Can anybody give me a run down of how they feel about hitbox’s vs fightsticks.
I play with a fight stick. And will be rebuilding it in Jan. But I am not sure if I should try a Hitbox layout.
So anybody who has used both and liked both, what would your pros and cons be.
Thanks.
I have played with everything… well not really, but mainly controllers, keyboard, hitbox, and stick, and everything has pros and con.
For my personal insight hitbox, I mean it does give some edge being that pianoing motions can be quicker and more accurate than a joystick. The smaller buttons may allow you to move from the punch section of the buttons to the kick section of the buttons and vice versa. I personally don’t like the smaller buttons, since they kinda cramp my hands a bit, but that’s just me. quarter circles and dragon punches are also easier imo to some extent on a hitbox, but the half circles kinda get to me when I played at first (note this one is when I play on keyboard and I set it up kinda like a hitbox when I do play on that). Hitboxes and keyboards kinda feel really weird at first and would take a week or maybe even up to a few months to learn and get used to depending on how well you learn, at least to the same level that you were with your stick. But even then, I do prefer sticks in the long run, sticks just feel more engaging imo and although I can play CvS2, Guilty Gear XX Accent Core +R, Street Fighter, etc. on hitbox and keyboard at the same level as I do with a stick. I absolutely can’t, for some reason, play MvC2 on anything, but a stick.
Pros on the hitbox:
-Buttons only, meaning possibly a slight edge on motions and movements in terms of accuracy and speed.
-Easier to store in a bag or backpack… since no bulging shaft or balltop to make it stick out, but that’s what the JLF Link is for, sadly that’s JLF and LS-32 only.
Cons to the hitbox:
-Not really in the common market, so more people will have sticks and if your hitbox runs into some issue during a tournament, then you may be out of luck to some extent when trying to borrow a controller (I know someone who ran into this issue at Evo actually, since he wanted to enter the MvC2 tournament, but no one had a hitbox for the game), but this is minor with preparation.
-Relearning a control method, not a big deal if you’re willing to put the effort into it.
For those pros, I’m not sure if it’s worth the time to relearn a control method, but I have no say to that. For the possibly better execution, I mean people like IFC Yipes had some of the best executions in fighting games using a MAS stick, but I think he uses P360 with his back in the day (I think). Same goes for Sanford Kelly and Justin Wong. They were more than adequate enough to dominate and have some of the best executions with a stick. Khaos for MvC2 used a stock JLF and Sanwa buttons, and he has godlike execution as well. The point is that although a control method may give an edge, the best thing and most important thing is to make sure you are comfortable when playing and to make sure you can execute what you want properly. I’m not saying all parts are equal and there’s no point of changing from stock, since if I did, then I would be a massive liar with all my sticks being far away from a stock JLF or Hayabusa at this point. But the best thing to do is just try it out even for an hour and see if it may be your type of thing and if not, then stick with what you are comfortable with.
Thanks sasquach.
That helps. I’m going to take the plunge and just convert my stick to a Hitbox. And hope for the best. After looking into it more it seems like something I would enjoy playing on.
I don’t know man. Being good with a fight stick is like being good with a guitar. It’s your instrument of death. Sure, playing on a hitbox is like learning piano… but which is cooler, a guitarist or a pianist?
Doesn’t that still fall into the personal preference statement?
You haven’t lived until you’ve had your face melted by some heavy piano metal.
Isn’t most everything of this ilk personal preference?
OP, if you have some goofy fighter on your computer:
Start your SNES emulator, MAME or whatever you have. Set it to A, S, D and Space. A = Left. S = Down, D = Right. Space = Up.
Try some motions like S, S+D, D, Punch (usually set on your numpad for right hand, doesn’t matter as it’s the same as the Fightstick).
The buttons are different (sanwa or seimitsu, whatever you prefer) and at slightly different locations, but you still use your fingers the same way.
Or just do the dry motion on your desk with your fingers, like when you’re bored. Middle finger, middle+index, index.
You know, the classic ring-middle-index motion. That’s it. You’re doing a hadoken.
I never got a real hold on the fightstick myself, always changed the grip, so in the end I switched to a hitbox layout.
Modded my old TE2 stick and never looked back, even though some motions from C.Viper in SF4 for example feel wonky as hell.
Yes? The way you worded it just seemed to imply stick was obviously better than hitbox.
At the end of the day, it’s what you are most comfortable with.
My $0.02. On the one hand, like most people are saying, you should very much go with whatever you find most comfortable. On the other hand I strongly believe that if your main focus is either 3D fighters or NRS games that you’re at a disadvantage if you’re not playing on a hitbox. The way that most 3D fighters handle inputs for both moves and movement very much favors the clean directional inputs that a hitbox provides and with NRS games they just can’t program for shit so there’s always something stupid in their games that a hitbox will take advantage of better than other input methods.
<- uses a hitbox.
I had a bad habit of doing half circles too fast on a hitbox and skipping the down input. That caused the move to not come out in most games. I tried to correct it, but it just kept being an issue for me. Now I use a stick and have no desire to use a Hitbox again. I do think the hitbox has less limitations and is theoretically the superior device because of that, but the stick seems to be good enough for every fighter out there, so I would say it’s just a matter of preference.
The only inputs I’ve ever had issues with on a hitbox are 720s and half-circle to opposite direction, i.e. hcb, f + button (a common input in Guilty Gear). The issue with 720s is on me because I don’t play grapplers often enough to care to practice them properly. The half-circle to opposite direction inputs are actually a situation where the speed that you can input on a hitbox works against you as SOCD protection will often eat one of the inputs. Otherwise no real issues.
I play guitar and piano. It was compulsory in school. So I don’t see the control mechanism being an issue. Glad for all the feedback.
I will always have the fightstick to fall back on if I don’t like the hitbox layout. You have all convinced me to give it a shot.