Customer Reviews

Playstation 3 Real Arcade Pro. 3 Fighting Stick

5 star:		(46)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

For serious fighting game fans, a decent stick is a key part of your arsenal. However, the parts and construction generally used to make up consumer-grade sticks, especially in the US where Arcades are more or less dead, have almost universally been of sub-par quality when compared to the real thing you find attached to arcade cabinets.

This makes sense, of course. Arcade components are designed to withstand full-scale assaults every day all day; it's a safe assumption that something bought for home use isn't going to go through the kind of abuse you'd expect an arcade machine to go through. On top of that, constructing something out of industrial-strength arcade parts ain't cheap. Who's going to pay over $100 for a game controller?

Well, as it turns out, a lot of people. Left with no other solution, fighter fans who want the genuine article have traditionally turned to simply making their own sticks. You buy the parts from a japanese manufacturer like Sanwa or Seimitsu, plot out where the holes are going to go on a chunk of wood, and drill and solder and screw your way to perfection. This approach, however, is expensive, time consuming, and requires some level of expertise to pull off correctly.

The other approach was to wait for a Japanese company to produce one of their factory sticks (usually in extremely limited numbers), put them up for sale in Japan, and pay through the nose to import. While this was a lot easier than buying your own parts, you always wound up paying some kind of premium. $200+ was not uncommon to own one of these things.

We're at the point now, however, where the industry has gotten large enough that you can just up and buy these things on Amazon.com now. My sincere recommendation, if you're at all interested in owning a stick, is that you bite the bullet and shell out the money for a good one. Once you pass a certain threshold in quality with these sticks, you enter the realm of specialized consumer electronics that are made to specifications without regard to your average user.

The HRAP3 is one such stick. This thing is designed from the ground up with the assumption that the only people who are going to buy it are serious connoisseurs, so damn the price, let's make it properly.

If you're not a SERIOUS serious stick person and are just getting into the swing of things, here's all you need to know: This is one of the best high-end sticks money can buy, and it will last you a decade or more. These are extremely durable, very responsive, and have a very well-defined functionality about them that you won't get from cheaper products. Yeah, they're expensive, but honestly? You're getting your money's worth and that will become apparent the instant you use this stick. Buy it, be happy.

As an aside, this stick has a USB lead and will also work with your PC out of the box (just hold the HOME button for 5 straight seconds upon plugging it in). This is absolutely perfect for emulators like MAME, or any other PC game you wish to play with an arcade stick.

That out of the way...

Okay, let's assume you're a serious stick person. Here's a more in-depth rundown:

The stick itself is a Sanwa with a square gate, and the buttons are all Hori. This isn't bad, but the good news is that they're all attached with a quick-detach lead and can be popped loose with a screwdriver easily, no solder required. If you want to go the serious route and swap the buttons for Sanwa and the stick for Seimitsu, this stick will let you do it pretty easily. Google has many picture tutorials to do this.

I replaced the gate with a Sanwa Octagon (I like Sanwa sticks but a lot of people prefer Seimitsu) and all the buttons with Sanwa. It took about 10 minutes and was completely painless.

If you do this, you have a stick that is officially on par with the Street Fighter IV TE stick (also made with all Sanwa parts) and the special import-only editions of the HRAP, but it is much cheaper to buy this one and do a little surgery than buy the factory-stock ones that come with Sanwa. This is a lovely medium ground between building your own and buying a factory made one; you get some level of customization, you're saving a little money, and you're still getting full-on arcade quality. Go for it.

I hope this review helped!

Street Fighter II HD Remix, and Street Fighter IV have fueled the fire for fighting games again and people are once again looking for a good quality stick. For the money, you can't beat this stick. All of you searching for an arcade quality joystick without breaking the bank can look here. The Hori Real Arcade Pros were easily over $120 in Japan so this is a bargain. It uses a Sanwa joystick which is one of the best if not the best quality joystick around. It uses buttons which are made by Hori which are a tad spongy to me, but the beauty of this stick id that you can easily swap them out for Sanwa or Seimetsu buttons if you want a true arcade unit in your home. Sanwas can take millions of presses.

