For control pad-loving fighter fans who are looking forward to throwing down in the next-generation arena.
Now, this is something I've been waiting a good while for. Since the Sega Genesis and Saturn days, there has been a distinct lack of high quality control pads designed for fighting games. It's probably no coincidence that the fighting game trend had also tailed off not soon after that time. Probably two of the best out there have been Sega's USB Saturn pad and ASCII's FT series pad for the PlayStation 2. With it not being manufactured for quite a few years, it's decidedly hard to come by and usually expensive.
So with the resurgence of fighting games in the next generation, namely Soulcalibur IV, Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, and soon, Tekken 6, The King of Fighters XII and the highly anticipated Street Fighter IV (obviously), now is the time to release such a product. Mad Catz and Capcom gladly obliged with the official Street Fighter IV FightPad. Both companies realized that the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 needed a quality, affordable fighting pad with the batch of fighters coming down the pipe, so they've gathered up some of the best designers they can find to create just that.
Sticks have their place and their fans, and I'm quite competent with one in an arcade setting (with a bat top at least). When kicking back and relaxing while playing a fighter on a console, I don't want to deal with finding a good surface to play on or balance it on my lap. It's not particularly comfortable and I find I just don't play as well as if I were standing at a machine. So at home, a control pad is the preference.
The most important aspect of a fighting controller is the D-pad, and this is something I'm sure Mad Catz toiled over for a while. The Saturn USB controller's D-pad has always been the best feeling out there and supposedly it was the basis of the D-pad on the Street Fighter IV FightPads. After playing around with both of them, I absolutely believe it. The FightPad's 8-way, floating circular pad definitely has a similar feel in terms of tension and movement to the Saturn pad. The texture is slightly smoother and made of a softer plastic, and the material is not as hard or slick as the ASCII Pad FT. The D-pad itself is a little larger - which I prefer personally, and it feels great on the thumb even after extended play sessions. The "action" feels perfect. Neither too loose nor too stiff, and rotation moves, from full to quarter circles, are as accurate as one would hope. Charge/tap moves come out effortlessly and I never had the feeling of fighting the pad for the intended result. The positioning of the D-pad on the actual controller is a little different than other fighting pads due to the controller's size (more on that later), so your thumb muscles may need a day to adjust. In testing everything from Soul Blade on the PS One to Super Street Fighter 2 HD Remix on the PS3, there was never an instance where I felt the D-pad didn't perform up to expectations. The first time I hit with a deep Ken combo and ended with a flawless Shoryureppa, I just had to smile. If you were worried that the FightPad's D-pad wouldn't compare to the best around, don't, because it does. It's not an exact copy of the best D-pad out there, and additionally the larger size might not work quite as well if your hands/thumbs are on the small size, so that may be a minor concern for those used to other fighting pads. If all you have to deal with is a Sixaxis/DualShock 3 or especially the horrid D-pad of the Xbox 360 controller, the FightPad is a dream come true.
The 6 face buttons on the FightPad are concave, relatively large and arranged in 2 softly arcing rows. Their placement, height and spacing are comfortable and the layout works well for both thumb and overhand piano style players. The buttons aren't too sloppy or clicky and pressing multiple adjacent buttons is not a problem. There are also shoulder buttons (as L1/L2) on the controller which can be mapped to whatever a game allows. Though I don't usually use them, the shoulders have a little more tension than I would have liked out of the box. Also located on the controller are a Home/Dashboard button to bring up the PlayStation 3/Xbox 360's respective interface and small Start and Select/Back buttons along with a programmable Turbo button and a diagnostic LED. All the function buttons are countersunk into the controller surface and require a little deliberate effort to press them, obviously to make it difficult for players to accidently hit them. On the bottom surface of the FightPad is an on/off switch, and a useful "D-pad mode" switch, which allows the controller's D-pad to optionally emulate the left or right analog stick. The two turbo speeds can be programmed for any action button on the controller, and I can't imagine any real fighting fans actually using that function (right?).
The FightPad itself is a little larger than most other fighting style pads out there, and I find it more comfortable than the smaller variety. Because it doesn't have rumble it's also surprisingly light. The surface looks a little large, but the underside is ergonomically molded so it doesn't feel clunky at all. The controller face is covered with a slick vinyl-type graphical overlay featuring one of five pieces of Street Fighter IV character art: Ryu, Ken, Akuma, Chun-Li or Blanka. Although I can personally do without a character's face on my controller, it feels nice, and it's absolutely not worth making a fuss over. The sides and back are covered with a slightly rubberized non-slip texture. Honestly, the controller is comfortable, and a lot of care was clearly put into the layout, shape and design.
The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 controllers are identical in nearly every way, though there was one huge reason I went with the PS3 FightPad: it's wireless. Thanks to Microsoft's exorbitant licensing fees and proprietary Xbox 360 wireless controller code, it was not possible for Mad Catz to make a wireless Xbox 360 version. So the only option is a wired FightPad controller on that platform. In terms of wireless, in order to keep the cost as low as possible for the PS3 controller, they opted to utilize 2.4GHz RF wireless via an included dongle instead of Bluetooth. The wireless dongle route is both good and bad. The controller pairs instantly, it works perfectly on a Windows PC, and PS One games via the PS3's backwards compatibility are totally playable. On the bad side, it's not possible to turn the system on with the controller, if the dongle is plugged in and the controller is off it blinks continuously, and very unfortunately, PS2 games via the PS3's backwards compatibility (for those with that functionality) do not work at this time. The PS2 problem could possibly be fixed with a PS3 firmware update... I wouldn't advise holding your breath for that. Since I did not have a PlayStation 2 hooked up, it wasn't possible to test the controller on actual hardware. The Xbox 360 pad reportedly works fine with emulated Xbox games.
For control pad-loving fighting game fans who are looking forward to throwing down in the next-generation arena, the Mad Catz Street Fighter IV FightPad is where it's at. For the mix of quality and functionality included, the $39.99 price tag (Pre-order at Amazon.com) is right on for the controller, especially for the wireless PS3 version. Of course, if you're still looking for something in a stick variety there's also the regular and limited Tournament Edition of the Street Fighter IV FightStick.
As a bonus, check out some photos of the unboxing below:
