pretty awesome. I like how they cut-away to allow the mouse wheel to fit, as this really is a low mouse!

The 8+ comes equipped with the truly stunning PixArt PWWM3389, offering up 16000 DPI, a step up from the old model that only had 12000 DPI, and certainly more than I’ll ever use.

Tucked into the back , you can see there are three weights in there allowing for some weight and ballance tuning.

Now, this is where things get even more complicated. There are three, yes THREE palm mounts for this mouse. The one that’s installed is the middle size one. However, there’s this taller one to raise the angle and height of the back.

Then there’s this lower one with a durable rubber grip on it too.

Push in the lever on the back and you can slide this bit backwards and forwards by a rather huge amount. Slide it all the way off to remove it and slide the alternative ones on as you see fit.

Remove the tool from the back of the mouse…

…then you can adjust the screw for the side panel.

As you can see it’s a long screw, allowing you to turn it and that’ll move the entire left wing backwards or forwards. With the tool out of the way, you can also remove the three weights that as on their own adjustable spring mount in the middle of the mouse.

You can have the mouse short and stubby like this. But I’ve also moved the left side panel back a little, and I’ve put that much wider right wing on too, making this mouse as wide as it is long!

The rear adjustment is good though, it took a few attempts, but once it was dialed in, it fit my hand like a glove.

The RGB is nice and understated, with a few small zone lights dotted around it.

There’s the front DPI light, the RAT logo and a side light buried in the guts of it. I like the look of it, it’s less in your face than a lot of modern RGB products, and it can be used for a bit of glitz or to highlight the profiles you have selected.

It takes some tinkering, but the overall design is awesome. You get 11 fully programmable buttons to play with, and that funky thumb wheel, and a truly flawless sensor.

Plus, I thinkered with it so much, it looks and feels extremely different from the mouse I took out the box a few days ago.