Those of you who have the stick, what are your thoughts regarding the parts used and overall quality of the thing? I've been hearing mixed reactions. THe price isn't bad, but I don't want to spend the money if the parts and microswitches used are crappy. Also, can you mod/swap out parts on this one easily like the old Pelican sticks for the Xbox? http://www.ebgames.com/ebx/product/260373.asp
I dont know about the joystick yet, but I should be picking one up within the week. Playing DOA4 on the normal controller is horrible for me, especially when youre trying to counter but the buttons are X and B (i think, the two across horizonatally from eachother).
From what I've read its a pretty well done arcade stick. Has the xbox guide button and a hookup for your headset. Hopefully I'll be picking one up soon and let you know how it is.
Speak of the devil, just got my Japanese DOA stick in the mail (23 quid tax - grrrr). I say it is jp because there may be differences in parts between the two. Anyway it is not perfect but it will do the job nicely. I like the design on the stick, good choice of colours and nice background, although the kokoro picture is not the best, it still looks quality. Overall very nice. As for parts it is standard hori stuff, nothing special, although the base seems a little shallow it has a good weight and has a nice surface to rest your hand on, ie not a plastic/sticker finish. The buttons are dull and not clicky which I happen to prefer for games like GuiltyG and shooters. The stick is the usual very loose hori, you move for about 1 mm before you hit the VERY clicky switches. I would say to get it (also you can't find the DOA3 sticks now, can you?) as it is a very solid stick and I doubt we will see many more for the 360. Thinking of other games it would be great for senko no ronde (what happened to that?) and other fighters although it is not the best one an imagine. My final word, it is a hori - it will do the job, just don't expect top quality. EDIT, anyone know if I can hook this up to my pc, it would be great for melty blood and other dojin. update - got the stick's buttons working just fine on my pc, can't get the actual stick working though, in the game controllers section of the control panel the stick works, but none of my games recognise it (although the buttons do work), any clues?
Thanks so much for the review. I had the Dreamcast Arcade stick which I really never could warm up to (particularly with SNK-based fighters) though the Hori has a more responsive joystick from what you say, the buttons are non-clicky which is the one feature I hated the most about the DC stick. At this point, it's not terribly expensive so maybe I'll just pick it up and keep it as a neat little collector's item.
Further update, been playing doa with it and my counters have improved loads, it is really so much easier with the stick to the get the diagonals 100 percent of the time, also the ninjitsu moves flow better with it. I'm starting to show off with the harder counters more of the time, infact I rarely block at all now. Having such a loose stick for doa actually works really well as the best combos require quick changes to opposite directions which hurt like hell to do on a d-pad, also my 360 dpad is a little unresponsive. As for the dc stick, I actually got a new one a while ago and it was simply so stiff it hurt your hand to play garou with. I took it to bits and played with the stick till it got much lighter and now it is great, although I have got used to very light arcade sticks like the sammy ones for ps2 (best imho). To be honest I have never been a fan of the dc sticks, whatever I do they are either to stiff or too loose.
I saw the stick the other day on Gamestop's website; it finally looks like we're starting to get some of the sticks like the Japanese see with almost every fighting game release! I don't have a 360, but I'm tempted to buy the stick anyways and try to mod it for use on my PS2 or Saturn.
I have an idea. Installing the Xbox360 Controller for Windows drivers they have for the standard controller might work: http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/win/55158
