Customer Reviews

PS3 Fighting Stick 3

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(33)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The Hori Fighting Stick 3 is a solid entry in Hori's line of joystick products. As the only arcade stick widely available for the Playstation 3 in the USA, it has some big shoes to fill. Fortunately, it comes through in most areas. It's the best in its class and with the new backwards-compatibility updates to the PS3, you can even use this with your favorite PS1 and PS2 games.

The HFS3 offers a Japanese style ball-top joystick with 8 Japanese style convex face buttons. The stick and buttons are all very responsive and perform extremely well in the most intense situations. The joystick has a very sturdy outer case and weighs a respectable 3lbs. It also comes with rubber feet allowing you to comfortably play on a hard surface or your lap. A minor gripe I have about this joystick is the button layout which forces your hand to be in a slightly awkward and uncomfortable position but is definitely not a deal-breaker.

I found this joystick to be terrific in 3D fighting games and have no gripes about it at all. However, when it comes to 2D fighting games, this joystick falls a little short. Most fighting game aficionados will know the importance of circular motions in order to keep your competitive edge. Sadly, this joystick comes with the Japanese standard square restrictor-plate. I find it very difficult to pull off complex combos requiring lots of circular rotations.

If you feel confident enough to do a little modification, you can easily fit a Sanwa JLF and an octagon restrictor-plate into this stick. This is a great option since it comes with such a low-price tag giving you some wiggle room for upgrades.

Overall, I think this is a solid purchase for anyone that wants to expand their fighting game experience. I thoroughly enjoy playing fighting games on the Playstation 3 more because of this stick and have a lot of fun playing some older PS1/PS2 games with it as well.

For this price, this kind of a joystick is truly a treat. I've always been one to obsess about how much gameplay at home resembles that of the arcade - the endless abyss of accessories scattered across closets in my house proves it. Metal DDR pads, multiple steering wheels, etc. Being a fighting game addict I can tell you that this is much better than the SIXAXIS for Virtua Fighter 5, as I'm sure it will be for Tekken and Soul Calibur, and whatever other games from the fighting genre may pop up on the PS3 eventually.

You will find that the buttons are much more accessible than if you were to try using your SIXAXIS by putting it into a weird position so you can counter your opponents' moves with lightning quick reflexes. As much as I love this thing, there are some cons which I should let you know about.

CONS:
- The turbo option is crucial for some combos, but it can ruin some as well. If you turn the turbo on for the D-Pad Down, you will sidestep instead of crouching.
- There is only ONE fighting game for the Playstation 3 right now. This is DEFINITELY not the time to buy one of these if you don't plan on playing Virtua Fighter 5, or downloading Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection when it becomes available on the PS Store.
- Though many people have been saying this works on their PC (and I'm sure it does... lucky them) there are also people who can't seem to get their PC to get it to work, me being one of them.
- For those of you who wanted to buy this to play other games, the D-Pad does not work for games that use analog to move around. I was excited to try using this for NBA2K7 but was not able to. Therefore, this is a joystick made exclusively for fighting games... or other games that use the D-Pad instead of the analog stick on the SIXAXIS - a rarity I'm sure, for PS3 games. I own 8 games, but currently Virtua Fighter 5 is the only one I'm able to use this for out of those 8.

In conclusion, this is definitely a great product - especially for the price it's been put up for. However, I would save my $50 dollars and spend it to get 1 more PS3 game into my collection if I wasn't such a fighting genre addict and did not obsess about bringing the arcade experience into my house. Dish out the 50 dollars if you plan on purchasing Virtua Fighter 5 or Tekken 5: DR and you're a fighting genre fanatic. If you REALLY love your fighting games, I've been told the HORI Pro Fighting Stick 3 is better, and that's priced at 80 dollars. Otherwise, if those descriptions don't seem to be describing you, I'd wait a bit more for a better joystick to come along.

I've been playing my PS3 Fighting Stick 3 with BlazBlue online and against my friends, and buttons and controls are responsive. This is my first arcade stick since the original NES so I didn't know what to expect.

