Hey all, hopefully those who actually use fightsticks reach out to this post.
I’ve always wanted to play on a fightstick but I’ve never had the chance to actually test one out. I understand it’s about preference but I’d like to buy one soon. Anyone help me out on which ones to try out or buy? Give me any names and prices since I actually don’t know much about fightsticks other than you can mod, etc.
There is really no good way to TRY one. (as far as i know).
Fightsticks are NOT WORTH THE MONEY if you dont have a good reason for buying one.
The 2 main reasons would be:
I personally bought mine just for fun. I missed out on the good old arcade days, so i wanted a chance to get the experience at home. I enjoy the stick greatly, but i dont need it, and i cant say it really makes me play better. The “Fun” is really the only thing that fueled my purchase.
(However…
I HAVE been seeing a TON of people say that KI breaks regular controllers. Peoples RB button snaps and they have to get brand new controllers. So if you have a bad habit of “clenching” and pressing your buttons super hard in a panic moment, you might want to buy a fightstick just to save you a bit of money in the long run.)
Bought my (Hori Rap V) purely for fun and so that my controllers don’t wear out b/c of Ki. If you do decide to buy one I’m going to tell you right now, you’re going to suck the first couple months/weeks. Also I recommend you watch Gooteck’s video on YouTube about how to use a stick, that helped me out a ton!
Ps. It works on Xbox one, PC, and 360!
Like it was already mentioned, fightsticks are really not worth it unless you have very good reasons to own one, specially considering that fightsticks are more expensive than ever. I’m an old school player, who learned how to play fighting games in the arcades. For me, playing with a gamepad just feels weird and very uncomfortable, therefore I’m at a serious disadvantage if I play with a gamepad. As a result, I don’t own one, but two fightsticks; a Razer Atrox (xbox one) and a Madcatz TE2+ (PS4/PS3).
First and foremost, a fightstick WILL NOT make you a better player, in fact, if you know already how to play fighting games with a gamepad, you should probably stick to it, specially if you have never played with a fightstick before, since you will have to learn how to play again from the very beginning, develop muscle memory and basically getting used to the controller again, a process that might take days, weeks or even months depending on how much you play and how skilled you are. Additionally, if you’re planning on going to offline tournaments, gamepads are WAY more portable and convenient that the sticks, those things are a little bit heavy and bulky haha.
That being said, if you’re really committed to buying a stick for whatever reason you might have, there are a number of advantages worth mentioning; first of all, most fightsticks retain their value over time, so if you’re not 100% sure about buying it, you might get most of your money back if you finally decide fightsticks aren’t your thing. Secondly, fightsticks are built to last, unlike most controllers (even the elite), they can take some serious punishment without permanently damaging them. That brings me to my 3rd point, most fightsticks can be fully modded, you can change and replace every single piece, either for cosmetic or technical purposes, and most parts are really cheap.
If you want my opinion about the sticks I own, I’m quite happy with both of them, they’re pretty much identical, since they use the same parts (Sanwa) and the built quality is really good. Some people are more inclined towards Madcatz, due to some Razer sticks malfunctioning at crucial EVO moments, but like I said, I own both and have never, ever had any issues with the Atrox. If anything, the Atrox feels a little bit heavier and sturdier than the TE2. Additionally, you can also build your own stick, it’s supposed to be cheaper if you know what you’re doing and you can literally make it unique, but in all honesty, I cannot be bothered about that, just bought them and started playing straight away.
I hope I could give you some insights about this common, but always important topic.
Yeah pretty much what everyone else has been saying. I’ve been a pad player for much of my fighting game career. I just recently brought TE2 after trying a fightstick for a few months. There’s a few cheap fightsticks on Amazon you can try I’m not sure how much money you have but the one that I brought was about $50. Afterwards I upgraded to the TE2 when I felt more comfortable. The TE2 is nice I will say. I decided to make the change when I got tired of the buttons on the pad popping even on the elite controller. It’s a good investment if that’s where you want to go but be cautious it could be a very expensive paperweight if you don’t think it’ll work out for you good luck.
