I used to play on gamepad but I think its time for me to invest an arcade stick. I’m not really familiar which brand or model to pick. Preferably it still can be modded cause I want to replace the square gate to a circle one.
For a first stick, I’d recommend the Qanba Carbon as it is inexpensive and has an easy to swap gate.
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What consoles are you looking to play on?
PC and PS4
HRAP4 Kai. Qanba Drone is an option but I personally wouldn’t recommend it.
I can also recommend the Hrap, the hori buttons are some of the best… However the stick itself (hayabusa) has very mixed views, some love it others hate the thing
Can’t replace the gate on the drone and it is square.
You can if you swap out the stock parts for sanwa parts, which you should be doing for both the joystick and buttons on the drone anyway. That’s part of why I don’t recommend it; at that point you can just get a Hori and it’ll be good quality out of the box.
I had two friends that wanted to try stick out. They both got qanba drones. They both later bought more expensive sticks that came with sanwa and were bigger. Both said they wished they wouldn’t have bought the drone. It certainly is appealing due to the lower price. If you swap the stick and buttons later on you’ve just about spent as much as buying a better stick in the first place. The drone is also very small. I’d recommend Hori or qanba depending on what console you are trying to play on. Qanba obsidian is my personal favorite of the newer sticks I’ve tried. I can also vouch for razer panthera for doing fine on pc and ps4 for me.
I’d like to add that if you are switching to stick because you think it is better, then you might want to reconsider. Stick won’t make you better. One of the above mentioned friends did end up staying with stick because he said it was more fun than pad. I think that is a good reason to switch.
I currently use the HRAP4 Hyabusa and recommend this one if you aim to swap the internal parts for better ones as you improve
I swapped the buttons with discontinued seimitsus (great for lariats) and a seimitsu stick with an octo gate (i almost never miss otg headstomps now) for like, less than 50 bucks and it was totally worth it
Edit:
Doh!
I also forgot to point out that the metal plate on the bottom keeps the controller stable while doing fireball and uppercut motions
The metal plate can be cold and will rust depending on what it’s exposed to. I ended up covering the external panel laying strips of thick duct tape alongside each other then carefully trimmed it on the internal side. After reassembling the controller there were no problems
You sound inexperienced. Give the Square gate a shot. Sanwa ships their flagship JLF with a Square gate by default for a reason, and many, including myself, swear by it.
Having a Square gate sounds weird but, there’s a subtle genius in it’s design. Fighters and Run & Gun’s like Metal Slug work great with it. As someone who loves using Charge characters like guile, having beautifully defined corners is great.
RAP4 is a perfect starting point (also my first stick) and easy to mod when you feel like its time. Ofcourse if the stock configuration fits your taste then by all means keep it and it comes with square gate for the Hori Hyabusa Joystick.
HRAP4Kai it’s a great starter and it can be obtained for cheap money on ebay here and there. I’d go a step further and recommend the HRAPN, it has an audio port, looks classier, better button layout, better case and the new SC6 sticks are super nice, of course the OG HRAPN would be cheaper than the current SC6 line.
Either stick you get will do the job well for you, if you decide to mod then you can experiment with different hardware and see what you prefer. Since you’re new maybe do some research on the parts you’d like to try before spending the money.
I can tell you that if you get a sanwa set of parts you won’t be disappointed, JLF stick and OBSF buttons have been proven and preferred by many if not most. Seimitsu is great too but there’s so many choices, it can be a bit much to take but check out the online stores like Focus Attack, the descriptions are very helpful, you can learn a lot just browsing.
At this point parts are just a matter of preference, I would concentrate instead on getting a feel for the stick and learning how to play with it. If you end up liking it, you’re gonna love it after you mod it.
I use a Hori Fighting Edge. There’s plenty of space for your hands and the Noir layout is very comfortable.