Mad Catz B.A.T. 6+ Performance Ambidextrous Gaming Mouse

With the recent acquisition of my gaming PC (I call her Betsy; she’s more of a truck driving Betsy than a diner waitress Betsy), I’ve been looking to step up my peripheral game. My previous gaming mouse and keyboard have slowly morphed into my work-from-home setup, just as my Sennheiser gaming headset is mostly now used for Zoom calls. Unplugging everything from my work PC and plugging it all into my gaming rig is just too much hassle. Not to mention, doing so completely disregards a perfectly good opportunity to get all new gaming gear.

And so I started the hunt that eventually  brought me to the B.A.T. 6+ Performance Ambidextrous Gaming Mouse. I’ve long been interested in Mad Catz gaming equipment, after owning a few Mad Catz controllers back in the PS One era. I’ve always heard good things about their modern gear, but have never had the urge to get my hands on one until I saw this mouse – which was clearly designed to look like something Lucious Fox would have designed for use in a certain cave. In fact, if Robert Pattinson isn’t rocking one of these in the new Batman film, Warner Bros is messing up.

Longtime readers know that I’m not the guy to come to for technical reviews. I’m far less concerned with the DPI and laser function than I am with how something looks, how it feels, and how fun it is to play with. Nonetheless, to get the specs out of the way, here they are (and my experience gives me no reason to doubt them):

Sensor Name     PixArt PMW3389

Sensor Type       Optical

DPI (Dot Per Inch) Max  16000

IPS (Inch per Second)     400

Acceleration      50G

Polling Rate        2000 Hz/ 0.5 ms

The B.A.T. 6+ comes with a 1.8-meter braided fiber cord, which is a very liberal amount of cord to stretch from the back of my PC to the top of my gaming desk. Included in the box are a couple of extra sideskirt pieces and an extra palm rest. What this means practically is that the slick silver side pieces can be removed and replaced if you accidentally crack or damage them, as can the top piece (the part with the Mad Catz logo). These pieces each have a few little magnetic fasteners, and I was shocked to see both how easily they pop off and how snug and securely they snap into place. It’s a super slick setup that feels like it will give the mouse extra life if you drop it (or throw it at the wall, which is not recommended, but sometimes happens). Of course, I eventually realized that the “replacement” sideskirts actually give the mouse a somewhat wider profile, adding little silver wings to each side. While this is probably cool for folks with bigger hands, I found that I preferred the slicker, tighter configuration.

The switch is rated for 60,000,000 clicks – which is a ludicrous number of clicks. If you wear out this mouse, you are either very old or you play too many video games. If you are the sort that is super into your mouse being all glowy and fun, the illumination is 16.8 million RGB color. I currently have Betsy glowing in an unearthly alien green, and it took me no time at all to adjust the BAT 6+ to match her. I had no problem downloading Mad Catz Cyborg software and making adjustments. The application is clean and easy to navigate, making adjustments a snap.

One thing I appreciate the most about the B.A.T. 6+ is that it is recognizable as a mouse. I know that sounds silly to say, but so many gaming mice are teched-out so hard that I get a little intimidated by all the settings and buttons. The fact that the B.A.T. 6+ is ambidextrous keeps one or the other side from sprawling out too far with a bunch of buttons and extra plastic; the B.A.T. 6+ is small, tight, and perfectly symmetrical. It boasts 10 programmable buttons, but they are tightly bound to the body of the mouse itself, keeping the lines clean. It’s a pretty slick little package.

Being a lefty, I feel like I need to address the “ambidextrous” side of things – it turns out that I am not ambidextrous when it comes to mouse handling. I went ahead and swapped the setting on the mouse to “left-handed”, and was completely unsurprised to find that I couldn’t do anything. I’m just as inept running a mouse with my left had as a right-handed person would be. It seems that years and years of running mice with my right had has completely beaten my brain into submission. I have no want or need to be a mouse lefty. I swapped the settings back and went on with my life, vaguely wondering if running a mouse with my right hand all the time is why I am so bad at shooters. (Come to think of it, I aim with the right stick on controllers, too! Mystery solved!)

The B.A.T. 6+ is a little lighter than my other gaming mice, but it still manages to feel solid. I normally associate weight with quality, but the build of the B.A.T. 6+ still feels pretty good, despite the fact that you can literally remove pieces from it. The curve of the mouse is a little bulbous, but I found that it fits very comfortably in the palm of my hand. The three Teflon pads at the bottom slide nicely over any surface, functioning just as well on my fake wood desktop as my sizable mousepad.

I’m very happy with the B.A.T. 6+ Performance Ambidextrous Gaming Mouse, finding that it was exactly what I wanted. Mixing a pretty slick form with a lot of function, the BAT 6+ fits right into my gaming setup; a bit fancy but also extremely durable and workmanlike. While I don’t have a Batcopter, the B.A.T. 6+ fits right into my gaming cave, pleasing both Betsy and myself in equal measure.