Customer Reviews

Sony PS3 Street Fighter IV FightStick

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

The stick used for this is trash. The first day I received this, the stick was already faulty because the stick was not able to register a few motions. It turns out the stick is actually a Sanwa knockoff and it shows by its poor quality. I was forced to replace the stick with a Sanwa one, which was something I was already planning on doing. The buttons on the fightstick is mostly good, except after using it for over a month, my roundhouse button has started to act up. It will mostly register the action, but once in a while, it will not. Like the stick, I will be replacing the buttons with Sanwa parts really soon.

Other than those two problems, the fightstick itself is fine. It is small and portable and it feels nice using it. The layout of the buttons is great and the spacing between the stick and buttons is great too. The fightstick is also very easy to mod so you can easily swap out the stick, buttons or the artwork without any problem.

My recommendation is if you have the money for the TE fightstick, then go for it. If not, then this is a decent alternative with a few problems.

I've been playing with the SE fightstick for about a month now, with at least one hour of use every day. Thankfully I didn't have the loose washer issue (first thing I did was listen very carefully as I moved the stick around -- I thought it would be okay if I didn't hear any scraping/scratching noises, as I assumed the later units should not have such a big problem).

This is my first stick, so I'm no expert on them, and as such I think this is a great stick. Buttons are sensitive, the stick works well (once you get used to the square gate), and it's a nice weight so that I can set it on a chair or on my lap unsecured and it won't move too much, or at all.

After a month of use I'm beginning to suspect that some of the buttons will begin sticking, but I was aware this might happen as they're not Sanwa parts. If it becomes big enough of a problem I'll order replacement parts and swap buttons, which seems easy enough to do. After I do that I don't think I'll have any further reasons to complain.

All in all, this is a bit more expensive than I would expect for an arcade stick (by $15-$20) that doesn't have premium arcade parts and seems designed as a starting point for modification. All indications point to a product out-of-the-box that has a limited life before it starts having issues (though online discussion is going to be biased towards those who have problems). With that being said, I'm not unhappy with my purchase at all, and neither are the dopamine receptors in my brain every time I get my hands on this thing. (Now if only I could find some opponents online with whom I match up well...)

This is the second stick I've got, but both of the ones I own I received in January, so I can't help but compare the SF4 stick to the PS3 Fighting Stick 3. The differences between the two are pretty drastic - the Hori stick was a really good first choice for me because it has stock parts that are decent for first-timers and really got me into playing fighting games again, but because it requires soldering and dremels to properly mod, and because its case is just too small to easily fit Sanwa's JLF and Seimitsu's LS sticks, I didn't feel comfortable opening it up.

I got the SF4 stick and immediately fell in love with the case - the pictures online don't do it justice. Maybe it's because I was playing with the FS3 for so long and its sticker was starting to bubble and it is lightweight and thin, but the SF4 stick has good weight to it and the art, aside from looking good, really feels like it's protected well from oil and grime from your hands. However, even though I only just ordered it last week, THE WASHER PROBLEM DOES STILL EXIST. While MadCatz may have fixed the problem in sticks just produced, there's no guarantee that your fight stick won't be one that was on the shelf for months with a faulty washer.

Luckily it's a great stick for modding. I just completed my first ever mod tonight using a Sanwa JLF and OBSN-30 buttons. Unlike the FS3, which has a huge PCB with the buttons directly soldered to it, the buttons in the SF4 stick have quick disconnects and are easily accessed as soon as you open the stick. It's a quick change for the buttons and if you use the proper JLF stick, even quicker there. You almost have to do this - you don't want to be in a position where your joystick is scratching its PCB every time you move, and even if you plan on replacing the stick eventually the washer does impede movements in certain directions every now and then. Sure, you can open the stick up and glue it down, but if you're going to do that and void the warranty, you may as well just put a quality part in there instead. The stock buttons get mushy pretty quickly, too, but aren't as vital as the stick when it comes to exchanging parts.

If you've never modded before and want a user-friendly stick to start, go with this one! Art templates are found all over online and with all the colors that OBSN-30 and Seimitsu's PN buttons come in, you can really make it your own. Don't be duped into thinking that you need to pay more than retail price anymore, or even duped into believing you need to pay equal to retail price. Amazon's price for the stick fluctuates every day - keep an eye on it and jump when you get the chance.

It's a great product (especially the second generation), helps your game a lot, its well built and pretty solid (it's support even the beating of a one year old lol). Just a little warning to all the gamepad sf4 players. It takes a little time to get used to it, don't espect to just take it out of the box and start making ultras right away, it takes a little practice.

I gave it four stars just because of the 4 way gate. An 8 way gate will be much better especially for d df f projectiles (ryu,sagat,ken,....)

Its very easy to open and replace parts or mod it.

I received this stick in the beginning of September. It's extremely tedious to play street fighter on a controller, so I decided a fightstick was in order. When I first bought it I was blown away, the box and packaging was great and the fightstick seemed great, and I felt I got a steal.

After using it for a few months I can say a few things about it.

Bad

- Buttons and stick are made by madcatz (read: garbage.) The stick on mine no longer registers the up-right diagonal with any consistency, and the medium punch and hard punch buttons will sometimes not respond
- White balltop and buttons make any dust or residue very visible
- Too small, your wrists don't rest comfortably on the surface, because there isn't enough surface space, even for the smallest of people.
- Very light. This might seem like a good thing, but when you're playing on your lap or table it slides all over the place and messes with your inputs.
- Cheap case material.
- Feels really cheap after playing with a good fightstick.
- No headset port.

Good

- Cheap!
- Easily better than a controller.
- Easy to mod with superior sanwa parts.
- Long cable is extremely convenient.
- Probably the best stick in this price range.