Pros: A good arcade stick, with square gate, and button alignment exactly like the japanese arcades. Switches for Turbo, up to 20x, and also works with PS2 games if you have a BC PS3. A lot of bang for your buck without breaking the bank.

Cons: Not using Sanwa/Seimitsu stick, or using Sanwa/Seimitsu buttons.

I've been playing this on BlazBlue for 20 hours a week for a few weeks, and it still works. I don't know anything about modding, so I can't help you there. I've been playing pad since the days of SF2, so adapting to stick took a few days, but pulling off your characters specials and supers are way easier, combos are easier to pull off, plus it won't sore my left thumb on the analog stick for the pad.

I bought this joystick because I wasn't happy with my competition stick. I thought by buying this stick, i wouldn't have any problems performing my moves in street fighter. Well, i was definitely wrong because doing forward-down to forward motion, aka drag punch rotation, is very difficult. Actually it is almost impossible. Especially when trying to combo into a cr mk to super fireball.

Street Fighter Alpha 2:
I like using rolento in this game. I thought this stick would improve my consistency in doing the throw dagger command. However i was extremely disappointed that you literally have to mash the joystick in order to get that rotation to come out.

Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo:
I still had the same problem when using shodo characters. However when using sagat, i find his tigree knee to be exremely easy. So if you are a noob and just want to spam tiger knee, then this stick is perfect for you!

Street Fighter 4:
Amazingly this stick works pretty well for this game. I think it is because you only have to hit down-left or down-right twice to perform a dragon punch type move. Performing supers is also pretty easy but comboing into supers is another story. Doing a cr mk to super fireball is quite difficult. If you like to play online, this can be quite annoying. Especially when you get punished for it!

So overall, I give this stick a 4 out 5. After doing some research on youtube, i found out that it is extremely easy to mod!! All you have to do is buy a restrictor plate and you're set to go! I STRONGLY suggest that before you buy this stick, look up videos on square plates vs the 8 octagonal restrictor plate!!
Besides that, it's an ok stick for under 50 bucks. If you mod it, then you will definitely get your moneys worth! I Hope this review helps with your search in buying a new joystick!

This was product was really worth it compared to other generic sticks i have had in the past. Though there is a Square Gate, it shouldn't be problem after u play with it for a while, but if it really bothers you then changing out the gate is pretty simple. This stick has upped my game way more than i ever thought. this stick>dpad in my opinion.

Also for those who ask if this work for PC's, it does as many of my acquaintances have bought this as well, and this stick mostly plug and play on Vista 32 bits and on one Window 7 32 bit operating system.

Well, in my opinion this stick is truly a great stick for bargain hunters. And better buy quick the stick went up in price pretty quick(about 12 dollars more) in 5 days.

I bought this stick without doing the research and now I definitely regret it. First of all the button Layout is crap, If yout try to play 4 button fighters with the existing layout I hit the L or R buttons by mistake. You have to remap the buttons for pretty much any game you play. This hori button layout is unlike any other true japanese button layout if you pay attention to the R buttons they slope downwards where they should be a little more in line with the middle buttons. The joystick is not horrible but feels akward compared to sanwa. The Actual quality of the buttons is also crap. I only used mine for about a month and Some of the buttons are starting to stick but for the most part they are just getting harder and harder to press and they are not very accurate.Sometimes I'd press a button and get no action. These sticks are also not easy to modify with sanwa parts, you have to dremel in order to mount a Sanwa stick and The buttons are soldered directly to the pcb. Anyways the point I'm trying to get across is cheap and good does not exist in the land of Arcade style joystick controllers. Save you money and get a Hori Real Arcade Pro or one of The Street Fighter 4 fightsticks. Those are both easily moddable and good out of the box.

Just getting into fighting games. For this price the stick is a good buy. Responsive and so far (had it for 2 months or so) durable. Plugged it into my Computer (Windows 7, 64bit) and it works fine. Not Hori or Sawna parts but if this is your first stick then it won't matter. Overall good product. You can mod it with better parts. Also, on a side note, there is little room inside the stick so keep this in mind if you're planning to do a padhack. It is possible but kind of cramped.

Satisfied with this product.

