How to choose the best fighting stick, whatever your budget

best fighting stick

Dig your gamepad and fight with a real weapon. Whether you have less than $ 100 or want to go out, here’s how to find the right fighter.

If you’ve been playing fighting games for a long time, you understand how important it is to have comfortable and efficient controls. The video game genre requires fast and precise inputs for shooting fireballs, combination links, and super shots, so you need a controller that lets you do that.

An ordinary video game controller can do the job, but for many members of the Fighting Games Community (FGC), fighting sticks also known as Qanba Drone arcade Joysticks  are the weapons of your choice.

Find out if a combat stick is right for you

Fighting sticks are special video game controls made specifically for, yes, fighting games. They typically replicate the feel and presentation of the classic Street Fighter-inspired line layout, complete with joystick and two buttons, found on arcade poles. In fact, the battleground market was born primarily when ridiculously popular fighting games like Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat took to home consoles.

“Fighting games started out in arcade cabinets using joysticks and buttons for controls and replicating the arcade experience at home with an arcade stick,” according to Kaz Ohira of Hori, one leading manufacturers of fighting sticks. “The controllers and buttons allow for extremely precise input, and these are what gamers look for in an arcade stick.”

It’s the arcade feeling of grabbing a lollipop or a baseball bat in one hand and fiddling with buttons with the other, which makes people embrace fighting sticks. It’s not a nostalgic feeling either. There is a real tactile reason why many players go head-to-head releasing fighters in local and international tournaments.

Reyes III was one of them. The retired tournament fighter struggled to use a standard console controller to play Vega / Claw in Super Street Fighter IV. Due to the combination of the four face buttons, bumpers, and joystick triggers, Reyes found he had to hold the controller in a difficult and uncomfortable position in order to reach all of the buttons.

to the point that it was a disadvantage, Reyes told me at a Chinatown Beatdown tournament in New York City on the Lower East Side. “I decided to buy a blanket for $ 50 for a stick.”

Reyes bought a printed circuit board for the inside of the pin and found someone to plug it in to ensure compatibility between multiple systems. “It’s second nature when I grew up in the arcades,” he said. “You don’t get a [console] controller in an arcade.”

Choosing a Pugilism Platform

The most important thing to do before purchasing a combat stick is deciding which platforms you will be using. Some battle sticks are designed exclusively for PlayStation use; others are designed for Nintendo or Xbox. Fortunately, PC gamers don’t have to live in such walled-up gardens. Due to the open nature of the Windows platform, you can use Nintendo, PlayStation, or Xbox battle directly, or with certain software for software.

I experienced this when a friend gave me a Hori Real Arcade Pro 4 Kai. I used the stick to play The King of Fighters Ultimate Match Final Edition, Garou: Mark of Wolves, Street Fighter V and other games without any issues even though the computer is not one of the platforms compatible listed below. Of course, some features of the PlayStation 4, such as image sharing and touchpad functions, were not working on the computer.

Learn Fight Stick Design

Someone who does not know the fighters may miss the checks because it is more or less the same thing, but with different motives, but it could not be further from the truth. There’s a lot of variety, including the number of buttons (six vs. eight vs. even more), button layout (straight vs. Namco Noir vs. Taito Vewlix), gamepad style (lollipop vs. baseball bat) and the gamepad door (circle against diamond against octagonal against square).

Most battle sticks have a Mode button that lets you use the joystick as a D-pad, left analog stick, or right analog stick. Likewise, you’ll find the button lock knobs on tournament ready sticks. These switches are important because they prevent you from disqualifying yourself by accidentally pressing the Mode, Home, Start, or Options buttons.

If you’re into the long-term stick game, you’ll want to find one that uses real arcade-grade parts (Sanwa Denshi and Seimitsu are the two titans on the pitch) that will handle the wear and tear of long gaming sessions. There’s a pretty long distance between now and the 1990s and early 2000s, when buying a stick involved dealing with questionable parts that couldn’t handle intense fighting games.

When you’ve got a handle on stick design, visit Arcade Shock or Focus Attack to level up by modifying your buttons, portals, and other items. Knitwear manufacturers do not discourage this switch either; In fact, some advanced sticks have easily accessible interiors that let you moderate as you like.

Determine the use of non-combat games

Although fighting stick is designed literally for fighting games, they are viable controllers for other arcade-style video games, such as Ikaruga or Metal Slug 3. In principle, not all games require double Les. Analog sticks are often used to fight sticks.

“There is a certain tool for playing batting with games that are not fighting games,” Reyes said. “Playing Puzzle Fighter on a stick doesn’t change the game in any way, but it’s more complete than using a pad.”

Review budget and premium options

If you want to buy a fighting stick, you will have to explore a lot of manufacturers. This Hori may be the most well-known manufacturer of fighting sticks now that Mad Catz has gone out of business, but he’s not the only company producing sticks. Mayflash, Qanba, Razer, and a handful of others also produce battle sticks.

Honestly, the price of nails is everywhere. On the budget side, you can pick a solid model for just $ 50. If you don’t have any batting stick experience, I recommend exploring the budget space first, as you can pick one up without spending too much moolah. great loss if you don’t dig control. 19659007] “The [A budget] stick may not have all the right things, compared to our high end arcade stick set, but we’ve made sure the quality isn’t compromised by lower costs.” , Ohira told us. “We recommend this stick for beginners who want to learn to play stick, as well as more experienced players looking for a portable stick to take on the road.”

A budget key only gives you the essentials, but a high-end model opens the door to new features. For example, Qanba’s main costume, Dragon, has an aluminum interior and LED accent lighting. You can learn more about this beast below.

It’s time to buy a fighting stick

If all of this sounds appealing to you, maybe it’s time to invest in a combat stick. There are a lot of options to consider before opening your wallet, so I have captured a few outstanding sticks in different categories. Take a reading and choose your weapon.

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