Weapons Upgraded - Mad Catz M.M.O. 7+ Review
I've been using the Mad Catz R.A.T. 8+ ADV at my desk for far longer than I ever thought I would - but the only thing that stopped me short of outright recommending it at MSRP was the lack of a wireless option. Well, Mad Catz finally did it - and now gracing my desk is the new M.M.O. 7+. Let's see if it clicks.
I closed out my R.A.T. 8+ ADV review essentially saying that while the mouse is genuinely fantastic, its dated modular design only appeals to a niche whose core needs are still largely better filled by cheaper, more conventionally designed mice. It was hard for me to justify recommending the R.A.T. at its $110 price tag versus tried and true wireless mice like the Logitech G502 Lightspeed and Razer Basilisk V3 Pro.
But if Mad Catz ever dropped a R.A.T. 9 or M.M.O. 7 reboot? Then all bets are off.
As luck would have it, the latter part came true. Mad Catz has been working on bringing the old M.M.O. 7 into the current decade for at least a few years now, announcing the now christened M.M.O. 7+ back at CES 2024. Apart from the addition of 2.4 GHz wireless operation, Mad Catz made it clear that not much was changing from the fan favorite original.
For those who are unfamiliar (and you probably are), the M.M.O. 7 was a variant of the wired Cyborg R.A.T. 7 geared primarily for - you guessed it, MMOs. Unlike most MMO mice which usually just consist of sticking a big button grid on the thumb side (such is the case with the Razer Naga and Logitech G600), Mad Catz opted for a different approach with the M.M.O. 7
From what I can infer, the idea here was to create a button layout that's more easily distinguishable compared to the typical grid, while preserving the familiar silhouette of the standard R.A.T - easing the adjustment curve if you're already acclimated to one of those mice. This also keeps the mouse well suited for tasks that might otherwise feel a bit clumsy to some users on an MMO mouse, like FPS games or some productivity applications.
I have to say, Mad Catz was on the right track with that logic because the M.M.O. 7+ feels nearly identical to the R.A.T. 8+ ADV with my first time handling it. That's not really a surprise considering both mice are nearly identical in terms of shape but if their goal really was to keep it familiar feeling for people who aren't exclusively MMO gremlins, they largely pulled it off.
But if you've never handled one of these mice before, don't sweat it. The mouse is a lot less scary handling than its Michael Bay Transformers-like aesthetic would suggest. Its low and wide shape is relatively grip agnostic and feels remarkably normal in actual handling. The glossy painted finish might throw some people off at first, but I find it actually holds up better to short-term wear than bare matte ABS. It won't shine up if it's already shiny - right?
This is definitely not a mouse for the ultralight crowd as the M.M.O. 7+ weighs in at a healthy 138 grams. Somehow that's actually lighter than the R.A.T. 8+ ADV's unloaded weight of 146 grams. Not a massive weight shedding mind you - but it's still funny how the wireless variant of what's more-or-less the same mouse ends up feeling a little less sandbagged.
Part of what caused this is the omission of the weight system that was on the original M.M.O. 7 and the mainline R.A.T. mice, including the wireless R.A.T. 9. I suspect this was done to provide more space for a bigger battery pack - and that's a completely acceptable reason for doing so, but you do lose some of the ridiculous modularity that made these mice so iconic.
And the weight system unfortunately is just one omission.
With the mainline R.A.T. mice and the old M.M.O. 7, Mad Catz gave you a whole bucket full of interchangeable parts - two extra palm rests (one with a rubberized finish and one with raised height), and two extra side grips (one rubberized and the other with a full sized ring/pinkie rest). Now, what do they give you with the M.M.O. 7+?
One textured palm rest. That's literally it. Are you actually kidding me, guys?
What's worse is that according to Joseph Bradford from MMORPG.com, Mad Catz said the parts that came with the old M.M.O. 7 will still fit on the new one - if you already have them. That is a terrible response, and Mad Catz is just ignoring the fact the old mice command prices in the upwards of several hundred dollars on the used market. You already have the tooling to make them - just include the fucking things! Or at the very least sell a kit so people can buy them.
But even with those omissions, the M.M.O 7+ is still a very customizable mouse. The thumb rest can be adjusted forwards or backwards with the included hex key, or its angle changed according to your preference. The palm rest can be moved forwards or backwards a considerable degree which is nice for people who have larger hands, or prefer a more aggressive palm grip shape.
