The following 8BitDo Retro R8 Mouse – Xbox Edition peripheral was provided by the manufacturer for review purposes.
About two months back, I reviewed 8BitDo’s Original XBox variant of their Retro 87 Mechanical Keyboard. A solid keyboard covered in the bygone console’s translucent dark green apple colour scheme and dotted with its iconic color codes that match its face buttons. I liked that keyboard a lot—heck, it’s still hooked up to one of my older PCs as a full wireless set up of sorts. But something was missing as part of this kit’s launch: the 8BitDo Retro R8 Mouse, which has donned the same characteristic as the keyboard. But what we have here is a smaller, lightweight powerhouse with some unfortunate caveats.
I’ve been using the 8BitDo Retro R8 Mouse for quite a while now, trying to see if I can fit it into my day-to-day usage. And I could! But I struggled with its form factor in more ways than I could really put up with.
But before I get into that, I’ll walk you through the unboxing. Our Retro R8 comes in a small, cute little box alongside a wireless charging stand, an XBox-themed USB-C cable, a month of PC Game Pass, a useful little instruction manual, and some stickers + additional adhesives for the mouse. Besides the little bags that wrap the mouse and its stand, everything here is perfectly recyclable (all though admittedly I’ve not gotten around to that yet). The R8 itself has a wireless USB transmitter for use with the 2.4GHz connection type alongside Bluetooth and wired support. The battery is internal and cannot be swapped (at least, not without a bit of a teardown).
Teardowns? Forget that—I wouldn’t want to rip anything off this beautiful little kit. The XBox-themed Retro 87 is gorgeous, featuring translucent casing and the side buttons rightfully coloured to the tune of the Duke’s jewels. Both the magnetic charging base and the mouse have a slot for the USB transmitter, too, but this is where the first problem with the mouse crops up. If you’re an avid nail biter and you slot the transmitter into the mouse as opposed to the base, you can forget about pulling the bugger out. It’ll never budge, forcing an extraction via a pair of tweezers. And a small note, the magnetic force of the base is very weak—watch where you put the thing lest you launch the mouse off the table (yes, I speak from experience!).
The Retro 87 is a small mouse. Not that that is a bad thing, it’s more so how the mouse bends to your hands. I have no preference in terms of how I hold my mouse, be it my right or left hand, but no matter what orientation I had it in I could never quite get comfortable holding this mouse. The way my hands rest on both the primary and secondary buttons meant that my thumbs would rest between one side’s jewels over the other. Unlike my old, trusty beat up Corsair mouse, I would need to flex my thumb more to reach one side button over the other. The same can be said for the opposite side, where I either had to use my pinkie and my ring finger in unison or prefer one or the other to flex beyond the comfort I’m typically used to in a mouse.
I think this would have been better solved if the R8 went with strip-sized buttons instead of circular ones as then I could potentially be able to flick my thumbs to the side buttons with this form factor.
Where I struggle to use this mouse for gaming, I have no qualms with when doing office work and casually browsing the internet. The USB transmitter goes back as far as 4.5 meters without significant cut outs, and I had no trouble using it on a big screen in the living room. The 8BitDo Ultimate V2 software also lets users set macros and custom buttons that persist even after the software is closed. I will point out; I do like how lightweight the Ultimate Software is in comparison to competitor software. If you ever have to use LG Hub, run for your life. Functionality is on par with other major accessory makers—DPI levels can be freely adjusted, polling rate can be alternated between multiple values, the macros work well (my “Genshin Impact Cutscene Skipper” did its job), and there’s even a nifty little left-handed mode that flips the keys for you. No RGB function exists on this mouse, which is a bit of a shame as I would have liked to see the jewels light up.
I think the 8BitDo Retro 8 compliments its XBox-slathered Mechanical Keyboard variant quite well. I don’t think the mouse’s form factor is particularly comfortable, especially as computer mice on the market that are around this price point have better curves and button positions that feel more natural to settle into. You’ll be doing the “claw” quite a bit with this mouse, but if that’s no bother then it’s a solid little offering. Its best feature is just how beautiful it looks and has the software functionality to go with it. If you really bleed green, it’s not a terrible choice.
Oh, and no, the mouse does not work on Xbox consoles. Not wirelessly anyway—wired is the way to go. ∎
The 8BitDo Retro R8 Mouse – Xbox Edition is available for purchase from 8BitDo’s official website as well as Amazon.com (US/UK). The mouse retails for $59.99 USD, prior to applicable taxes and shipping.
