subject: Take Time While Time Is, Pick The Wondrous Wii Fight Stick [print this page] Take Time While Time is, Pick the Wondrous Wii Fight Stick
You know its hard to find good arcade sticks for the Wii. There have been a few made, but theyre mostly out of production and thus hard to find on store shelves; and if you do track one down theres a real possibility youll be charged a premium cost well above their original retail price. Unless you can find one of those older sticks or are skilled enough to build your own, your only real option is Mad Catz new licensed Wii Fight Stick
in the above picture.
Needless to say, its a Japanese style Wii Fight Stick, emphasizing a short range of motion within a square gate (so youll feel the corners of its housing when you move the Wii fight stick around) and short buttons that can be easily and rapidly pressed. This leaves it unsuitable for some games, but it works great as a fighting game controller.
There are two major changes you should know about in terms of parts quality and the connector this Wii Fight Stick uses. First, its not a USB stick like some previous Wii Fight Sticks. It hooks up to your Wiimote as if it were a Classic Controller (and technically speaking it basically is one in a different housing and lacking true analog sticks). Second, the parts quality has improved and this Wii Fight Stick uses new in-house parts developed by Mad Catz. They are not Sanwa parts like the Tournament Edition sticks use (which would have significantly raised the price), but these new buttons are definitely a step up from those on the Xbox 360 version of this arcade stick. Theyre appreciably more solid in feel, and this is a welcome improvement. This product otherwise follows the standard Wii Fight Stick design, so if youre already familiar with that design from other systems then you know what to expect here; its the same thing, but better.
The point to note is that the control console on the upper left of the top panel. This console contains a way to set your buttons to turbo-fire, switch your joystick between acting as a d-pad or left or right analog stick (which it admittedly isnt very good at; this is mostly for menu navigation and so on), and your Home button. There is also a lock switch that, when enabled, prevents you from changing most of these settings or accidentally pressing the Home button and thus pausing your game. The Plus and Minus buttons are on the back panel, where it will be hard to accidentally press them unless you push the stick against a wall or similar surface. This is all very smart design, showing that the folks at Mad Catz did their homework when making this wonderful Wii Fight Stick making a hit in the rat race involved Japanese, American and China manufacturer
.
Anyway, to date the Wii may not be the console of choice for most fighting game fans, but it is starting to earn a bit more respect with the release of Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom and, just as importantly Mad Catz's new Wii Arcade Stick
to go along with it. So just take time while time is, pick the wondrous Wii Fight Stick and have great fun!
