I haven’t really played Street Fighter much lately, mostly because I just couldn’t get used to playing with an arcade stick (and playing with the Xbox 360 controller is NOT an option). It wasn’t anything wrong with the stick itself, it just wasn’t the way I had always played Street Fighter. In the heat of battle I tended to get flustered and lose my position on the stick, and as a result I’d lose and get angry.

I had some good luck the other day and managed to pull a loot card in a booster pack of World of Warcraft cards, so I put the card on eBay and decided to invest in one of the Mad Catz Street Fighter IV Fightpads. They were advertised as a cheaper alternative to the arcade sticks, and I had heard nothing but great things about the d-pad they designed. I picked the one with the Chun-Li design because a) blue is my favorite color, b) I thought it’d be weird buying a controller with a buff dude on it, and c) c’mon it’s Chun-Li, the First Lady of Gaming.

You see, when I was a young lad growing up in Antelope, California, I didn’t spend my time playing Street Fighter in the arcades. We didn’t have a lot of arcades in the area so a trip there was a special treat (even moreso when you consider that my parents both hated the fact I loved video games so much). No, I spent my time playing Street Fighter with one of these bad boys:

I took to the new controller immediately. It took me maybe three or four Hadouken motions before I was comfortable with the d-pad. I did a couple trials to warm up and then jumped online. The difference was night and day! I won 8 out of my 10 matches (which is pretty good for me!) and even when things got tight, I didn’t lose my cool and bumble with the controller.

The d-pad is fantastic. I had read that they took a lot of inspiration from the Sega Saturn controller (considered by many to be THE fighting game controller, which makes sense when you remember that the Saturn was the best home console for 2D fighters in history). It’s incredibly responsive, and although the d-pad feels like it has a lot of swivel to it, it doesn’t feel floaty or slow. The buttons are great, being a bit larger than the ones used on the standard 360 controller, and they have a very satisfying click when you push them.

The top of the controller is a glossy plastic adorned with whatever character you prefer (There are Ryu, Ken, Akuma, Blanka, Chun-Li, Guile, T-Hawk, Sagat, and Juri versions available) and the bottom is more of a rubbery material. This is my only complaint with the controller: I get that they used the rubbery material to keep the pad from slipping if your hands get sweaty, but as a result it made my hands MORE sweaty. My hands typically don’t get very clammy when I play games, but they definitely felt that way after a few rounds with this new pad. It WAS particularly humid out today, and we live on the third floor, so it could have been the weather. Still, it’s worth noting.

It also has a turbo function that can be toggled for each button, as well as a switch to set the d-pad as either the d-pad, left analog, or right analog of the default controller.

The pads retail for $40 and are available for the Xbox 360 (wired) and PlayStation 3 (wireless). If you want to get into Street Fighter and hate fumbling with the default controllers but a $100 or more fightstick is a bit too much for your tastes, then this controller is a fantastic investment. If you wind up playing on the 360, let me know if you’re ever up for a match! My gamertag is Joe Sunrider.