View Full Version : PS3 fight sticks
Howdy y'all. Currently i'm looking to pick up a decent fight stick for the ps3 and for PC use. Looking for some suggestions. I was gonna grab the MvC 3 one but that's already sold out lol so i'm thinking about the SF4 tournament edition stick.........
http://www.citizengame.co.uk/cms/images/articles/StreetFighter4Controllers/tournament_stick.jpg
Any thoughts, suggestions or comments would be appreciated :)
What I use is a standard SFIV Madcatz fightstick (image (http://image.gamespotcdn.net/gamespot/images/2009/features/hardware/street-fighter-stick-roundup/0019.jpg)) modified with Sanwa parts and an octagonal restrictor plate.
I've modified two sticks with identical parts, one for my Xbox360 and one for my PS3, the process is easy but somewhat tedious, and takes about half an hour with the right tools and tutorials.
And while it may seem expensive: £50 for Parts and £50 for the fightstick itself, remember what you're getting; a fightstick modified and built to your own play style and tastes, whereas the TE edition stick costs £100 off the bat with spare parts coming in later.
Plus, you can make it look pretty, but I've never really delved in to the aspect of modifying the graphics and colours, only button colours. :P
Naturally, this has its risks, it's possible to brick your stick if you go a little too harsh on certain parts while applying them or taking them out, but its totally worth the risk to have durable buttons and responsive controls.
Electric Leo
16-02-11, 14:27
If it's your first ever stick, you could do worse than the Hori Fighting Stick EX2, which can be picked up for peanuts these days. If you get serious on a stick then you can upgrade later, but really the EX2 will last for a while and does the job. After that, the MadCatz Tournament stick is the best. Make sure you get one similar to the one you showed, with the rounded edges. There are some doing the rounds with quite sharp edges (all black, reduced in size) that some people find uncomfortable.
And after that, you're looking at dropping serious money on a custom built stick.
I actually completely disagree with leo here, i have extensive experience with ex2's se's te's other peoples customs and my own and honestly my advive for anyone is original TE then if you like it and have the skills your own custom.
A modded se is a great stick, but it will cost you as much as a te that comes with the same parts and you get a much more comfortable stick in the te and you dont lose your warranty either. And trust me that warranty will come in handy, madcatz sticks go squiffy, i've never had one that hasnt, regardles of whether i've opened it or not. The only real reason to go for an se over a te is if you like to use a seimitsu ls 32 and your skint and need to save some cash.
As for ex 2's absolutely dont bother, those things are enough to put you off sticks all together. The feel of a jlf is sooooo differnet to the horrible little chinese things hori use in their small form factor sticks that trying out a ex2 to see if you like the feel of a stick just doesnt work. The hori sticks are really clunky and snag as you try to move them, their gates are flimsy and kind of give as you press into them and they have horrible corners. The shaft is so much shorter than a jlf as well, unless you have tiny hands it will be way too small for you and because of the short shaft the travel patterns are different too, if you upgrade to a jlf or ls 32 in future you will have to re learn your muscle memory. and thats not even talking about the buttons that stick horrible. And dont think you can justchange them out willy nilly either, the ex2's massive pcb is hard wired to the buttons themselbes, removing it a god awful task and unless you know what you are doing will 95% likely reslut in you ruining your stick. Even though they are dirt cheap they dont replicate what you get with a good stick anywhere near enough to see if you like it or not imo and likely will make you think stick all together is trash and not bother moving on to something better.
With regard to customs, thats a real minefield, the vast majority of builders charge way over the odds for the workmanship and time involved, they really are running a bloody racket on those things and thats not the worst of it at all. In my experience the vast majority of custom sticks i have purchased or inspected fall way short of the kind of quality you would expect or the quality of the sticks the builders advertise. To give you an example my first stick was a finkle, a well known guy from canada who was considered one of the two top builders at the time and the premier builder of metal sticks. i ordered from him thinking i was going to get a work of art from the lovely high tolerance well photographed sticks he advertised, when my stick finally arrived months late it was utter trash. it was made to awful tolerances, the actually construction had clearly been made from warped steel and the thing wobbled horrendously thanks to the very different sizes of the two internal wooden blocks used to give the case its structure. My honest advice is unless you know the guy who's making it and like his work and trust him implicitly not to rip you off either do it yourself or if you cant or cant be arsed dont bother. A massive part of the pleasure of a custom stick is the pride that you made it yourself anyway, the te's are so good now that you will gain little with a well made custom but stand to lose a lot (both function and money) with a poorly made one.
Now this is all just my humble opinion but honestly i firmly believe that the best thing in the long run is only to give stick a try if your able and prepaired to put the considerable financia investment in upfront and the time effort into learning how to use it. If not just stay on pad and try to learn to be the best player you can on that platform.