For the average person, this stick will be more than fine, for the hardcore fighter, this stick will serve as a base for upgrading. Being a Japan stick, you get the ball type stick rather than the typical US baseball bat. WHen I first tried the ball type years ago, I didn't like it. Then I got used to it and it offers a bit more speed and control when playing fighters. I refuse to use anything but the ball type now. Buttons are arranged in the Japan curved arcade cabinet style which again, I prefer now compared to the straight button layout. Add turbo functions for shmups and you've got yourself a fine stick for the price. I personally also have the Sega Virtua Stick High Grades (available only through Japan imported) and those are all Sanwa with a 6 instead of 8 button layout. SImply the best. Second is the Hori here, and about $50 cheaper.

THose looking at the upcoming Street Fighter IV Mad Catz ones...I'm a little weary as Mad Catz doesn't exactly scream quality but supposedly they are all Sanwa Parts as well. I'd hold off until they are out. That and they are sixty dollars more than this. Avoid the cheaper SF IV ones, those are not made with arcade parts and your stick will most likely fail at some point.

Pros:
Curved button layout
Sanwa Japan style ball stick and convex style buttons
Hori quality
Upgradeable buttons
Price

Cons:
Hori Buttons (not a bad thing except for the most hardcore)
Limited availability

So Hori has finally made the Real Arcade Pro 3 available stateside, so no more costly importing!

Believe it or not, this is my first real Arcade Stick. I'm 25 years old and am just now getting into fighters properly. Street Fighter IV was a factor but It's also a genre I've always wanted to get into but never had enough confidence with my skill level nor had the neccessary tools.
So I've finally started to commit myself to develop the skill and understanding the rules for different titles as well as purchasing said tools!
This Arcade Stick is highly regarded for it's build and quality. True as others have stated, it doesn't have the infamous Sanwa Buttons that the special Japan Amazon Edition had or the upcoming (now sold out) SFIV Tournament Stick have, but this is irrelevant at this point to me. I'm just learning and the buttons here are more than good enough.
As listed, it's is USB corded (not wireless), which is about 10ft in length. It's fine for my household though I had to buy an additional USB extension cord for like $3 as I sit about 13ft away from my Tele.
The great thing about it is that it double as a PC stick, so you MAME enthusiasts out there are good to go! I've gone back and started playing the Street Fighter Alpha series as well as SFIII: 3rd Strike. Not to mention it's fun to go and play around with ol' Neo Geo classics like Metal Slug (it's got a turbo function), KoF, Samurai Showdown, etc...
Whether it's in your lap or sitting on a counter or table, it's fantastic and comes highly recommended!

The HRAP 3 is a great stick right out of the box. It has a Sanwa JLF joystick straight from the Japanese arcades and Hori buttons. The only downside to the joystick is the Hori Buttons. They're not very good for fighters (like Street Fighter 3) and feel cheap. Luckily Hori added quick disconnects and you can easily buy new buttons and swap them out with extremely little knowledge. Build quality is great and it has a good weight to it. It works easily and seamlessly with the Playstation 3 and the PC. Just plug it in and it's good to go.

Highly recommended.

There is a drought for arcade sticks, especially with the release of Street Fighter IV. My local game store doesn't have any, and the only ones they do carry when they do have them in, are the Mad Catz ones. Not the Tournament Edition (TE) either. This arcade stick has the exact same size of the Tekken 5 Ultimate Collector's edition for those of you that have that. The only difference is the button layout on the Real Arcade Pro (RAP) is that of traditional Japanese arcade boards. It's not bad in any way, just that it takes time to get acquainted with it.

I've read reviews of this being a "clunky" joystick, which was very surprising as it has Sanwa parts for the joystick unit (Sanwa is the premier arcade parts developer in the world). I suspected that these individuals had never been in an actual arcade. When I got the stick it was like I thought, because the stick is just like the arcades I grew up on. The buttons, however are not Sanwa buttons...to me though, I prefer the Hori buttons. Although Sanwa is reported to have better response, I can't stand the clicking of their buttons (if you depress the button, it will click). For the hard core, you can buy the Sanwa buttons and install them if your at all technically savy (still making it cheaper than the TE by Mad Catz). And as for the reports of the RAP being defective, I've not had a problem at all with mine for over a month.

After a month of research, I concluded this was the arcade stick for me. I trust Hori, it wasn't as expensive as the import version, and anything "better" was outrageously more expensive. Take it from an arcade rat from the 90's, this is the right arcade stick for your fighting games. I've had five friends buy it and they all love it as well.

