I’m buying the TE Round 2 MadCatz Street Fighter IV stick… and I’m a bit worried because it’s made by MadCatz.
Every single MadCatz ANYTHING that I’ve bought has broken almost within a week from buying it. Utter garbage quality products.
I’m really worried that I’m wasting over 100 dollars on this MadCatz brand arcade stick.
Am I really going to have to end up switching my parts? I bought the more expensive version… the TE because I figured it would at least hold up better but I’m still worried.
Convince me please that it’s not going to break easily?
They work well. I haven’t had any of the problems that other people have had with stock sticks. I’ve had 20 or so personal sticks. Each TE worked really well. It’s built solid and I would be surprised if it didn’t amaze you how awesome it is everytime you take it out to play. There’s pros and cons to every stick brand and model. Do a search on madcatz and hori. This topic has been beaten to death
I used to think the same about Madcatz products but the last few years have convinced me otherwise. Since then I have bought 5 TE’s, a SE, 10 or so fightpads, and 2 or 3 regular 360 controllers with very few problems. Hell I even bought a Madcatz shirt. The only problem I have ever had is on my Round 2 TE, 2 times it has just stopped responding in the middle of a match. But, this is only 2 times in prolly 200+ hours of play so no biggie. Just cost me 2 rounds on XBL, lol.
I’ve bought 4 TE sticks and only 1 of them has exhibited problems. Unfortunately after emailing US Madcatz CS with no feedback or email back, I had to contact Madcatz International. They said I needed a PCB replacement but unfortunately I had to get the US office to take care of it… I sent another email to the US office and there was no reply once again. I gave up after 3 months of this. The headache I had was not worth it. BTW the problem was my triggers would occasionally stop working.
I’m happy with my custom stick and PS360 PCB from aki shop.
They are good. Because none of the parts are actually made by madcatz! They use Sanwa buttons and joystick, the same found commonly in Japanese arcades. However, they have reported PCB problems in the triggers, and they stop working. The buttons and joystick are amazing stock. You will likely never have to change them.
However, you could look at a Hori stick, such as the VX/V3-SA or premium VLX (with some deep pockets) as an alternative, too. They also use Sanwa parts, and have better reported PCBs. The TE is a really good stick, though. Great for modding, and a solid stick
I bought various Mad Catz products over the years, during the year 2000 I say do not spend the money on Mad Catz. But this is not the year 2000, it is 2011 and Mad Catz is a different company now and their products gotten much, much better. Mad Catz and their other in house brands Saitek, Eclipse, Cyborg and Game Shark are all worth the money. I do not care for Tritton products, but that’s my opinion (my tritton head set snap in half in 2 weeks LOL).
From what I heard and seen the entire TE arcade stick line (and the Tatsunoko VS. Capcom stick) is sturdy quality products that work great, and most parts that could possibly break are easy to replace. The ONLY hard to replace parts are the original PCBs and that is a very rare occurrence.
While not insignificant, it seems that the majority of TE owners never have a problem with the PCBs.
For those that do, it’s that the trigger buttons (RT, LT) will stop working temporarily. (Let it be known that Hori sticks have also exhibited this problem.) Once you unplug and replug the stick, the problem goes away. There are a few fixes for it based on the idea that there’s some static buildup going on - what worked for me was simply to tape the entire bottom plate of my stick with electric tape (just the inside). Any other part failing prematurely is completely unheard of.
Again, most people don’t ever experience this problem, and even if you did, MadCatz will make good on your warranty - as a matter of fact, I got a replacement PCB for free, even though the warranty on my stick had long since expired. (I can’t speak for MadCatz international, I’m afraid.)
tl;dr version: the only real problem isn’t really a big deal, and you’ll be safe with your purchase.
I must have had bad luck. MadCatz US wasn’t helping me even after I told them that it’s the trigger. Since I’m not working right now I have half the mind to drive down to the SD offices to ask for help since my 360 TE stick (only have 1 of these and 3 of the PS3 sticks) that I used the most would exhibit the issue within an hour and this happened constantly. Just a PCB replacement and my faith would be restored in MadCatz but for now I’m one of the few who have had a bad experience with the US CS.
The only TE (all my Mad Catz sticks are PS3 models) that I had to replace the PCB on was my first Mad Catz TE.
That PCB was only replaced for customization purposes.
I just kind of got bored with the original artwork and case coloring so I modded it to my liking and to also function as a multi-console joystick. Sold the still-working PCB to raise money for parts. The case is finished and waiting to be fitting with new wiring, a new joystick and MC Cthulu PCB. Eventually, I’ll get an Art Hong plexi with the inscribed final artwork that I want…
Seems that most of the PCBs that are malfunctioning or cease working altogether are 360 models…
Waiting on PC support for my MVC and SE stick for PS3…
I can plug it into my pc, but no GGPO/SF4 PC for me unless I want to buy another stick (Chun-Li TE-S [who is a hideous character by the way] or a Hori stick), buy another PCB (risk damaging my stick) and do it myself, pay someone to mod it and have time away from my stick (barring that nothing happens during transit times or a freak accident) or buy a brand new computer (my laptop lacks a PCI card slot).
Read that thread up and down, pretty much every page.
Ergo, my options are:
Buy a Hori stick
Buy a 360 stick (which would only be used for the PC)
Modify my own stick with a custom PCB
Buy the new TE-S Chun-Li version
Buy a new computer
Pay someone else to do mod it for me
Unacceptable, I have two perfectly fine sticks sitting in my living room. Why should I have to fork out extra dollars when I bought the high end stick? I can accept this maybe out of the SE version, but isn’t the TE version the premium version? I expect a little more out of my dollar, as I see it.