It's all gloriously overengineered and nerdy stuff but realistically, it's undoubtedly a set it once and forget it affair. That said, if you have odd hand proportions or you're just picky about grip, these adjustments are still a huge plus.
Where the M.M.O. 7+ really starts to differentiate itself from the R.A.T. is the overall layout. The core arrangement is unchanged from the R.A.T. but with seven additional elements added - mostly on the left side of the mouse. Instead of the "sniper button" that was placed just slightly forward of your thumb's resting position, Mad Catz added three buttons along with a hat switch in the middle. This hat switch also doubles as the mouse's "sniper button" by default, dropping the sensor speed when you press it.
On the top of the mouse are two additional left/right buttons dubbed "ActionLock" buttons. By default these send constant left or right input when toggled on, effectively acting like either button is being held down. Mad Catz says these can allow you to do things like move your character or camera around constantly needing to hold the actual mouse buttons down - something I could see being nice to have in games like Diablo where my index finger is practically glued to holding the left mouse button down.
As if that wasn't enough extra buttons, Mad Catz added a "Shift" button on the right side of the mouse under your ring finger. Hold this button down, and it toggles a function layer across the entire mouse for whatever buttons you set to it - effectively doubling the number of input options. You're effectively looking at dozens of mappable inputs on a single mouse, and that's before you even have to touch the onboard profiles.
I have mixed feelings on the whole implementation of this system to be honest.
The layout does indeed feel a lot more easily identifiable on the fly than the traditional MMO mouse button grid. Every button has a very distinct position so I'm rarely hunting to make sure I'm going to hit the right one and the dedicated layer functionality lets me load up an obscene amount of commands onto a mouse that doesn't feel like it's compromised for any other genre outside of MMOs or MOBAs. As someone who regularly alternates between RTS and FPS games, that's something I really appreciate.
That said, in terms of comfort? It's become a bit cursed.
The thumb rest is extremely busy even by the standards of most MMO mice. The hat switch is constantly jammed into your thumb and I'd say it's infinitely more distracting feeling than something like the thumb grid on the Razer Naga - where the buttons just kind of mesh together into a uniform feeling spread. I did eventually start to tolerate it, but if you already hate the feeling of having a "sniper button" jammed into your thumb on something like the Basilisk or G502 - this is going to feel even worse.
I'll also get this out of the way now since it actually ties into how the additional buttons work; but the RGB implementation on this mouse absolutely sucks. The four segments on the left/right buttons will change color based on if you have ActionLock activated or Shift pressed which is a useful, albeit unnecessary visual aid. You can change the color of the front segments and turn them off - but not the blue ones on the sides. Why? Moreover, the design of the segments is just awful. I'd be a fool giving Mad Catz any points for subtlety with this mouse, but these stupid lights really don't flow with the rest of the design.
Another bit of annoyance; the scroll wheel. It's exactly the same as it was on the R.A.T. and the old M.M.O. 7 by extension, which means it's set too far forward and too deep into the mouse body. That makes it pretty obnoxious to use, especially if you're like me and prefer having the palm rest extended out slightly. In that case I've actually found it more comfortable to scroll with my middle finger instead of my index finger - which is absolutely the kind of thing you don't want your users being forced into.
I mean, the mouse has been around for fifteen years at this point, and they still couldn't make it any better? C'mon.
The barrel scroll has been retained though - and it's just as sneaky useful as it's always been. You might not get that much utility from it as a gaming tool despite what the marketing says, but as a productivity tool? It makes horizontally scrolling through spreadsheets and timelines (to name a few) a lot more pleasant than a tilting scroll wheel would.
And Mad Catz still builds this mouse like it's designed to survive nuclear war. All the plastic exterior shell pieces are all attached directly to an aluminum frame and the mouse just feels very solid as a result. The main Kalih switched left/right buttons feel plain meaty to press and all the auxiliary buttons have a nice and sharp tactile feel without any mushiness.
Yeah, Mad Catz can do legit build quality when it actually tries. Shocking, I know.
