Mad Catz' FightStick Tournament Comments by Simon Parkin

I dispute the Saturn sentiment.

£150? Lucky I have a PS3 and don't need to worry about non-functioning D-Pads.

Nevermind...

I don't understand the 'stick is better' mentality, it's not. It all depends on what you grew up with or what you're used to (often one in the same).

So do they work with all fighting games then?

I've got that Fightpad on preorder, 8/10 sounds good.

Wish I had a spare £150 lying about, I'd be all over that tournament stick whatsit!

I still hate those two big black buttons standing out.

6 buttons > 8 buttons; end of conversation.

@Gaol

The D-pad on the 360 controller works perfect for me. But im used to the SNES D-pad for SF2 so maybe thats the reason.
Non functioning is a total wrong statement. Bet you havent tried it for yourself.

@Gaol: What... the...? You haven't read a word, have you?

Anyway, I'm very surprised to see Mad Catz get it that right the first time around, bodes well for their future premium products (hopefully at slightly less premium prices, though, at least in Europe).

Got my Tournament Edition (£150) for the PS3 pre-ordered along with the SFIV Collectors Edition (£59.99). This game better be good.

Just wanted to say 'nice one' for looking at these before SFIV launches!

Cheers!


/reads

The 8 button layout is genious in my opinion. I have more experience with US style button layouts so I'll probably be using those grey buttons. Maybe the other 2 will find their uses for triple button presses.

I'd heard that the Standard fightsticks are just as modifiable as the Tournament Edition so that's good enough for me. But then again I probably won't notice a difference having not played on SF4's arcade cab.

Roll on 20th! I wonder if the MadCatz store will be shipping the sticks early.. or at least on time.

@muscleblade

What has the great d-pad on the snes pad got to with the truely horrible d-pad on the otherwise excellent 360 pad? I have Streetfighter collection on the X-Box which works on my 360 and it is practically useless! I find myself playing the Wii Virtual Arcade versions instead as the Wii Classic controller has a brilliant d-pad. I am actually in 2 minds whether to get SSF4 as on one hand I love SSF games but on the other the 360s D-pad will make it practically unplayable. I also do not want to spend £150 on a arcade stick (after all I will need 2 of them to play against anyone in offline multi-player).

You are actually the only person I have ever heard praise the 360s D-pad!

@Chessboxer

For that money, YOU had better be good! :)

Got the "standard" Fighting Stick on pre-order - looks more than adequate for someone of my limited abilities. The thing I like about these is that they are multi-purpose, so can be configured to work with a lot of other game types (and hopefully also on PC) for MAME etc.

Outstanding feature Simon, couldn't have written it better myself.

Told me everything I want to know and then some.

Could someone please build a time machine so I can be playing SFIV on my FightStick right now?!?!

Two weeks to go is just too long :(

Kinda hard to get the pad now. Most places say none available. :|

I too find no issues with the dpad on the 360. I think it's really down to the positioning of the dpad on the controller and which one you have the most experience with. Having not had a sony console for quite some time I'm very comfortable with the 360 dpad.

I've been a pad player all my life until a year ago, when I got the EX2. For fighting games, I'm never looking back. It's perfectly possible to be good on a pad, but sticks are just far more comfortable to use for me. Movement feels tighter, specials are easier to pull off. I'm doing combos in HD Remix that I've never been able to do before, and don't even get me started on VF5. Played a little Tekken 5 on the PS2 the other day in anticipation for T6, and it just felt like I was bound on my hands and feet, all due respect to the DualShock 2. I must admit I never liked the D-pad on that thing anyway. Better than the Xbox pad for sure, but what isn't?

I preordered the TE simply because I want the best experience. It will not turn me into a better player on its own, only practice will do that. But that practice will be a whole lot more enjoyable for sure.

Oh, and by the way - the TE stick is sold out, and the regular stick and the pad are already in short supply. I advise people to hurry. I'm sure that MadCatz will increase the production due to all this "unexpected demand", but we all want these things for the SFIV launch, don't we?

Are there versions of the official Xbox dpad that don't randomly do diagonals all the time, then? I have trouble navigating menus with my ones, let alone playing a fighting game with one.

I love playing with a stick, although I am just as good with the dualshock pad.

£150 for this is a great price considering what you get for your money. But in this instance I have opted to pass on the stick, at least initially, as I have a, probably superior, home built stick with equally good, or in some cases better, components :)

Having read all the reviews, it's great to see that these pads are of a very good standard.

