Accessory Review: Mad Catz FightStick Tournament Edition S

Capcom has answered the call of pleading fans with the update to last years’ surprising run-away success with Super Street Fighter IV. I can say surprising because it’s been many years since Capcom created a successful follow up to the Street Fighter franchise. Fans of the series weren’t expecting much and have been blown away.

The same can be said about Mad Catz being named Capcom’s official accessory maker. If you are serious about your fighting games, you know that no controller d-pad and button layout will give you the precise control that you’ve grown up accustomed to in the dingy arcades of Chinatown, NYC. (World Famous for being a breeding ground for many a champion.) Even if you never ventured into the bowels of NYC; you could find Street Fighter II cabinets in any number of laundromats, corner stores, or movie theaters. This is where you first fell in love with Ryu and Chung Li and the experience of losing your 25c if you got beaten made you put in the work to get “nice”.

Those years of motor muscle memory make playing a Street Fighter game on a controller always seem awkward. Enter the arcade sticks. Still on the very niche of the peripheral market (they are only really good for fighting games), you had to either import one from Japan yourself or find a local mom and pop who stocked them. They came at a premium, but were usually of arcade cabinet quality and worked forever. Which they better, because if they broke, you couldn’t find another one. The American arcade sticks were usually of poor build quality and in no time buttons began to stick or just not work. Pair this history with peripheral company Mad Catz not having such a great durability rate and you had a lot of frowns.

I’m here to say that being the official sponsored stick has reaped huge benefits for the company. Street Fighter producer Seth Killian personally oversaw the design of Mad Catz sticks to ensure that they were up to par with his expectations. The offspring of this pairing is what’s being hailed the best store bought arcade stick ever.

Build Quality

I gotta say, after years of cheap plastic peripherals and shoddy turbo buttons, this baby feels “Quality”. Mad Catz went out and got the same joystick and buttons that are used in the arcade cabinets for Street Fighter IV. The feedback given when tapping the buttons is noticeably smoother and relatively quiet.

The unit is topped off with a thin piece of what appears to be plexi (can be lexan) that protects the cool Super Street Fighter IV artwork of Ken and Ryu.

While not heavy, the metal plate on the bottom gives the unit some sturdiness and just the right amount of heft if playing in your lap.

4 rubber feet will keep the unit from sliding around on a surface.

A big plus here, at least for me, is the placement of the start and back buttons on the front of the unit and away from the player. You only need these buttons to start a match and it makes total sense to keep the play area as clean as possible.

Mad Catz even went a step further and included a lock feature so you can’t press these buttons accidentally. Nice.

The only negative (which some may call a positive), Mad Catz decided to make the artwork easily replaceable. To do so they screwed down the plexi on top and have 6 protruding screws. If you have active hands while playing you may end up bruising your wrists. You might have to put tape over these or wear wrist bands.

Key Features

As mentioned before, the biggest selling point in this stick is the inclusion of authentic Japanese-style Sanwa Denshi joystick & buttons. This goes a long way with tournament players (who practically live in the arcades) and those of us who want our purchase to last.

There are 8 face buttons for input. Why 8 when SF only uses 6? Mad Catz had their thinking caps on for this one. In Japan, the arcades feature a slightly curved layout to better serve your fingers ergonomically. In the US, the buttons are lined straight across. If you prefer one to the other, you just simply slide your hands to use the first three, or the second three. In-game button config allows you to turn off the buttons not in use to avoid accidental presses.

The FightStick S also sports a 13 FT USB Cable with internal cable storage. You read that correctly THIRTEEEN FEET!!! For comparison sake, a regulation basketball hoop is 10 ft off the floor. So you have plenty of room with this cord to make up for not being wireless. Why no wireless? Because this stick is built for precision and with wireless devices comes the inevitable lag. Plus you don’t want to be looking for batteries when you want to get your Hadouken on.

You can also store away the cord in a handy stow compartment in the front of the unit. This is a great alternative to wrapping the cord around the unit.

Ease of Use

All of these features and quality add up to a very easy to use arcade stick. You’ll find pulling off complicated combos and moves just that much easier. We’ve done side by side tests with other sticks (which we won’t name) where the input is just faster. That’s always a plus. This unit is also hot swappable with quick connects on the inside. If you wanted to change buttons or joystick or gate (This has a 4-way) you can, with just a few quick screws.

David Says

David Says – “If you are a casual fan the $149 price tag may be a bit steep, but if you know you will put hours and hours into your fighters then this is the stick to get. Hands down…if you can find it. These are back-ordered everywhere, so if you happen to see one on the shelf I suggest you grab it right away. Because if you second guess, it may not be there when you go back. Once you’ve got your hands on one of these you won’t regret a cent.”

Rating:

“Arcade FightStick Tournament Edition S” was developed by Mad Catz for the Xbox 360 and PS3. This review is based on the Xbox 360 version.

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