+1 on the Hori Rap V Kai, it’s literally the only one that’s X1 an Win 10 compatible, thanks to Win10 technically being xbox360 mode. I’ve adjusted a few things in it, I feel like all the modern $150 ones are made easy to unscrew and open up to mod. Look for an amazon or ebay refurbished or open box sale to save a few bucks, as always
The only one that is a lot less than $150 is made by Mayflash for $60 or less. It looks very small. I can’t speak for the quality, as most people who buy it aren’t playing fighting games seriously, but more for a stick feel with some retro rom or arcade game. But idk maybe they all perform the same.
Downside to the hori is that if you want to try the oct gate mod (square gate is default on most sticks) you can only get a special one through focusattack.com. Otherwise you’ll have to go through a lot of drilling and hardware modding for no good ■■■■■■■ reason other than the ones who do all the drilling must not have known focusattack.com has one that fits the Hori. That’s probably the best site to find all modded components for your stick once you get one, way more stuff than amazon has.
As for trying before buying, I say it’s best to try a similar fighting game in an arcade and see if it’s fun for you. That’s what plainly got me to buy a stick.
First tip don’t go cheap if your playing on xbox one there are 3 choices the best xbox one stick is the atrox. The reason they failed at tournaments is because razer was beta testing a ps4 pad hack and it was awful rhe thing looked like ■■■■ ans they were using 360 fightsticks which had bad cables in the atrox. The xbox one version corrected this usb issue and a normal dual mod for ps4 using a hori fighting commader pro 4 will never ever ever fail the atrox is rock solid dont let what happened at these torunys fool you this was razers fault using a untested method on outdated fightstick.
Next would be the hori tho it dont have sanwa parts i can’t say this is truely 2nd best xbox one fightstick they got the most input lag
The te2 is a good stick feels flimsy as ■■■■ easist to find videos to get help ans the one that holds most value out of all 3 due to name brand
Sometimes its changing the gate that comes on a stick or adding a bigger spring could change if you like it or not. It will take a very very long time to adjust too
If your on pc this opens up alot options on which you can use
I would try to find your local arcade or sfv scene or ki scene every state has one the ki facebook group could be down the street from you worth a shot
Even though I didn’t get to experience the arcade scene all that much as a kid I am seriously considering trying out a fight stick mainly because since I got an XB1 and KI at the end of this past December and I am already on my 3rd controller (RB buttons keeps breaking) and I need to find something stronger/more durable and the way I hear people smacking on their fightsticks ins streams/tournaments they sound like they can handle it lol
I play stick due to the comfortably in my hands no more aching hands and fingers no more burning at the joints no more blisters and broken controllers fightsticks are built to last easy to repair at a low cost and you can do it yourself
Do it man, 
it takes a bit to get used to but it’s worth it in my opinion
I was skeptical at first but after a few weeks i couldn’t go back to pad
It’s pretty tempting lol do you know if they make any that work on both consoles or do you have to buy one for both PS4 and XB1?
I’m the wrong person to ask but hopefully someone will chime in.
Nope you can mod one to work on both
Cheapest way is a brooks converter 35 bucks
Yes that’s kind of the only reason why I’m considering buying one. I have gone through two of my four controllers. If it saves money I’ll do it.
I also feel like I’ve played you before… lol your jago I’m pretty sure.
very descriptive and helpful, thanks a lot!
hmm, never thought about looking for a ki scene around Chicago. The only person I know in my state is Amenty. Thanks for that!
Im pretty sure theres an arcade in chicago a pretty big one
I would find the killer instinct ultimate fans group on faceboom and find someone near you if they got a stick for you to use
There are two ways of getting that done:
Buy a brook converter: those things are small USB dongles that will make your stick work in another console. They are convenient and not very expensive, but you might have to deal with some input lag (no one has been able to scientifically prove how much input lag those things have, but it is believed to be around 5-8 ms). Additionally, I’m not entirely sure if those adapters are tournament legal.
Dual mod your stick: There are some PCBs compatible with multiple consoles. They are more expensive than the adapters and you’ll need to solder a little bit, but you won’t have any issues in tournaments and you won’t to worry about input lag.
So basically, if you’re an online player, or you don’t have any plans on competing in offline tournaments, the adapters will work just fine. However, if you’re interested in offline tournaments, you might want to dual mod your stick, but if you can’t or don’t want to do it, you might want to buy a second stick altogether.