Feeling nostalgic for the good old gaming days of 1999, when Half-Life and Quake III Arena ran nearly non-stop on your state-of-the-art Pentium III Packard Bell PC, and there was no possible way to escape the barrage of Ricky Martin's "Livin' La Vida Loca"? Yeah, me neither. But if you happened to own one of Razer's original Boomslang gaming mice that first went on sale around that time, you probably remember it fondly. After all, the precision created by the combination of its 1,000-dpi tracking, rear-mounted mouse ball, and slick Teflon mouse skates made it one of the most precise gaming mice on the market. Its unconventional shape may have taken some getting used to, but like many of the Boomslang's other features, derivation from the traditional mouse shape has become much more common today. The argument could certainly be made that the Boomslang paved the way for innovative gaming mice from the likes of Microsoft, Logitech, Seitek, and a host of other companies.

So, like you might do with a fondly remembered muscle car, Razer has decided to soup up its original model with some newer tech and some showy features, including a titanium housing. The company's bringing it back on the market for a limited run, to (hopefully) be gobbled up by hardcore gamers at $99 a pop. I decided to take a look under the hood at the revamped Boomslang CE, and see what all the fuss is about. Will it stand up to the gaming mice of today, or is this souped-up peripheral all show?

The first thing I noted when unboxing this mouse is the superb packaging. Razer markets the Boomslang as a collectors' edition, limited to 10,000, and It certainly doesn't skimp on the presentation. The black-on-black box looks nice on its own, especially with the included brushed-metal box stand. Inside, behind a cloth-covered flap that holds a credit-card-shaped item number card, the mouse is housed in a black tin, embossed with Razer's snake logo. Open that up, and behind the driver disk and manuals, you get to the mouse, surrounded by custom-cut foam rubber. It's all nice, and makes the mouse feel like it should be in a museum somewhere, but you start to wonder whether Razer designed the mouse to survive a nuclear holocaust or something. Perhaps this is overkill for a piece of gaming hardware that's likely to spend most of its lifespan swathed in grease and Cheetohs crumbs.

The mouse itself looks great, like a precision-tooled German auto part--largely thanks to its titanium top shell. But when you plug it in, install the drivers, and start gaming with it, you'll notice (particularly if you've used more recent Razer gaming mice, like the Diamondback or the Lachesis) that the company has come a long way in design improvements. By no means is the Boomslang a poorly designed peripheral. It's just that their newer mice, in my opinion, feel more comfortable in the hand.

Another issue is the thumb button. Big and hair-triggered, it's in just the area where your thumb tends to rest, and so can lead to many an accidental click. After a time, you'll no doubt get used to it, but even when mousing around the Web, I found myself accidentally clicking back to previous pages. It's good to see Razer's cleared up that issue with their newest mouse design, the Lachesis.

The front section of the Boomslang is very wide, which would likely be good for people with big fingers. As stubby as my digits are, there's more than enough room on either side of the mouse's glowing green scroll wheel to rest extra fingers. Though the buttons are so sensitive, that would likely trigger a few misfires before you adjust.

On the underside, you'll find familiar Teflon mouse skates and a glowing green ring to compliment the wheel up top. The mouse ball of the original model has thankfully been replaced by a 3G 1,800-dpi infrared sensor. It handles well, and while I was gaming, it felt as smooth and precise as any mouse I've used. This is definitely a quality piece of gaming gear, which isn't surprising, coming from Razer.

When it comes down to it, though, I'd say Razer's newer mice have better designs and are generally more easy to get used to using. And that's a good thing, after all. If an eight-year-old mouse was better than Razer's newest peripherals, that wouldn't say much for the company's ability to innovate and improve. But if you had an original Boomslang and remember it fondly, the Boomslang CE is as well equipped and capable as most high-end gaming mice on the market today. And if you're a collector of such things, $99 isn't much of a premium over Razer's other mice, which retail from $40 to 80 without the limited status, titanium housing, or snazzy packaging.

The Razer Boomslang CE is available now, (for a limited time) direct from Razer, for $99.99.

Post by Matt Safford