HORI or Madcat

Looking for a fighting stick I can use to play KoFXIII with for my PS3. Now I've use to hear that HORI sticks are the top of the line, but I've also heard that Madcat tournament model sticks are now the best ones to get.

Can any one here please give advice on which they like more, and what issues they have had if any with their stick?

Stick choice is fairly subjective. They both have arcade quality parts in them when they're in the $130-$170 price range, so I say just get whichever one you like the design of more and/or can get a better deal on. They'll preform pretty much the same and parts are generally changeable to suit your personal preference.

Between hori and madcatz, i found the hori's to be more responsive than madcatz by quarter of seconds, I felt it in Super SFIV on PS3 and on Mame via OSX.

I would recommend a hori just for that, but it also depends on what you are looking for because if you want an arcade stick with sanwa parts and multiplatform then i recommend eightarc, or qanba.

I believe Hori was going to re-release some V3SA early this month, late Dec. so you might see them around via amazon or the hori store, so check that out, it might be a cheaper alternative than the UMVC3 since they pay a bit more for the license which means they sell it for a bit more.

I haven't tested eightarc or qanba yet, so i can't comment on that, other than what i stated before.

I think if you are going cheap (sub-$100), Hori's regular V3/VX models are the only decent choice as Madcatz doesn't make anything good in that range. The problem with cheap sticks is they will break in ~6 months of regular use and are very hard to fix. For tournament model, the problem with Hori is they put the Start button on the right which gives you an easy way to DQ yourself unless you have tiny Japanese hands (yes, I speak from experience). With Madcatz, the problem is the only truly optimized model they make is the Tournament Edition S and every model of that type is sold out at retail and being pricejacked by resellers in the know. So the company, instead of making more of the best model, is refurbishing their original TE and TE round 2 models, licensing recent games, and slapping on new art to pass the old sticks off as new.

I have no experience with Eightarc or Qanba, but I like the look of the ISO and Fusion sticks at eightarc.com. If I bought a new stick now, I'd take a chance on 1 of those 2 models.

I have been using a wrestle stick which is good...however the custom PS3 button it has only allows for the game to switch off and no gateway to reading messages.
I didnt think it was a prob before but as I have been receiving messages by someone during character select screens , I have no way of knowing what they want unless I switch off.
I ordered the fanta stick last week though so when it comes will update on if its any good.

Can't you get a quality custom stick for about $200?

^Not really, Norton. Let's say you use a Paewang PCB for 360+PS3, JLF stick, 6 OSB(F,N)30 buttons on the face, and 6 OSB(F,N)24 buttons for other 2 buttons/start/select/home/turbo (switches PS3 and 360 on the Paewang), you're looking at $24 for the stick, $3 per 30mm button, $2.50 per 24mm button (all the sanwa stuff from lizardlick.com), $40 for the PCB (from focusattack.com), not including shipping that's about $100. So <$100 for the wood, plexiglass, whatever other materials, + labor, is probably gonna fall short for most stick builders.

Anyway...
I am a longtime Hori fan, that being said however, when it came time to figure out my plan to make two "sticks to end all sticks" (aka two sticks to replace a closetful of sticks for various consoles), I went with MadCatz. MadCatz has more aftermarket support and that's a big part of why I went with them, I had an easy time multiconsole-modding my sticks, and there's a lot of options for replacement top panels so I can color-coordinate my sticks (admittedly most Hori sticks have aftermarket replacement panels too).

I don't like the newer non-enormous Hori sticks a whole lot, and the old enormous ones I like still have a problem where unless you baby the cord or make it detachable, it frays really badly. Not to mention some (not all) Hori sticks don't come with all arcade parts, and some of those aren't "easy" to swap new parts into (get a metal nibbler to remove the tabs and use any desoldering bulb and you can get it ready in 20 minutes, but I digress). Whereas with MadCatz, the TE sticks come with all Sanwa parts.

Also, if you have the money for it and you're not afraid to do it yourself, or know someone that can, I recommend getting a 360 MadCatz stick, and installing the Kitty PCB, which is a solderless dual-mod (actually it adds on multiconsole support, and not only PS3, but you have to do a bit more to use that).

