Bumping this thread just to say that this POS apparently isn’t any better than any other pads when it comes to the durability of the D-Pad. After about 3 months of heavy usage in 3D fighters such as Tekken and Virtua Fighter, which can get very intense on the dpad with some characters like Mishimas in Tekken, the rubber dome contact thingy on the dpad ripped on one of the directions and now it’s very unreliable to use. Fucking dissapointed, why does this kind of shit happen during the year 2012, especially in a “premium” controller such as this? Can’t they build their contacts from other more durable materials than rip prone rubber? I’ve had this very same thing happen on at least 4 other pads beginning from the SNES era all the way to now this which rendered them useless as well, and there are no replacement parts. Bullshit.
It’s nature’s way of telling you to switch to stick.
Or, y’know, stop being ham-fisted 
Same thing happen to me also months later. The rubber on the dpad got ripped and now it is also useless to me. It was annoying to take it apart with the springs or something attached to the dpad to see what the problem was.
Lol I “fixed” it by adding a very little amount crazy glue on the ruptured contact, it holds and responds better now, but in no way am I thinking it’s repaired. Basically it’s on life support. I’d once again like to extend my gratitude for Hori’s stupid decision to stick with ancient technology on their controllers, next time try microswitches or something like in sticks. Nearly 50 euros down the drain after 3 months is fucking pathetic.
Has anyone owned both a fighting commander 3 and a fighting commander 3 pro and can tell me if the feel of the dpad and/or the build quality differs?
The actual “feel” of the D-pad is pretty similar between the two. Mind you, the Pro has the diagonal-adjustment-thing, as well as the rotating D-pad thing too, both which, to many people out there, cause the D-pad side to break after extended heavy use. I haven’t had this happen to me (yet), but I don’t use my Pro on any form of regular basis anyways.
On an aside, I’m really puzzled at how people can destroy D-pads so much. I’ve never had any D-pad die on me in the past, and I really went through some HEAVY use of my SNES and PSX controllers back in the day. I used my single PSX Sony Analog Controller (the pre-Dual Shock 1 analog controller) EXCLUSIVELY ever since it came out on the PSX (I liked the longer/fatter grips on the Analog, compared to the shorter grips of the Dual Shock 1), through the life of the PS2, and all the way up to the first year of the life of the PS3 (so about 10-ish years’ worth), playing insane amounts of SF and CvS2. Still works like a charm.
Back on topic, I still feel that the Pro is a better controller overall; the L-R swapping thing is really nifty; plus, I feel that it fits my hands a bit better despite the asymmetry. The non-Pro does have the advantage of a more durable D-pad unit in the long run (by design), since there’s no fancy features thrown in.
Thanks for the answer. Trying to decide which to get; the only non-pro I can find in the UK is £20 more expensive than the pro. It’s a no brainer if I’m not concerned with it breaking. I do wonder though if the non-pro might increase in value precisely because it’s rare.
The other pads I’m looking at are hori ex 2 turbo–which I can’t find anywhere, but I’ve read the dpad is godlike–and just a vanilla psx pad. If I get the fightpad I do need another pad with analog sticks anyway for normal gaming.
Those pads you all mentioned are the official controllers that came with the console, though. They’re usually built to last.
Well, I suppose the non-Pro might increase in value more than the Pro, but considering you’ll be using it, I don’t think it’ll appreciate that much.
I’m still wondering if the non-Pro version was released outside of Japan; I got mine directly from Japan, so I’m not sure, but I don’t recall seeing it even at online retailers like Amazon and the like.
Yeah, you’re probably right on that. But then again, I’ve read of people destroying even the stock Nintendo/Sony controllers’ D-pads. I guess some people are just really rough on the controllers.
Same here. I went though some heavy mash-ups on my older system game pads. My original NES game pads from when I was a kid still works flawlessly after 25 year.
Most repair I ever had to do with one is occasionally clean them of crud and dirt. MY SNES pads the only mod I did was swaping the cords on the Japanese SFC model controller as the US version had longer cords.
I didn’t have a controller break until I had a 3rd part PS2 controller. Even then it was an analog stick not the d-pad.
Coming to think of it, I did have a shoulder button start sticking on a dualshock 2 I had had for 8 yrs or so. Not exactly a button that receives a lot of wear, you would think.
Well N64 controllers break really easily and they are like the 3rd worst controller ever made.
Atari 5200 game controller was the worst.
Read about the new hori gem pad ($20 on ps3) on kotaku, so I pre-ordered it from Amazon. I’ll roll the dice on this hori pad (releases nov 18th) even though I got burned by fight commander 3’s dpad. Hori is highlighting the new concave dpad, and the proper ps2 style back triggers. It’s everything I’ve wanted in a pad besides having 6 buttons. Your move now @Markman. Hope you have a strong pad coming up.
My Hori Fighting Commander 3 (non-Pro) is starting to show a little bit of age. It sometimes doesn’t register quickly tapping down on the D-pad which is a problem in 3S. So, I’m checking this one out. The buttons look too close but for $20 it’s a fucking steal when I paid $55 with shipping on my last pad 2 years ago.
The rubber membrane for the dpad is probably wearing out.
Anybody gonna try this
stores.horiusa.com/-strse-198/PlayStation-3-GEM-Pad/Detail.bok
Looks pretty cool and only $19.99
Isn’t that just their default PS3 pad but with a clear casing and fake gems?
My fighting commander 3 pro arrived today. It isn’t detected in sf4 ae on pc (works in Skullgirls). Anyone got any suggestions?
Try using XPADDER.
Go to Options-Button config then press the left arrow key on your keyboard, you need to manually map the buttons (one time thing).
Thanks, that helped. Except for some reason AE only applies my keyboard settings in the character select screen and match.