I was researching fight sticks, and while they look like a solid investment, I have chosen to go the fightpad route for a number of reasons:
I’m in college, which means a very low budget and a roommate who likes our room to be relatively quiet (fight sticks, from what I assume, are much louder than fightpads).
While I have heard that sticks are better for playing at very high levels, it is not unheard of to hear people playing extremely well with a fightpad (I do not plan on becoming competitive, but I would like to improve over a number of years).
In light of these reasons, I am on the hunt for the best fightpad available for computers. I have a dual-booted Macbook Pro running Windows 7.
Thank you!
Note: I checked the Arcade Stick FAQ thread, but it did not really discuss pads, just sticks.
pretty low quality of what most say. i broke mine mashing the R1 button lol. however, they’re pretty good. if you want a high-quality one, look for the authentic official sega saturn USB, it’s hands down the best.
@d3v that Hori pad looks amazingly good for pad fighters. One thing it looks to have over the Saturn pad is all buttons are the same size and convex or flat. The one thing it doesn’t have over the Saturn pad is the D-Pad design.
A bit of an off-topic, I never really understood the rave of the Saturn’s D-pad. Don’t get me wrong, it’s definitely good, but I never liked any of the Sega D-pads; I’ve always been partial to the Nintendo ones.
Part of my thought process is that the Saturn D-pad is great if you place your thumb in the middle, and use a rocking motion to hit each cardinal direction. However, me and my family have always used the D-pad by sliding the tip of our thumb around the outer edge of the surface, so the Saturn D-pad always felt inferior to the Nintendo ones.
Anyhow, back on topic: I have both the Hori Fighting Commander 3 Pro and not-Pro; I find that they are both very good controllers, probably among the better ones that are both recent and relatively straightforward to acquire these days. The adjustable D-pad on the Pro does hurt its durability, but the other features are a definite plus over the non-Pro (namely the switch for shoulder L-R side swapping). Plus, I find the Pro feels better in my hands than the non-Pro. I haven’t had the D-pad on my FC3 Pro die on me yet, but I don’t really use it for much other than lightweight carrying (when a stick isn’t practical) and old-school emulation.
That looks beautiful, but the only ones I can find that are the non-pro version are ~$100. At that point I might as well just pick up http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B006EJ38X2?vs=1.
