How hard will it be to transition from pads to sticks?

Newbie Saikyo Dojo
1

I’ve been playing on regular ps and xbox controllers since I was a little kid. I never frequented arcades as I’ve never lived in an area that has them. I’ve never legitimately tried to play a fighter with a stick. Closest I did was tekken maybe once when I was 8 in andrettis, 11 years ago.

Anyway, I’m looking into buying a stick, but I don’t want to buy a cheap one now only to buy an expensive one later, but at the same time I don’t want to drop 200 bucks on a fight stick I’ll blow miserably with. Will the transition to an arcade stick be as hard as I imagine it will be? There is no scene here (central-eastern Florida, on the beaches: Melbourne, Satellite, Merritt Island, Viera, Cocoa, etc) so I don’t even know anyone personally who owns a stick I could try out.

2

Buying a stick will require from you relearning basic things such as neutral and diagonal jumps, crouch blocking, dashing, quarter/half and even full circle inputs. Dragonpunch motions, double quarter circle etc etc.
If you weren’t a complete beginner before on a pad and you could perform tese things without problems then you know the exact inputs that are required, so you’ll pick it up faster than a complete beginnner who is learning both stick and the game at the same time.

Point is, you’ll be worse than you were on a pad when you try to learn to play on a stick. When people come to the realization they play worse on stick they drop it and never use it again. You will need to grind out basic things to get back to the level you were at.

How long it’ll take you nobody can answer, it all depends on you willingness to stick with it without crawling back to using a pad. Overall i would say the biggest advantage with a stick is the ease of pressing the buttons, you can use every finger, and more precise inputs with the joystick. However there are loads of people who do fine on pad.

The Hori sticks are a bit cheaper than the Madcatz ones.

3

I also used pad for most of my life, but I decided when I started to get more serious with streetfighter that i’d learn to use a stick.

I do not regret this a bit. At first it was hard, but i expected this and mentally prepared for it, as you will be when you receive your stick. But if you are also like me, just handling and using a stick will be an absolute pleasure. At first, it will feel weird to move. Even left and right movement, and jumping will feel a little strange. You may need to spend a little time just throwing fireballs in training mode and messing around.

However, later on i felt kind of liberated by the stick control layout. Every button is as comfortable to hit, and the stick feels like I no longer have to worry about millimeter precision when doing certain inputs. I also like a lot of the nuances that come with using a stick, and some of the shortcuts for ultras and dp feel more intuitive.

I also feel the need to remind you that this is my personal experience. I also want to stress that stick is not necessarily “better” and there are pros and cons to both, in the end it’s personal preference. I would love to help you out when you get your stick if you’d like, since i find that sort of experimental stage a lot of fun. My steam name (i am on pc :/) is the same as my forum name. Either way I think a stick will be a little bit of work (on the execution side), but well worth it in the long run.

4

Ah, I remember when I first picked up a stick. I was terrible!

As for the transitioning from pad to stick, I was in the same boat you were. Always used pads, never really got a chance to play stick. However, keep in mind that you will have to relearn all the basic inputs. Fireballs, DPs, ultras, etc. However, depending on how familiar you are with these inputs, it can either be pretty easy or pretty hard. Let’s assume you’re pretty familiar with said inputs.

No matter how familiar you feel you are, stick is quite a big change. At least, it was for me. I was already an okay Street Fighter player by the time I bought my stick, so I already knew the inputs and such. However, performing them was really awkward at first. It took quite some time for me to get used to, but that might differ for you. My advice would be to hop right into the training room and practice these inputs. I decided that I would practice the inputs until I was able to get my moves at least 10 times in a row without any trouble - then I would move on to the next one and, from time to time, re-visit the previous moves just to make double sure that I got them. If you choose to do it this way, make sure you practice on BOTH sides of the screen. Which I’m sure you know, but I thought I should mention it anyway.

Also, find a way of holding a stick that is comfortable for you. There are a few different ways to hold the stick, so experiment around with that. I, myself, feel most comfortable holding the stick like Daigo. It just feels right to me.

Once you feel comfortable, I still wouldn’t recommend jumping straight into a competitive match. Instead, I suggest playing a few matches against the AI (eh, you don’t have to, but it helped me.) just to get used to using it in a match. You don’t have to play too many, just a few to get a feel of how an actual fight with it could be.

