I just bought the XBOX 360, (enter late joke here) and i need a good fighting game stick. What do you recommend?
Standard Madcatz stick is okay. It did me alright. I’m going to upgrade to the tournament edition soon hopefully, though. I hear that thing is the mutts’ nuts.
If you’re willing to spend a lot of money on a solid stick, the Mad Catz Tournament Edition stick would be the way to go since it consists of all Sanwa arcade parts and doesn’t really require modification unless you want to change the square gate to an octagonal one, you prefer a bat stick over the stock ball top or just want different colored buttons.
The Mad Catz Standard Edition stick is cheaper than the Tournament Edition but the parts are Mad Catz which are very unresponsive and both the joystick and buttons will break down on you very quick. So basically if you’re planning on getting this cheaper version, you need to mod it and change the parts right away. And it’s easy because the stick is ready to be modded so there would be no complicated work required.
If you don’t want to spend over a hundred bucks for a high quality stick, I’d suggest you start off with a cheap Hori EX2 stick like I did. I think it’s a great stick to start out with and it’ll last you a good amount of time until you play with it a lot like I have and eventually wear it out to the point where the joystick gets too stiff and some of the buttons start to get unresponsive. When that happens, you can just order Sanwa parts online to replace them (which will require soldering and lots of work).
I tend to agree with Victor’s input… My first choice was the TE stick, im very please with it. Joystick has a loose feel which is what I like, but purely preference… price is a bit steep but at least the parts will last. The only thing i did not like was the square gate, so i had to order a octagonal gate (again this is more of a preference). Im pretty sure most sticks come with square gates these days. One other thing i like about the TE stick is the size and shape. I play with it sitting im my lap, and find it to be comfortable; but when I try to do the same think with the PS2 Anniversary collection stick, it does not feel as good (forearm resting on a corner = indention on your forearm)
SE stick’s cheaper price will be offset by sanwa joystick and buttons and shipping that you will undoubtedly need. I’d say skip the SE as an option because of that.
I dont have a Hori so i can say much.
If you are looking for a project you could hack a pad and build your own. Will require work and research if you have not done it before and it could come out looking like crap. I’m interested in doing this for N64 so I can play some of my older games on something that’s not a triple penis joystick with optional vibrating feature (damn rumble pak). Plus you’d need some tools.
get a hori HRAP EX or madcatz TE is you want to get top quality
or get a Madcatz SE or hori EX2 if you dont want to spend so big.
There are sticks out there that are cheaper than the Mad Catz Standard Edition but they’re obviously crappier so you’d most-likely need to mod them right away.
I personally like smaller sticks (the Mad Catz TE isn’t comfortable for me) so I’d spend like $30 on a smaller / crappier stick and then spend like around $40 to replace all the parts with the Sanwa brand which would all end up being cheaper than getting a Mad Catz stick itself. That’s just me though. You can do that if you prefer smaller sticks.
You can find cheap crappy sticks on Google and Amazon if you don’t mind modding them. I actually pay experienced people to mod sticks for me though 'cause I have no idea what to do. One of these days I’ll learn how to mod sticks myself so I can save myself a lot of money.
Yo Wizil, what game are you going to use an arcade stick with on the Nintendo 64? Killer Instinct Gold and Mortal Kombat Trilogy? There’s no other fighting game I can think of for the N64. I was thinking of building a stick for the Dreamcast because there’s like a crap load of good fighting games for it including exclusive ones like JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Plasma Sword and Project Justice (A.K.A. Rival Schools) so it’d totally be worth it. Everyone laughs at me when I tell 'em that I want a Dreamcast stick but I don’t care what they say. Dreamcast is the bomb when it comes to fighting games.
Hi Victor, I mainly want to play KI gold on a stick, which is 99% of the reason for building a N64 stick… Also i have MK4 and trilogy as well as war gods (though Im not that big of a fan of these). You are right that there are not many fighters for N64 though.
Depending of how froggy i am feeling, I may try to may make a dual N64 and SNES stick for my old classics. Which would give me more bang for my buck, if you will. Plus buying more buttons and joysticks will get expensive. Im running out of room to put these sticks over here anyways… Plus I dont really care for the Fighter Stick SN for SNES (it is tough to use after getting used to a real stick .lol)
I keep checking in on the Dreamcast on Ebay, one day I go ahead and snag one, in which case I’d have to build a stick for it. I agree on its fighting game selection being pretty good… Speaking of Dreamcast… I was the number one associate at the Babbages that i worked at (now called Game Stop) for reserving Dreamcasts back in the day, i hope those folks found it to be a good purchase. Good Times…
Later
Madcatz SE, upgraded to Sanwa parts. Or the HRAP EX if you’re willing to lay down some cash. I wouldn’t recommend the Hori EX2 as a starter stick now that SEs are so cheap.