The M.M.O. 7+ is equipped with a PixArt PAW3395 rated at 26000 DPI. It's not some glass tracking marvel like the sensors that Razer slaps in their mice but it's reliable, accurate, and offers more headroom than you'd realistically ever touch. The mouse also advertises a 1000 Hz wireless polling rate, which checked out when I ran it through the CPSTEST.com polling rate test.
Oh yeah, wireless - the whole reason why I was so interested in this endeavor to begin with. The mouse is dual mode, meaning you can either run it wired on USB-C or off its 2.4 GHz receiver. Mad Catz didn't specify how big of a battery the M.M.O. 7+ has but they did say it's good for up to 40 hours. I did not test this but it took me roughly a week of on-and-off usage before I felt like I needed to charge the mouse.
Put together, you get fabulously smooth wireless performance with battery life that's actually livable. And as a bonus, they were actually honest about the polling rate this time. Progress!
Mad Catz introduced a new piece of customization software alongside the M.M.O. 7+ called H.U.D. It's not dramatically different from the previous tools they packaged with the R.A.T. mice in terms of features but based on how the UI is structured, I suspect they're trying to bring all their devices under one umbrella for customization, similar to Razer Synapse.
Unlike Razer Synapse though, H.U.D. isn't some bloated data harvesting piece of shit software designed to make shareholders happy. The app only runs one process and uses 43.2 MB of RAM, and it doesn't run in the background or require an account in order to use it either. You can load up the five on-board profiles on the mouse with whatever settings you want, and the app will never force you to use it again - like all software should be.
H.U.D.'s feature set is pretty typical for any mouse customization software. You can set your primary button and shift functions with the help of a nice visual diagram, build macros, adjust the polling rate and DPI stages of the mouse, along with its liftoff distance and forward angle. Mad Catz also retained the angle snap feature that was on the R.A.T. 8+ ADV, but I find the ability to draw perfectly straight lines isn't something I want to leave on twenty-four seven.
You also get access to the world's saddest RGB customization tool where you can do everything except shut off the aforementioned stupid blue LEDs on the sides of the left/right buttons. Honesty, I'd rather they just left RGB off this mouse entirely if this was the best they could do with it.
That all said, I can't say my initial experience with H.U.D. was a good one. The first time I tried using the app, I went into the settings page to find what looked like a new driver update was available. Naturally, I downloaded it and attempted the install - even though it just looked like it was simply just reinstalling the H.U.D. app all over again opposed to updating it. After that completed, the app started crashing whenever I attempt to launch it, rendering me completely unable to change the mouse's configuration. Sometimes attempting to launch the app even rendered my mouse completely unresponsive until I unplugged the USB dongle.
After repeated failed clean reinstalls of H.U.D., I suspected that my mouse's firmware had been corrupted. Thankfully, Mad Catz had the foresight to publish a firmware reset tool on its website next to the mouse driver download, and it fixed the issue. Still, it's a really bad look when your software is capable of soft bricking your brand new mouse on its first day out of the box.
Mad Catz may not be the same company it was when it was making drum kits and guitars for Rock Band - but clearly some of the jank still persists in their post-bankruptcy DNA.
And there's the price: it's $150.
That's a whole lot of money for a mouse that outside of the wireless capability and sensor hardware, doesn't really move the needle forward in a way that makes its competition look less appealing. As much as I hate Synapse, the Razer Naga V2 Pro occasionally matches the M.M.O. 7+ in price and it's an equally adaptable mouse with arguably less of a steep adjustment curve. And less expensive mice like the Corsair Scimitar, or even the Logitech G502 family will cover most of the same bases depending on what features you value more.
In my opinion, as a wireless R.A.T. the M.M.O. 7+ is as good as it gets right now - it unfortunately falls just shy of being a truly flagship feeling product. What Mad Catz actually have here is a great template to knock a future R.A.T. 9 reboot out of the park. Go nuts with it. Give it all the accessories, great RGB, a dock, and please for the love of all that's holy - raise the scroll wheel a few millimeters. That's a mouse I would gladly shelve the M.M.O. 7+ in favor of.
What's Good
- The first rechargeable Cyborg mouse since the R.A.T. 9.
- Looks properly insane.
- Excellent build quality and switches.
- Great sensor performance.
- Lacks most of the customization options of the original.
- Busy button layout takes some getting used to.
- Complex design makes it difficult to clean.
- RGB looks terrible and can't be fully disabled.
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