Mad Catz Sony PS3 Street Fighter Iv Fightstick For Xbox 360 Playstation 3

Okay so this isn''t the Tournament Edition FightStick. Any dreams you may have had that this cheaper, smaller little brother version of the Mad Catz Tournament Edition FightStick would look as good or perform as well as its sibling, just forget them now. Don''t get me wrong, it''s still a great little bit of kit, but it is a budget version and this is worth bearing in mind before you prize open your wallet with that crowbar, dust away those cobwebs and part with your hard earned. So what''s good with it? Well, for starters it looks great. Metal base, white plastic shell and a really vivid, colourful, high gloss artwork featuring half a dozen highly stylized pictures of some of the games characters. When I''m not using my FightStick I display it on a shelf in pride of place and it looks awesome. The FightStick has a good solid build and a nice weight to it. This is good for those of us like my grandad who when we buy something heavy feel like we''re getting our moneys worth (and no my grandad doesn''t play Street Fighter...). It''s not so heavy that it''s uncomfortable to hold in your lap, but heavy enough that you can play it on a flat surface and it won''t slide around like a kid in his socks at the school disco. It stands up well to heavy usage and I must of got around a hundred hours out of it so far and it''s still soldiering bravely on. The FightStick is wired and plugs directly into any one of the Xbox 360s USB ports. Therefore it does not require batteries, which I guess is a plus but could also be seen as a disadvantage. So what''s wrong with it? Well as I stated above it''s wired. Okay so you don''t have to keep buying or charging batteries but come on wires are a real pain. I mean what the hell''s wired these days. Everything''s wireless. Well everything except this. It''s not a big deal, just a small inconvenience when the mrs strolls in and trips right over it. At the end of the day though I can live with it (the wires not my mrs...). The stick is a little loose and it''s sometimes hard to be really exact when pulling off a move that requires a diagonal stick pull in particular, but on the whole it''s responsive and does the job required of it. Some of the buttons can be a little sticky and unresponsive but if you tap them hard enough you shouldn''t experience many problems. On the whole this is a worthy edition to your gaming hardware. I''d definitely say it was more style over substance, but as a cheap, effective alternative to the Tournament Edition it''s a good buy. It probably won''t last forever, and if you''re a really hardcore SF4 player I''d definitely recommend remortgaging your house and getting the Tournament Edition. But for a casual to moderate SF4 player this is a must buy, because believe me playing the game on your ususal control pad is like sharing a flat with H from Steps...a bloody nightmare!