I can say that this is definitely a step up from a controller, and probably a good idea if you are unsure if you are going to like a fightstick or stick to fighting games. But if you are even slightly sure, just get a tournament edition, it has original sanwa parts and much higher build construction.

If you're thinking of buying it and then modding it later, think hard. While you may be able to mod it with better parts, you can't really fix the small case and light weight. It would probably be smarter to just start off with a better product, like the tournament edition.

Overall, it's OK for beginners, but there are hugely better choices out there, you just need to pay a bit more.

From being a pad warrior to a stick warrior is no easy transition! You will get owned by the competition so bad when you first move to a stick from using a pad, it will be really frustrating. Although we all started playing Street Fighter II in the arcade, when it made its way onto the Super NES, most of us became pad warriors. We all learned to beat the computer really easily with a pad, and beat all of our friends most of the time. That being said, I can't really say how inferior/superior this is to a true arcade stick. Coming from a pad, it feels like an arcade stick, it plays like an arcade stick, and it even sounds like an arcade stick.

To my understanding it is using replica Sanwa parts, rather than real ones, but you can easily mod it to have the real ones (or shell out the extra $70 for the Tournament Edition stick which uses real Sanwa parts). Once again, coming from a pad, I can't really tell.

If you're coming from a pad as well, there is a pretty tight learning curve to movements, and execution that you may not be used to. I'm still not getting the most basic QCF, QCB + Attack motions perfectly. Thankfully, go into Training Mode and put your inputs on screen to see what you're doing wrong. I've learned on the stick, I'm pressing an attack button before going all the way to forward/back. So, you can learn to correct your mistakes.

However, there are more things you can do on a stick than you ever could on a pad. Challenge Mode is a good example. There are just things that are so much easier to do on a stick than a pad. The easiest example I can think of is Guile's Ultra/Super. DB (hold) to DF, back to DB to UF + Kick. You can do this so much easier on a stick. I can say I can do it nearly 100% of the time with the stick. With the pad, I had to resort to the analog stick, and hold DB, then spin it 720 degrees and hope luck would get it out (maybe about 50% of the time). C. Viper is easier to use with a stick, for example her High Jump execution is much easier.

Short cut commands work on a stick that I couldn't get out on a pad. Shoryuken shortcut DF, DF + Punch works every time on a stick. I couldn't once get that to work on a pad.

The start/select buttons are on the back of the stick, away from you. It's a bit of an annoyance to have to reach over there, but given the size of the thing, I understand the spacing. The Home button is in the upper left corner, along with switches to lock something (never used), and a Turbo setting (never used). Not sure where Turbo would help, since so much of the combos now are timing based; just mashing won't work so Turbo kick, or punch won't help either!

My girlfriend doesn't really like the stick. The buttons chatter and are noisy. She says it sounds like a sewing machine. Everything seems solid, I don't think I could break it from playing with it. If anything did wear out, just be aware that you can replace parts with true Sanwa parts (maybe it makes a difference) rather than by a new stick.

I bought this joystick originally for SSF4 for PS3. Now I am also using it for my PC playing SF4(you need VIA usb chipset in order for this to work). I am light with the buttons & stick. I never bang the joystick. I see a lot of complains regarding stick & buttons not working after so much hours of play. A lot of them say save your money for Tournament Edition that cost $137.67. BTW I bought this joystick for $55 shipped. Original SANWA buttons snap-on no screws is less than $3 each X 8 = 24, SANWA joystick replacement cost from $20 to $40. After all the replacement cost still does not add up to $137 for having original arcade buttons & stick. Bottom line you are buying this stick for the nice housing & replacing the buttons & stick eventually. If you are like me & do not have the $137 to shell out right away & planning to replace the parts anyway then this is the JOYSTICK for you.

i purchased this thing a few weeks back and roughly 30 minutes after opening i ran into issues with the buttons malfunctioning. Fortunately i had ordered sanwa parts at the same time. using the joystick with the new buttons it works great (just as responsive as my TE stick) after modification its great all in all but without it its just garbage

Got to admit i really was struggling with SF IV and the standard PS3 controller.
Received the Fightstick yesterday.
Device is more solid, better looking and "tougher" than I expected. All Good !
Plugged it, started the game and enjoyed SF IV like I didn't before.
So, it's not just for hardcore fighters. I'm actually pretty bad at that game. I would say it's a great device to have a much more enjoyable SF IV gaming experience!
Bye

First, I'm very used to the TE Madcats Arcade Stick, so this was an entirely different beast.

However, I needed a stick for a PS3 tourney, and didn't want to pay TOO much for a stick I would only use once in a blue moon (since I play on the 360 everywhere else).

This stick is pretty small, when compared to any of my other sticks (Hori EX, TE stick). This is a good thing and a bad thing. It was far easier to carry around that my other sticks, which is a nice relief. However, the size really threw off my game... But I think this is something you get used to in time.

The buttons bothered me a LOT more than I thought they would. They are not authentic SANWA buttons. Luckily, I just took the Sanwa buttons out of one of my other sticks, and put them in. The wholes for the buttons seemed a bit smaller than normal (I really had to squeeze those buttons in), but they worked.

Next, I had to replace the restrictor plate (gate). The Sanwa gate I bought fit on my other joysticks just fine, but to fit on this stick, I had to basically wear down the clips, so they would fit the gate... Of course, you can avoid this entirely by just replacing the entire stick with a sanwa JLF stick (which was out of stock at the time I needed it, but they're instock now).

Overall, this is a good little stick to learn the game with. It's small and easy to carry, has a long cord, and really gets the job done. However, if you play fighters often, you'll probably want to go with Sanwa buttons and sticks, which are going to cost about as much as just buying a TE stick with the buttons and stick already stock. :P

Not a bad stick, especially for the price.