For those of you who don’t know, I’m a fighting game obsessive. From the first time I played Street Fighter 2 in the arcade, I was hooked. I have spent countless hours playing, reading, researching, and obsessing over fighting games.
Back in the day, when Genesis and SNes were king, joysticks weren’t really an option. The fact that our parents bought us the 6 button gamepads for Street Fighter was amazing, and was way better than pressing start on the 3 button pad to switch from punches to kicks. Things change…
A few years ago, Street Fighter Anniversary Edition was coming out for Xbox 1 and PS2. Regular PSX and Xbox pads are horrible for fighting games. Some of my friends use them, and play well, but I think they are batshit crazy. Fortunately, a company decided that a stick was needed. The stick was called the Street Fighter Anniversary Joystick, and it looked perfect.
It’s big, bulky, and works on both the PS2 and Xbox 1 through a splitter. I remember buying this stick, carrying it home (living in Philly made walking the norm, even with a huge ass box that is carried for 8 – 10 blocks), trying it, and noticing it didn’t feel right. The buttons didn’t have the right feel of the arcade, and the stick was mush.
Fortunately, I found my savior in ArcadeStickMonk. He’s on a bunch of different gaming forums, and posted a tutorial on how to replace this hardware with actual American arcade hardware. I immediately ordered a new joystick, and 8 replacement buttons (I still don’t know why I did 8. No fighting game uses 8, and probably never will. whatever).
Once they came in, I spent a long night replacing everything. It was on. Now, for those of you who don’t play fighting games competitively, using a stick at home at first is a nightmare. While you were able to pull of every Shoryuken, Hadoken, and Spinning Pile Driver with ease on a pad due to that’s all we had at home, trying to use a stick is like someone cutting your hands off and expecting you to play. You can’t pull off shit. You are worse then when you started. It does get better, but it’s frustrating.
Anyway. Over time, I got used to using a stick for games. I even bought an adapter to use it on my well loved Dreamcast, for amazing games like Capcom Vs. Snk 2, Street Fighter Alpha 3 Sakyo Dojo, and Garou: Mark of the Wolves. I wouldn’t say I’m amazing, but I can hold my own. I am decent.
After this, Tekken 5 came out, and HORI released a stick for it. The joystick was lollipop, the buttons were all curved in their rows, and it was weird looking. I bought this as well, about 4 or 5 months later, and hated it.
While it looks sorta cool, the curve and that little ball made no fucking sense to me. As I found out, this is Japanese style. (The reason for the lollipop stick is because of their smaller hands, that’s my guess. Heck go look at pics of old arcade machines, like PacMan and Donkey Kong. They all used lollipop sticks)
I used this off and on, mostly with Tekken. It didn’t feel right with Street Fighter, or King of Fighters, or anything. So it was my 3D fighting game stick.
I found out that the stick and buttons on this were trash. While the Japanese version of this stick used Sanwa hardware, this used HORI crap. (Sanwa is the leading manufacturer of arcade parts from Japan. I’ll get to their awesomeness in a minute). Due to the fact that replacing them would require soldering (which at the time I had no idea how to do), I never replaced them. I still have this stick, in stock form. I don’t think I’ll ever bother modifying it since I have other sticks, but it’s a nice piece to own.
Enter Byrdo. Byrdo, in my opinion should be ranked with other top artists of our time. He makes joysticks that are gorgeous, and play wonderfully. He makes some with American, but most are Japanese style, either Sanwa or Seimetsu (another hardware manufacturer from Japan. Mostly used in space shooters, but great stuff). My biggest concern with Byrdo was price. How could a little box of wood, metal, and plastic cost 200-400 bones? Well, after a lot of debating, and cursing, I ordered one.
It’s called Silence. Sanwa stick, Seimetsu buttons. Like I said, Byrdo makes art that you can play with. When I finally received this, I used it, a lot. It’s got plenty of nicks in the wood, and looks like it has been through hell, but it still plays great. Worth every penny.
After I received that stick, I pretty much re-learned everything I learned from the Street Fighter stick. The beautiful thing about Japanese controls is how little you need to move.
Picture this: It’s a smoky American arcade. You are watching people play Street Fighter (you’ve got your quarter on the panel “Got Next”). What do you notice? Their arms and elbows are moving like crazy, and they are slamming the shit out of the buttons. Why? It’s not because they don’t know how to play (well, it could be but let’s say they do). American arcade parts are built like tanks. They are meant to withstand stupid kids who don’t care, and are rude and destructive. So the joysticks are super stiff, as are the buttons. They are meant to be abused. If you go to a Japanese arcade, you will see players using small motions. They use their wrist to move the joystick, not their whole arm. Japanese sticks need light touches to get motions. And Japanese buttons? The lightest press will register, so playing on them you can move quicker due to not having to press so damn hard.
As time goes on, I’ve gotten more sticks, and more fighting games. The funny thing is that every stick I’ve gotten is Japanese style, with Sanwa hardware. Byrdo corrupted me. So for 3+ years I’ve been playing on Japanese arcade style layouts, with Japanese buttons and sticks. Fast forward to last night.
I decide I want to play some Street Fighter Alpha 3 on my Dreamcast. Unfortunately, my Byrdo stick won’t work with my converter, so I pull out my Street Fighter stick, in all of it’s American goodness. I play for about 15 minutes before my arms feel like they are going to fall off. Having gotten so used to Sanwa, using American parts is torture. Every action has to be overextended, and exaggerated. My light touches on the buttons doesn’t recognize diddly. I have to slam. By the time I’m done playing my arms and hands are actually sore. Like I was just at the gym sore.
So yea. I don’t think I could ever play on American style hardware for any length of time ever again. It’s too clunky, to tough, it lacks elegance. Heck even the straight layout of American controls is dumb, it makes way more sense to have the buttons curved which more closely resembles how your fingers sit naturally.
There you have it. If you want to play fighting games, go Japanese style. Practice tons. Enjoy it. Much love.
Links:
Byrdo.org – some of the most gorgeous joysticks ever
Shoryuken.com – the premiere site for all fighting game goodness.
Lizardlick.com – want to buy sticks (Japanese or American), buttons, what have ya? LizardLick has amazing service and great prices. Support them!
and in case your curious, here is a pick of one of my recent sticks. Once artwork is applied I’ll post an updated pic:
(and yes, those 2 things where buttons 7 and 8 would be are covers. Never needed em yet, haha!)
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