But, keep in mind playing on stick might not be for everybody. I honestly like playing on pad more. In the end, it all boils down to personal preference. It’s not like a stick is a magical device that makes you a godlike player. It’s just another tool to use. Now, I can still play stick, but unless I’m in the local retro arcade at the SF machine, I’m pretty much always going to be playing on a pad. It’s just much more comfortable to me.

Hopefully I helped a bit and didn’t just ramble on too much…

5

When I moved from pad and I found that straight away my charge commands were 10x easier to input.

6

Wow, thanks, guys! I appreciate all of the advice and insight. I think I’ll buy a hori stick to try it out, see how it feels for me after a decent amount of practice.

7

It honestly wont be as hard as you think. It only took me a few days to get used to it. So you should be fine.

8

Why even convert to a stick?

I will never understand this mantra that using a stick will magically make you better at fighting games.

9

Stick has its advantages. Some examples:
Easier to plink, double tap, ect.
Some may find the directional inputs to be more accurate using joystick over Dpad [example as above].
Stick is universal, you can learn the stick and then use anyone elses stick at tournaments. Like the picture you posted, if their controller broke, they probably wont feel comfortable using other controllers [Snake Eyez with madcatz controller, Du with PS2, ect.].

I’ve tried playing on the controller and it totally hurt my thumb with constant direction changes. I find it easier to maneuver with the joystick and the freedom of having all 6 buttons at the tip of my fingers on one hand.

10

just dont give up.keep practicing . it took me months to get use to stick . but after i felt comfortable i put down the stick for life reason. now i gotta relearn everything . gets frustrating at times cuz u want to play and complete the combos.but just be lil patient. it will all come together later down the road.

11

Have you ever tried investing into other pads? I’m pad warrior myself and tried stick but quickly turned away from it because I wasn’t feeling it, even after so many years I still feel the same way. The problem isn’t really the controller preference but the games. SF4 is game driven to be played on stick. While it is possible to play on pad, your always at disadvantage due to the game control favoring a stick lay out. (The six button alone already justify stick)

Its one of the reason I don’t invest to sf game any more. Unless you want to be proficient at sf You have games that more accommodating to both both controllers ( ASW games, Tekken) or even better played on pad ( MK games, KoF). Fact is this you can and will learn stick if you dedicate enough to it but its not mandatory unless you play game that mandate arcade techniques.

12

Main reasons I use a stick:

  • Use the same kind of input device across consoles and console generations (also arcades).
  • Better quality and very customizable controllers available.
  • Personally I find it much more comfortable to use.
13

Because I’ve broken 2 d-pads in 2 months.

14

as said look at different d-pads. even if the d-pad isn’t supported on your syste, you can get converters. strongly recommend a Nintendo controller if your going to try pad again.

15

Learning stick is fun though and hitting those big and loud buttons gives me satisfaction in itself even if learning the things is frustrating to the point that you sometimes want to pull your hair out.

16

The reverse is also true.

Imagine a pic of Momochi, Daigo and Xian

“Why even convert to a pad?”

I think the answer is obvious, on a pad you get the benefits of playing COD, GTA and side scrolling titles and racing games.

Now, Can you do that on a stick? I didn’t think so…

And can your stick do rumble and vibrate, or any 3D motion controlling? +1 for pad.

17

I got a stick now and can never go back.

I’ve played a d-pad for 20 years and an arcade stick for 6 months. An arcade stick is light years better, imo. It’s how the game was intended to be played. What else is there to say?

18

I have been using a Hori FPS ps4/ps3 pad, which, I really like because it’s very much like the PS and xbox controllers I’ve been using my whole life. With MK and injustice it’s perfect. But I just can’t seem to play SF or Guilty Gear on it. The regular PS controllers aren’t too bad, I just feel like investing time into learning on the stick will be beneficial in the long run. However, I’ll probably always use a pad for the other games. MK is my main game anyways. Haha

19

I don’t believe it will magically make me into a better player, hence why I’m asking about the effort I will need to put into it to be even comfortable with one…

But anyway yeah, that is really cool to see. Snakeyez is a beast.

20

Everyone is different. Like I said above, I played on a pad for 20 years, but I think I adapted pretty fast. It took about 2 weeks of pain to catch up to where I was with a pad, but it was well worth it. A fight stick is easily the best thing I bought in 2014.