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Gaming mice don't have that much work to do when it comes to looks. The best gaming mice keep it pretty simple. They should accentuate your desk setup without calling too much attention toward them. They should look approachable and usable. They don't need to look like you're resting your hand on the Large Hadron Collider or the shapeshifting Service Weapon in Control. Gaming mice don't need to be more visually challenging than the types of paintings you'd find in the Louvre, and yet, they routinely want to be.
For some reason, these mice exist. Some of them are rated well by user reviews, but that doesn't excuse them from being this ugly. That's not right. So, let's catalog them. Let's ruminate on the ways they cause pain. Let's look at them together and recoil. Here's all the gaming mice that shouldn't be allowed to do what they're doing, ranked from bad to worse.
The Criteria
Number of entries: 9.
What's included: Gaming mice from a variety of companies that look far more absurd than they really need to.
What's not included: Non-gaming mice and any gaming mice you can't find on a reputable retailer website. There are no mice here that you have to dig that far for.
Here they are: most offensive mice, ranked.
9. Roccat Kain 200 AIMO
The Roccat Kain 200 AIMO isn't really that far from being an average looking mouse. Nothing on it protrudes out, nor is there RGB strapped to every angle. It's a slab of plastic that looks like you could hold it firmly under your palm. It's largely inoffensive, unlike the rest of this list.
That's sort of the problem. It looks too much like a gaming mouse. It's trying to fit in among all the Razer and Logitech mice of the world and has nothing to say for itself. It's a black mouse with an unnecessarily big logo and "DPI'' slapped on its middle button. This mouse asks that you do not think about it that much, and, for that, I sort of respect it. But I also want more.
8. Mad Catz R.A.T.9 Gaming Mouse
I'd say rest in peace Mad Catz, but, for one, they're back from the dead, and, two, they forced the R.A.T.9 into reality. This is the classic mouse that everyone has made fun of for years. It looks like it'll sever one of your fingers or assimilate you into a being of higher power that doesn't even need those fingers.
It's not even the sharp angles on this thing, it's how uncomfortable it looks. Who wants to spend hours at a time holding something that looks like it's an insect flared out in a threat response. It's also named after a rodent, which doesn't scream precision or speed or whatever it is that gaming mice are supposed to stand for.
The R.A.T.9 may be dead, but its legacy lives on in all the gaming routers that look like Decepticons. But that's a list for another time.
7. Redragon M602 RGB
Redragon has its M602 RGB gaming mouse that doesn't immediately cause you to look away in disgust. My problem is the amount of RGB on it. There's simply no need for that much RGB. Do you want a mouse or do you want something you put on your lawn during the holiday season? Gaming mice like this one are so often designed to look flashy despite being pretty modest in actual performance.
It also looks uncomfortable to hold. We don't need to reinvent the wheel here. Your fingers can rest on a flat plane versus whatever this wave-like design is on the M602. Keep it simple and focus on things like weight and ergonomics, Redragon.
6. BENGOO Gaming Mouse
No. The BENGOO gaming mouse is way too much. The physical design itself doesn't offend me, but it's the artistic design that makes me blink. What is it trying to convey here? Bolts of electricity don't say anything definitive about what you'll do with this mouse. There's no message, no point-of-view. It says "extreme" like it's the early 2000s. It's 2021, BENGOO, look around. Other gaming mice don't even set a high bar. Dial it back, slap the silhouette of a dragon on there and call it a day.
5. EVGA X15 MMO Gaming Mouse
It's the irregular shapes for me. The EVGA X15 MMO gaming mouse looks designed by a toddler that, apparently, also plays Final Fantasy 14. The haphazard asymmetry at work on this thing is a crime to geometry as a concept. Ostensibly, the buttons and form of the mouse are designed for easier use during play, but that doesn't excuse how hideous this mouse looks. Rectangles didn't have to be this hard, and yet, this mouse aims to challenge something we've had a handle on for decades.
4. Finalmouse Starlight-12 Achilles
We have to stop this. Gaming mice shouldn't be more porous than a kitchen sponge. We shouldn't have to put a content warning on a gaming mouse for trypophobia. Finalmouse's Starlight 12 wants attention with a design like this. It wants their mice to make a statement, but that statement sucks. I picked the ugliest one on purpose because, out of all the color possibilities in the universe, Finalmouse picked this one to sell to you. It's like someone melted down a high school trophy, took a drill to it, and told you it had a 1000Hz polling rate.
3. Alienware AW610M
Alienware, please don't do this to me. Your products don't even look like they're designed for gamers, they look like they're designed for a teenage killer's gaming setup on Law & Order: SVU. Aliens would have designed a better mouse, not humans approximating what one would look like. The AW610 gaming mouse is embarrassing. The weirdly shaped side buttons and cutouts on the top make the mouse feel industrial, not sleek and subtle. And then you have the weird fins stuck onto the mouse's backside. What is their purpose? This thing would make better use as a jetski than a mouse.
2. Corsair Ironclaw
Corsair, you won't get away with this one. The Ironclaw is the Jeep of gaming mice. It's built to look rugged and sustainable but it's an anomaly when it comes to the actual quality of the thing. Even if it works okay, this mouse looks like a pain to hold onto. The concave curve that's broken up with side buttons on the left looks like your thumb will be doing gymnastics to perform simple tasks. The mouse wheel on top looks like a motorcycle tire with its bumpy, rubberized grip. I'm sorry, swapping weapons in a shooter doesn't require that much grip. Like a lot of the mice on this list, this looks over-designed to stand out. It's in this list, so it worked, but at what cost?
1. TSV X70/M70
I said I wouldn't be unfair and pick a no-name, super cheap gaming mouse found in the depths of a Walmart search, but the TSV X70 deserves it. We can't even start with the mouse. We have to start with the stock image that depicts a man and a woman laying in bed. The man is using a laptop without a mouse and below that Bengoo claims that its mouse has a "noiseless and durable click." Let me repeat the first part of that sentence again: The man is using a laptop without a mouse. This one is so bad, they didn't want to include it in the marketing.
Maybe he didn't want to hold the TSV M70 mouse because it looked like a hazard. It's made to look like metal, although I'm sure it's not. It has several unnecessary planes and recessed sides for no discernible reason. It has several LED colors to swap through which helps distract you from how hideous this mouse is. Treat yourself, and buy any other normal, non-gaming mouse. This mouse shouldn't be touched by human hands.
Gaming mice: What to read next
If you want mice that reliably won't hurt you, check these stories out.
