Poll: Fighting Games: Stick vs D-Pad

[Space Spoons]

Here's something I've always wondered about the fighting game crowd: There seems to be this adamant, almost reverent devotion to the arcade stick. According to the best players in the world, it takes nothing less than a top-of-the-line stick to fight your way to the top of the leaderboards. Anything else is blasphemy.

I can only assume this comes from years of arcade experience. Now, I don't know about the rest of you, but by the time I was old enough to go off on my own, arcades were a dying breed. I've only seen a few in my short life, and they've never had anything other than Tekken and Time Crisis. I have little to no experience using an arcade stick.

On the other hand, one of my first games was Super Street Fighter II, for the Super Nintendo. My older brother played a mean Cammy, and I was determined to one day best him. Now, years later, I can mop the floor with just about anyone who challenges me... And I do it with a d-pad controller. Anything else just feels strange and wrong to me.

I don't know how many of you out there are fighting game enthusiasts, but I'd still like to know what your opinions are. I think it's a pretty relevant topic, given the fact that Street Fighter IV is coming out soon, the first major SF game with online capability.

 

[Rodyille]

Yeah I agree Controller all the way with my Game Cube controller I can beat extremly hard mode on arcade in Soul Calibur 2 without being KO'd once but the arcade I lose in the third round or even second round, nothing against arcade joy stick gaming it's fun but I prefur Home consoles

 

[Space Spoons]

Yeah I agree Controller all the way with my Game Cube controller I can beat extremly hard mode on arcade in Soul Calibur 2 without being KO'd once but the arcade I lose in the third round or even second round, nothing against arcade joy stick gaming it's fun but I prefur Home consoles

I once got the chance to play the Arcade version of Soul Calibur 3... It was so strange.

But yes, I totally agree with you.

 

[Arntor]

It all depends on what you prefer and what you're used to. To be honest, I don't see the advantages of an arcade stick vs. console gamepad.

 

[Space Spoons]

It all depends on what you prefer and what you're used to. To be honest, I don't see the advantages of an arcade stick vs. console gamepad.

Neither do I. Just seems unnecessarily expensive to me.

 

[Woe Is You]

You can get a decent Hori stick for the price of a wireless controller these days for any modern console. I wouldn't call them any more expensive than I would call a regular controller.

To me, personally, it's not so much the stick as it is the fact that I have 8 face buttons to use instead of a measly 4. And that I can use my whole hand instead of just the thumb to pull off those moves. The stick helps too, sure (especially while pulling off 360s like Zangief's piledrivers for instance or even 720s), but I find the fact I can, say, logically arrange all of my punch buttons to one row and kicks to another the main thing. Good for piano inputs while doing reversals.

 

[Space Spoons]

You can get a decent Hori stick for the price of a wireless controller these days for any modern console. I wouldn't call them any more expensive than I would call a regular controller.

To me, personally, it's not so much the stick as it is the fact that I have 8 face buttons to use instead of a measly 4. And that I can use my whole hand instead of just the thumb to pull off those moves. The stick helps too, sure (especially while pulling off 360s like Zangief's piledrivers for instance or even 720s), but I find the fact I can, say, logically arrange all of my punch buttons to one row and kicks to another the main thing. Good for piano inputs while doing reversals.

Playing as 360 grapplers like Zangief and Alex are probably the only exceptions to my opinions on the arcade stick. I have never been able to pull off a spinning piledriver using a d-pad, and I probably never will. It's why I play Guile.

As for button arrangement, I can see the advantage of having all your metaphorical ducks in a row, but honestly, I guess it's just a mindset thing. See, for me, it's the complete opposite; I'm used to four face buttons, with light punch, medium punch, medium kick and light kick going clockwise from the leftmost, and two shoulder buttons for fierce punch and kick. I can't fathom playing any other way, I'm simply too accustomed.

 

[Da_Schwartz]

D pad ftw!

 

[L4Y Duke]

Sticks FTW.

