I am a beginner at fighting games (started playing 2 days ago) and I find it alot of fun and want to have the best controls I can get. I am not (yet) prepared to spend 150$+ on a good quality arcade stick so I am wondering what I should use for controls instead.
I only have keyboard and a xbox 360 pad available to me and I have only played using the keyboard. It works but is probably far from optimal. What do you guys recommend for someone like me who can not afford an arcade stick but want good controls?
I know you said you don’t want to spend $150+ on a stick yet, but honestly learning stick doesn’t get any easier just because you know the game on pad. As such, if you intend to learn stick you should just go ahead and get a stick. The Madcatz Street Fighter 4 SE and Madcatz WWE Brawl Stick are both decent starter options which make it extremely easy to upgrade to Sanwa or Seimitsu parts down the line, and they’re probably more in your price range.
No No No! stay away from those! I have a Madcatz SE stick for ps3 and the TvC stick for the Wii, then got a Big TE stick for Xbox360 because all the ranbats in Detroit are on Xbox. The smaller case (SE, Brawl Stick,) is not very comfortable and is so lightweight that you will be chasing it around your lap. Just keep playing on your pad and put $5 aside from every paycheck in a box. Once you have enough for the big kid arcade stick of your choice you will be ready for an arcade stick. If $150 is too much the look into EightArc, they have big PS3 sticks for $109.99 for the Ebony
I know you said excluding arcade sticks, but I recently got the Hori Fighting Stick V3 (for Playstation, VX for XBox) and I’m really satisfied with how well its designed, even with stock parts. 60 bucks on Amazon for one of them and you can always mod it later with Sanwa/Seimitsu parts if you really wanted to (YouTube vids always help with that). Plus, I feel that if you’re thinking about getting an arcade stick, it’s better to start with one to learn how they work.
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I have four sticks - a PS3 Arcade-in-a-Box custom, a PS3 SE, a PS1 Namco, and PS2 Hori T5 stick. I’ve never had an issue with the form factor, and it’s pretty easy to take weights to inside of the bottom of the case if you feel like it’s too light.
Don’t go with a Hori EX2 (or v3, unless they’re built differently and don’t use soldered buttons) - they are a pain to mod, unlike the Madcatz SE and BrawlStick, where you basically just unhook the wires, snap the old parts out, and snap the new ones in.