I just haven't been able to play the Xbox Live version of Street Fighter properly as the normal pad sucks. I'll be picking up one of these mad catz pads at least, and depending on the money situation at the end of the month, probably a stick as well.

Will they be available in traditional retail stores at all? I noticed them on Play.com, but they're 'currently unnavailable'...

I'll contine to eke out my 40:60 win/lose ratio on the analogue stick

got myself a tourney edition stick for ps3 and standard for the 360 pre-ordered from gameshark when they first went up, and will just get the standard edition of the game. will probably mod the standard stick with sanwa parts at some point. stock Hori ex2 really is a turd i hope the standard fightstick buttons last a while longer than the ex2 ones did before i mod them.

Well these or something similar is a must if you plan on playing SF4 on a 360... the schizophrenic d-pad that machine offers is evil incarnate. Its like they have balanced the cheap horribly molded chunk of plastic on the tip of a pin.

I look forward to seeing players do the ryu shuffle that frantic stutter he does as he bobs up and down trying to unleash his hadoken.

Hell they shoould make it an achievement. Complete 10 flawless fireballs.

As much as i'd love to play this on my 360 for Live and the achievements i'll be staying well away.

This is what I wanted to hear! Have a fightpad on order from the moment Play put them up so I hope I'll be getting one on release day!

Is the PS3 version still down as not being bluetooth and instead using a plug in usb dongle for communication with the console?

@musclebalde

Yeah I've used the 360 pad, I have one plugged into my PC. It's a great controller but the d-pad is the work of Satan.

Anyway, nevermind my derailing fanboy flamebait, there's a bigger issue here. These pads are massively overpriced. £150 for a fucking arcade stick? You can buy a 360 for less. Outrageous. And £70 isn't much better in my book. Clearly the recession hasn't affected these guys pricing strategy. As for a standard digital controller at £35 that's insane. 360 users are being ripped off. I expect the forthcoming EG face off will focus on the PS3's 5 minute mandatory install, and not the fact that 360 users need to pay from £70 to £185 to play the game properly.

Oh and this isn't a 'nice' article; it reads like an advertising feature and even has an order link at the bottom.

It's nice that they've seemingly made the standard stick just about as easy to mod as the TE version. You could get one of those then swap in Sanwa or Seimitsu components later on if you wanted.

I've seen complaints about the 8 button layout, but don't entirely understand the problem. If the other buttons aren't bound to anything, what's the issue with them being there? Is it a case of accidentally hitting them instead of another button?

IMO, the 8-button layout is a blessing. I can't reach the last two buttons on my Hori in the heat of battle in DOA, for instance. One of them is bound to tagging in, so I basically gave up playing tag matches because of this.

Are there versions of the official Xbox dpad that don't randomly do diagonals all the time, then?

yes, logitech's air pad has an excellent d-pad

I just bought a Hori Fighting Stick 3 a couple of months ago (basically the PS3 version of the EX2), I can't decide if it's worth it upgrading to the standard edition Mad Catz. It's better according to the review, but I don't really get the impression it's by much?
And I'm very much a Street Fighter newbie anyway (though playing HD Remix certainly made it immediately obvious how vast an improvement a stick - even a cheap one - is over a basic controller) .

Great reviews EG!

I preorder 2 TE's for the 360 and 1 TE for the PS3.

Game (the store) releases them on the 13th :P

Great reviews, Simon obviously knows what he's talking about (or he has been following the lengthy discussions elsewhere :-p).

Got a regular edition stick on pre-order; while I'd love to get the TE I'm simply not good enough at fighting games to do it justice. Let's see how it compares to my Hori EX2.

150 quid... Christ on a bike.. what a waste of money.

Is it just me or am i the only one that doesnt really have a problem with the d-pad on the 360? i play lots of fighting games on all systems, across all the controllers, i just cant see whats wrong with the 360's d-pad...

I recently purchaced a Hori Fighting Stick 3 (FS3) as well. I have played various Street Fighers over the years but mostly on a pad. I have been playing HD remix quite well with the pad but with the Hori FS3 I can now do some combos easier but my general play is not as good. I have a fightpad on pre order but am also considering the Tournament Edition Stick (TE). I know I am nowhere near the quality to do the TE justice, but the appeal of having the same components as the actual acade machine sounds like a good deal to me. I know at £150 its more than a 360 console but considering that the conversion should be pretty much arcade perfect its far cheaper than buying an actual arcade machine!
I am someone who in the past paid £120 for Street Figher 2 Hyper fighting on the SNES when I was younger and its great to see fighting games making a comeback. One thing I am wondering though is the fightpads on the PS3 are wireless but not bluetooth, you have to use a usb dongle, does that mean there will be lag? all the reviews seem to be for the 360 versions, now I know they should be mostly the same but still it would be nice to see an update to at least confirm the fightpad ps3 features (battery life, lag)

after realising how much of a joke the 360 pad is in fighting games i got myself a Hori EX2 just for SFTHDR :D best £40 i ever spent :)

i'd buy the pad if was wireless, don't want a wire trailing across the living room and my xbox sits behind a glass cabinet. Why can't we have a wireless option? Beause of m/shaft licensing issues i believe.