You ever tried to do a double-rotation with a D-Pad? In GGX2, most of the instant-death moves require the stick to be fully rotated towards the opponent twice.

You just can't do that with a D-Pad.

 

[Fraught]

I'm pretty sure many fighting games have the stick availability (home consoles' sticks), and you can do a 360 with an Xbox360 or PS3 stick as easily as with an arcade stick. But what controller do you mean? The Xbox360's D-Pad is something I'd burn with rubber, boiled piss. It. Freakin. Sucks. But on other games, I prefer D-Pad, mainly because of the same thing as you. I have pretty much no experience with arcade sticks in fighting games.

 

[shadow skill]

I just got Street Fighter 4 and I am having a blast, but I have noticed that I have some difficulty pulling off some of the moves. I am looking into either buying an arcade stick or building my own. Some of the things I would like to have are:

1. Easily modifiable without the need for soldering the buttons. I may also feel like changing the artwork as well.
2. Well built, something that breaks easily would be no good to me.
3. Must at least work with PS3, but I wouldn't mind one that works on other systems as well.
4. Operates well in a lap. I'd rather not have to try and figure out how to get a desk so I can put the thing on it.
5. Must have 6-8 buttons (Preferably eight because I would like to be able to assign 3 punches and 3 kicks to a single button because it's hard for me to use three pointing fingers on my right hand all at once.)

6. No more than 150USD, I could build a stick for that much or get the Madcatz TE stick which pretty much fits all of my criteria. But I thought I would ask around because there might be a cheaper stick (That isn't cheaply made.) that might fit the bill.

 

[joystickjunki3]

I don't need top-of-the-line, but I prefer an arcade stick. Up until a couple days ago I had been playing w/ a Hori EX2, before that I had an X-Arcade. Now I have myself a[n almost complete] custom stick. Just a few more adjustments and parts and I'll be done.

 

[Bob_F_It]

Having never played an arcade fighter, I choose the d-pad over a stick, particularly as using the analogue stick is going to confuse directions in a hurry. Although...

Sticks FTW.

You ever tried to do a double-rotation with a D-Pad? In GGX2, most of the instant-death moves require the stick to be fully rotated towards the opponent twice.

You just can't do that with a D-Pad.

...I appreciate the stick being there. D-pad rolling is too slow or inprecise. It helps my pull off Ivy's special throws in Soul Calibur.

 

[Et3rnalLegend64]

I have horrible experience with the sticks (I couldn't even pull off a Hadouken on command in MvC), but that was years ago. I haven't played a fighting game in a long time (minus Smash Bros.), let alone used a stick. I think I'd be more competent now though, and I might need a stick if I get SF4. The 360 D-pad is unwieldy.

Edit: Oh, and I played a decent Soul Caliber 2 on the Cube using the stick, but had to use the D-pad when I played Dead or Alive. On that note, can we have another poll option along the lines of "It depends on the game"?

 

[bjj hero]

http://www.blueunplugged.com/p.aspx?p=137877

Reminds me of the megadrive 6 button pad that was awesome with streetfighter II turbo. And I hit spinning piledrivers all the time with a D-pad on SF2HDRM.

 

[Break]

Well, I can conceive playing SF4 on the PS3, since it has a workable D-pad, but an arcade stick will be a necessity for high-level play on the 360.

I don't play fighting games so often, but I'd be a lot more comfortable with an arcade stick. It seems more... Fitting.

 

[Bob_F_It]

I am currently loathing the 360 for fighters. Most of the time it's impossible to input a horizontal, and I end up jumping into inescapable pain.

 

[Vlane]

The arcade stick is the way to go.

 

[Vlane]

the d pad is more precise than the stick...

How is it more precise?

 

[MiracleOfSound]

the d pad is more precise than the stick...

But SF4 only has an eight directional control scheme so it is probably less precise than a joystick for this game.

It;s still easier than the horrible pain of trying to play SF2 with the SNES joypads though...