For 90 dollars you cannot go wrong so get this stick while it lasts. I'm a big fan of Hori products especially there joysticks. They are great for ps2 fighting games, ps3 fighters like Tekken 5, Soul Calibur, SSF2HDR, and upcoming games like Street Fighter IV. If you have a HRAP2 then it is pointless buying this stick unless you just want the ability to exit a game without having to use the ps3 controller, but if that does not bother you then just purchase the ps2 to ps3 adapter. This is pretty much the same stick except that the HRAP3 has the home button. The buttons do not bother me as much as other players, but if you want, you could always swap them for sanwa buttons. Overall this as close to arcade perfection as you could get and it beats having to pay $130 for the import version of this stick.

This arcade stick is very responsive.
It's easier to pull the moves you intended if you are familiar with arcade sticks.
I used this on SF4 and SSF2THD for PS3.
It's far better than dualshock 3 for fighting.

It also works well with PS2 titles, if you have PS3 that runs PS2 titles (20GB, 60GB, early 80GB models).
I tested on SF3 and SFA series for PS2.

My main concern is that the stick might be too short for oversized paws out there.
Initially, I thought it was uncomfortably short.

Bottom line: This is a great out of the box joystick. It's joystick feels quick and precise, everything is responsive and works as it should. This includes PS3, and PC, EVEN 64-BIT VISTA!!!

That's right, out of the box 64-bit Vista is as simple as plugging and playing, no extra driver or PS3 hacked driver needed. Works great with MAME and other such devices.

For PS3 it's great, works fantastically with Tekken, Soul Calibur, Street Fighter HD Remix and I'm sure, Tekken 6 and SF4 later this year.

There really isn't much to be said, it is a much better stick than the $50 variants, and is certainly more affordable than the SF4TE stick. the color scheme is pretty ugly IMO, but it makes up for it with performance. The stock parts are great, Sanwa stick and Hori buttons. While an upgrade is worth the price tag, even a picky vet wouldn't be able to complain too loudly about this stick.

If you wish to mod it with Sanwa parts you can have the essentially the same stick minus only some ugly graphics for $30-40 less. I will say that while it's a great stick and can add a lot to your game, with this Street Fighter 4 hype and the mystique around it's joystick, don't expect an arcade stick to magically make you better at your games. It takes some getting used to and may not be for you.

Not affecting my opinion of the base model, I did mod mine with white Sanwa buttons, plugs for the last 2 buttons, a black meshball and octagonal gate (for the joysticks range of movement). While this is not necessary it gives a tangible boost to the controller if you can use it semi-competently to begin with.

I had another arcade stick that stopped working on 3.50. This one works on the latest (3.60) and is of great quality.

The HRAP3 is a heavy stick that feels very sturdy. I play with the stick on my lap so I never have a problem with it slipping off. The metal plates make up the bulk of the stick's weight. The stock Sanwa JLF stick is a high performance stick and one commonly found in Japanese arcade cabinets. The Hori buttons feel more like Seimitsu's which I prefer over Sanwa. I'll keep the buttons for the next couple of years then replace them with Seimitsu's. For those of you that are used to playing on American-style buttons, Seimitsu buttons are like a hybrid between Sanwa and Happ. Hori's buttons are a little stiffer than Sanwa's but lighter than Happ's. The buttons on the HRAP3 are wisely placed. I play mostly KOF so the top 4 buttons are perfect and spaced a nice distance from the shaft of the stick. I use the 6 buttons nearest to the right of the stick for Capcom fighters and they are perfectly spaced as well.

I've played on iL competition sticks and Happ buttons for 10 years so obviously I was a little reluctant to buy this stick. I bought a Sanwa LB-30-N bat top ($4.95) and a Sanwa joystick adapter ($.50) and after installing it the stick feels much better and the buttons are responsive. The spring of the JLF is much lighter than my Competition stick so it took some getting used to. The gate on the Sanwa is square which is the Japanese standard for fighting games. Some have swapped it out for octogonal but I'd rather feel 4 corners as opposed to 8. Also, octogonal is more of a learning base for shoto users. Square is ultimately the way to go.

The stick is compatible with PC and PS3, but not PS2. But I can kind of understand the reasoning behind this.

One thing that I find annoying with this stick is this, Hori knows that at least half of HRAP3 buyers will be swapping out either the buttons or the stick to ones of their own liking, so they should make it a lot easier to gain access to the guts of the stick. Some of the nuts require a special tool to unscrew because the spaces are tight. The face panel is also a fingerprint magnet so it must be cleaned constantly. The stock artwork is eye candy thus you become kind of addicted to cleaning it, so it's a hassle.