I'll start this by saying that I have several Hori controllers across multiple platforms and their game pads haven't failed me in as long as I can remember...This stick though, well that's a different story.

I have to two star this stick because of the buttons. They're hard to press (you're not getting contact with a pinky on this one unless you've got huge beefy hands) and the responsiveness is sluggish. After a couple months of on and off use it also seems like the right most two buttons aren't coming back to top dead center anymore, which really didn't surprise me because I was forced to really slam the buttons to get good precise presses, something I shouldn't have to do with an arcade stick. Its not surprising though considering the price point this stick sits at. The joystick itself though, like with most out of the box arcade sticks is actually really responsive for being generic.

With some finagling you can get this stick to work in Windows on the PC if you know the overall technique to get any native PS3 controllers to work in Windows, so that's a minor plus.

The biggest problem I had with this stick is the turbo function. I don't know how they're making the PCB for this piece of equipment but the turbo button has a tendency to get stuck in the constant on position for all the buttons which causes all the buttons (including start, select, home, etc) to occasionally spaz out which necessitates unplugging it from the console in order for it to right itself.

Modability of this stick is also not for the noobs. You have to do a whole lot of de-soldering to get the buttons out (the anchor directly into the PCB) and, in turn, be really careful with your solder joints putting the new ones in. The holes for the buttons also aren't standard so you're going to either have to mod the buttons (if you buy Sanwa 28mm's) or mod the bore holes that the buttons fit into. All of this can be done though if you're willing to put some elbow grease into it. The bigger problem is the vertical clearance for the joystick. A standard Sanwa JLF will fit into it but you'll have to remove some of the internal plastic where the stick anchors on the underside of the top plate and do some drilling and dremeling to get it all to to fit..which includes shaving some material off the bottom plate so that the stick doesn't make contact with it.

I can't really give this more than two stars because of the lack of modibility and the absolutely atrocious button response.

First off I play Street Fighter 4 on PC not sure what the input lag is.

Man joysticks are ridiculously expensive. I'd much rather have this at $25 and tournament stick editions at 50-75. I began playing Street Fighter at a friend's house on the tournament stick, and decided to pick up this. Both sticks aren't EXACTLY like the arcade, not like I expected them to be - but it is good for comparison. The tournament stick is about 80% of an real arcade feel. The fighting stick 3 feels like 60% of the TOURNAMENT STICK. <--This is quality wise with the parts. Everything still functions as it is suppose to.

I still am able to do FADC ultra combos accurately, but the cherry top stick is too light. The buttons are alright, they are a bit sluggish like already mentioned.

If you've never played with a tournament stick then you probably won't notice. If you have, the quality is noticeably not as good, but as I said before I could still execute the FADC combos in a timely fashion.

Personally I think it's alright for 50 bucks. It could've been worse. lol

If you could get a tournament stick hold off on this, and get that. The quality in the parts is much better, unless you swap these buttons and joystick like i plan to. It's around 40 bucks to upgrade so I rather do that then spend another 100 bucks for another stick.

i've been doing alot of research on a budget arcade stick that fits my price range. i would love to have one of those tournament sticks, but i'm a casual gamer so i'm not about to spend a benjamin on one of those. when i saw this stick, i knew it had to be the one. cheap, Hori brand, long cable length. bingo!

the stick feels just like the ones in those japanese arcades, except they aren't sanwa parts. the buttons feels smooth. the joystick clicks, i prefer this, but some ppl might not like it. the base is heavy enough to hold on ur lap. it has 4 rubber legs and they stick to my table well. the usb cord is very long as advertised, i think 3m.

here's the reason why i gave it 4 stars. IT'S NOT 8-WAY PLATE! after decades of manufacturing arcade sticks, every manufacturer should use the 8-way plates, not 4-way. that plate is so cheap if u google it. why can't the manufacturers just use this plate instead of making us mod it ourselves? there's also an user-made tutorial on how to mod it on a video site.

so in the end, if ur looking for a budget, moddable arcade stick, definitely try out this one.

btw, this connects fine to windows 7 ultimate 64 bit. playing oldschool coinop games on mame works well. i even mapped ventrilo's talk button to the stick. no button lag whatsoever.