It should come as little surprise that last week's release of Tatsunoko vs. Capcom was accompanied by a branded Wii fighting stick. It should also come as little surprise that Mad Catz's Arcade Fightstick is pretty darn good.
Serious fighting game players know they can't survive with a standard game pad. I am not a serious fighting game player, as well you already know, but I understand the sentiment. Fightsticks that mimic the authentic arcade experience can get pretty expensive and have an ever more limited audience, so I'm surprised that Mad Catz even released a Wii version.
At $80, the Tatsunoko stick is significantly more expensive than its closest competitor, the Fighting Stick Wii from Hori. For the extra expense, you get a few cool features.
This isn't a Wii version of the crazy $150 "Tournament Edition" sticks that Mad Catz produces for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 – it isn't as large and it doesn't have those authentic Sanwa Denshi stick and buttons that the elite fighters crave. But it does have the Tournament sticks' other cool features.
You can assign two different levels of turbo fire to each button, which are represented by an array of LED lights. (The Hori stick only has one turbo setting, and it's triggered by a row of little plastic switches.)
The + and - buttons are on the rear of the stick, which means you will never accidentally pause the game. In fact, if you ever want to make absolutely sure that no errant buttons get hit at an inopportune time, there's a switch that lets you lock the inputs down.
Finally, and most importantly, there's a switch that lets you assign the stick's joystick to any of the Wii's directional inputs: the left analog, right analog, or directional pad. This means you can use the stick to operate the Wii Menu, which the Hori stick can't do.
The stick acts just like a Classic Controller, meaning that you have to plug it into a Wii remote. The cord is one meter long, so you shouldn't have a big problem finding somewhere to stash the Wiimote while you're using it.
Other than the extra bells and whistles, there's not that much difference (at least to a casual observer like me) between Hori's and Mad Catz's sticks. The Tatsunoko vs. Capcom stick is heavier and larger, and feels a little bit more solid. Whether that's worth the extra cash will likely depend on how crazy you are about your fighting game equipment.
Image courtesy Mad Catz
