Just a follow up question. The people that do use pads, is it because you just couldn't be bothered paying for or learning to use a stick? Or is it because you genuinely find pads easier to use?
I'm only curious because it seems like at the moment I'll never be able to do the stuff I try and do on a controller, but if it is possible then there's no real point spending my money.
Grew up on controllers, and never really played fighting games in an arcade before. Only fighting game I play half-seriously is BlazBlue on both consoles, and I think I do pretty well with just the controller. For the 360, I have to use the analog stick because the d-pad on it sucks, but other than dashing the analog stick is really smooth to do inputs on. The PS3's d-pad is great, except I have a little trouble doing half-circle forward motions on it. That said I've kind of wanted to try an arcade stick since they're apparently that much more accurate, but I'm not in a big hurry to shell out a fortune for one.
A fortune? I can give any of you here a discount just because we're EOFF buddies.
Once I got used to using a stick, I could not go back to using a pad. I've had a few of them, but my favourite one by far is the (out of print) Virtua Stick High Grade that I got modified to work on both PS3 and 360 (and PC of course).
I think what discourages people from playing with arcade sticks if they 'grew up' with other control methods is that it really does take time to get 'good' at it. It can be pretty frustrating when you start jumping when you didn't mean to, or when you can't do moves on the other side of the screen. If I didn't like fighting games so much I might have never bothered to really learn it, but I'm glad I did.
DM it broke my heart when you sent me the PSN message saying you though you wasted money on that stick. I can understand having money issues, but I think you should really keep at it.
Arcade stick. I have learned fighting games on a pad until i went to college and actually played in an arcade. Since then i have tremendously gotten better using a stick.
The reason a stick is better because you are using your wrist to move the stick instead of one thumb. Its less muscle intensive and more natural. Other than that, your entire hand and fingers can access all the buttons easily and naturally instead of using two fingers to do combinations (unless you use the FightPads).
Some people stick with pads because it takes alot of time and dedication to re-learn the game from scratch since playing with a stick can be cumbersome if you are not used to it. But i highly recommend it as there are many things i cannot do on a pad, but can on a stick. And theres never a time i felt the other way around.
I highly recommend Japanese Hori sticks(you can get an EX3 for 50 bucks) for almost all games. If you want an American stick though, you can consider MAS systems or build one yourself/commission one. Its not that hard once you get into it. I am currently using Hori stock parts, but once it wears i am going to replace them with Sanwa buttons and sticks because i like the high sensitivity in them.
Joystick Controller - The Joystick Vs The Control Pad
Joystick Controller - Joystick and Button Attributes and Brand Parts
To the OP, check out TekkenZaibatsu for Tekken strats or Shoryuken.com 's forum tech help area if you want more in-depth information. Alot of this stuff might seem overwhelming, but its important and not that bad once you get into it. Though you are only as good as your connection to the game.
Last edited by Lionx; 03-13-2010 at 06:05 AM.
Thanks for the links Lionx, I've taken a look on ebay and stuff and found a few good joysticks, but for now it has to go onto the 'awaiting funds' pile. I still haven't got FFXIII, and GoW 3 is coming out soon, I was also meaning to grab a DS so I can play the new Kingdom Hearts game (although I may get a joystick before I do that). But it was interesting to read those articles, I didn't know how much depth there was to buying one.
I use pads, but I don't really get into fighting games much. I'd say most aficionados and tourney types use the stick whether they grew up in the arcade era or not. It's considered to be superior and though I have no clue personally, there's probably something to that.... just like using M&KB for RTS is better. I really doubt it's just a fad thing.
Of course, peripheral makers are making a mint off of those things, so maybe they secretly are propagating the lie to the fighting game communities.
Trust me, it's no lie. I think you may have been a little sarcastic, but a pad isn't as fast and accurate as a stick. Ever. As soon as I got my stick I was able to go from pulling off Ryu's Shoryuken uppercut randomly in SF2 HD Remix, to doing it 8 times out of 10 with a minimum of practice.Originally Posted by Yeargdribble
Any game with complex inputs like that one will benefit most from a stick, but even ones that don't have inputs that complex benefit from the increased speed you can execute inputs with a stick. And it's not just the stick, but button presses are a lot faster since you have all of the buttons right there at your fingertips.
True. I'd forgotten about this aspect in my previous post. In Tekken, you've got the EWGFs of the Mishima-style fighters that are much easier to perform with the stick, especially if you're looking to pull them off consecutively. And Ivy's Summon Suffering is virtually un-executable without a stick.
The fingertip aspect is important too. With a pad, you're using your right thumb to control everything whereas with a stick, you'd be using all your fingers. Sorry I'm only giving Tekken and Soul Calibur references, but those are the fighters I'm most familiar with; but Asuka's 1+4 is hard to do on a pad and so are Xianghua's A+K moves. I don't like setting shoulder presets either. (These moves are Square+Circle in PS controller terms btw).
Funny thing about Gamestop. I tried selling my new TE stick to them and the woman was said she would take $15 for it. Seriously! $15 for something that usually costs $130. I had to ask her again to make sure, but yep she said she could only take it for $15.
My goodness no wonder Gamestop hasn't gotten any money from me in years outside of me renewing my GI subscription.
Whatever Mo-Nercy said, it applies to any fighting game except maybe Smash.
And DM, sell it online...15 bucks is a smurfing rip off, the stick itself is worth more than that -_-
Really? They save my life. I main Asuka and the shoulder presets are pretty much god-sends. The same is true when I use Lili, I figure if button pressing is easier for people with a stick, plus they have the added advantage to their movement, I may as well make it easier for myself to at least execute a button press when I want to.
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