Good reviews, not much of a fighting game fan myself, but these are some nice looking sticks and Simon obviouslly knew what he was talking about. I was interested to read SF4 is more of a forgiving fighting game. My main problem with more complex fighting games is my timing sucks and im to retarded to remember some of the stupidly complicated button combos :)

Like racing sims, sure you can play with a pad but it not the way it mean't to be played. Fighting games are arcade cabinet games at heart and should be played with an arcade stick. If I were to get SF4 I'd try and get the £70 quid stick, although unfortunatly it's probably a little to much to pay for a genre I'm not a huge fan of.

And to weigh in on the 360 pad debate, it's a great controller, one of my favourites ever. But the d-pad does indeed suck. The way it randomly detects diagonal presses (or not when you want it to) is extremely annoying. I have tried shaving some of the inner plastic surround but that didnt make any difference either. It's just useless.

already bought 10 of the Tournament ones. 8 of em go up on ebay for 2x the price when SF4 is released (:

Luckily I have a USB Saturn controller (compatible with both PC and PS3) so I don't need the new controller, but it looks like it answers every complaint I've had with Sony and Nintendo D-Pads. It's not even so much the lack of diagonals on Nintendo D-Pads that I hate (though it is annoying) as much as that they're near-plush with the controller shell, feeling somewhat mushy to use. This was true of the Snes, all the way up the current Wii Remote. The one-piece 'roller-base' design of the Saturn D-Pad is what makes it so outstanding for fighters.

99.9% of the people in the world who play Streetfighter play it with a pad. This stupid, snobbish guilt they're trying to lay on us for not using a stick is pointless. Okay, theres a tiny percentage of (mostly Japanese) tournament guys who play with joysticks. Considering the tiny percentage who do though, I'm gonna guess the best player in the world is some lonely guy who's never entered a tournament, never played any other game, and plays with a SNES control pad.

"Is it just me or am i the only one that doesnt really have a problem with the d-pad on the 360? i play lots of fighting games on all systems, across all the controllers, i just cant see whats wrong with the 360's d-pad... "

There is no problem with the 360 pad.

There does appear to be a problem with some peoples fingers/thumbs though.

"Are there versions of the official Xbox dpad that don't randomly do diagonals all the time, then? I have trouble navigating menus with my ones, let alone playing a fighting game with one."

Heh, it's so true. The standard 360 pad really is that bad.

Really interested in getting a new pad for SF4 (I'm strictly a d-pad player, not a joystick man), and that Mad Catz one looks pretty decent.

But "low price"!? 35 squids for a controller is not, in any way whatsoever, low price. Maybe comparing it to an arcade stick it's relatively low price, but that's no different to comparing the price of a Mondeo to a plane. I'm not paying £35 just for a working d-pad. That's a tenner more than RRP of the 360's official wireless pads!

If anyone could come up with a top quality sub-£20 alternative, I'd be eternally grateful. A d-pad that's something along the lines of the Wii's classic controller would be fantastic, as that d-pad is beautiful with the VC SF releases.

@ SomaticSense

Actually, the RRP of the wireless 360 controller and the DualShock 3 is £39.99 but you'd be hard pushed to find a popular online store (Amazon, Play.com etc) who sell them at RRP.

Play.com com sell the 360 wireless controller and the DS3 at £29.99 and £34.99 respectively.

Amazon sell the 360 controller at £35.24 whilst the DS3 is £34.99.

@farticus

You've got to be fucking kidding me...

"I'm gonna guess the best player in the world is some lonely guy who's never entered a tournament, never played any other game, and plays with a SNES control pad."

Well - maybe he's lonely because he doesn't have a nice, big stick?

10 TE's!? You make me sick. 5 would have been enough. Though I guess come April there will be lots more. They're not limited edition, just tournament edition.

That 150 quid is ridiculous. It would probably be cheaper to buy one from America for $150 (which is a MUCH more reasonable price) and ship it overseas!

I've got a regular stick preordered. I've broken two EX2s so far, and hopefully this is better quality. If not, at least it's moddable.