One more thing, the Tatsunoko vs Capcom and Brawl (wrestling) MadCatz SE sticks use a much higher grade of parts than the older Street Fighter IV SE sticks. I've heard that the stick is such a good clone of a JLF that if you pay $1 and order a JLF spring and put it in there instead of the MadCatz spring, it feels the same. The buttons are good too, and have good microswitches. So if you don't want to spend a lot they're a good choice, with an easy upgrade path to Sanwa parts (they use compatible quick disconnects).

Hori makes a 6 button stick, the V3 (VX on 360), which actually uses some decent Hori parts, and I think it sells for around what a SE goes for, so that's another choice. It like the form factor a lot more than the SE's, the V3 is wider. Only thing is it's less straighforward to upgrade to Sanwa parts, with the buttons soldered in (but no tabs), you'll have to do some solder work to attach the stick (meh), but mainly you can't mount a JLF with its mounting plate on the inside without grinding out a lot of material under the stick (bottom of the stick sits too low) or if you forgo the mounting plate, the top of the JLF stick is too high (increased throw, you could try substituting the Hori shaft to see if that works well enough).

Ukee, you will want to figure out your budget, and secondarily you will want to figure out if you want any mods (dual console is really nice, one stick for both 360 and PS3, but any modder will tell you it's a LOT better to go from 360 to both than to go from PS3 to both).


If any of y'all have questions or whatever, I mod sticks for locals as a hobby so I have a lot of experience with them these days, feel free to hit me up.

Thanks for all the input every one, it has been really helpful. Since all I have is a PS3 I don't think I will need to mod for mulituse any time soon, but I know that is something I will like to learn to know how to do when I have more time so I may hit you up sometime Dan for advice in the future. But since this is going to be my first stick I am rally looking for something I can take out of the box and play with.

My price range is around $200, I didn't want to be cheap and get something that I would have to replace for a long time. It's a pain that Madcat won't keep making their top grade tourny sticks but I guess that is marketing, sell the cheaper ones that break easier and come back for more sooner.

I am interested is those eightarc sticks though, never heard of them till you pointed them out Jeff. I love being the guinea pig so I might go for that and see how well it feels. Sadly I won't really be able to review my thoughts to others since I won't have a comparison with it being my first.

not a problem.

eightarc works closely with qanba, they say they are pretty much qanba just under a different name here in the states, but i think they have their style too.

eightarc is on my list to get sticks from, but for right now im waiting for the color i want.

also i think their ebony model for ps3 only is like 110 or something like that, i dont remember which one but one of the 3 models for ps3 was around that price. just something to consider.

I haven't had a console in nearly 10 years now, but back in the day Hori always made high quality sticks & Mad Katz specialized in cheapie crap. So i'd go with Hori.

Zardoz said:

I haven't had a console in nearly 10 years now, but back in the day Hori always made high quality sticks & Mad Katz specialized in cheapie crap. So i'd go with Hori.

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Madcatz is still the same with the exception of their higher end fight sticks. I still prefer hori myself for overall feel.

I have an SE stick with Hori parts, love it for its compact size which makes it MUCH easier to transport

Zardoz said:

I haven't had a console in nearly 10 years now, but back in the day Hori always made high quality sticks & Mad Katz specialized in cheapie crap. So i'd go with Hori.

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No offense man, but don't say stuff like this based on your experiences ten years ago. I can't speak for Mad Catz's other products but their arcade sticks are well made. I still prefer Hori stuff but I've owned a TE stick in the past and it was nice.

I'm thinking about getting a Qanba stick though, they come out of the box dual modded and that would be useful for me.

HORI gets my vote. From their base models all the way up to the high grades I've had nothing but good experiences. I can't speak for Mad Catz.. haven't purchased anything from them in about 15 years.

One thing I wanna mention, the only difference between the TE-S and TE is that the lock switch on the S locks out the start and select buttons along with the turbo and home buttons that the TE locks out (I may be mixed up but the TE-S does lock out more), and the TE-S has a flat top instead of the raised bezel on top, other than the the construction and parts used is the exact same for both. Either are just as durable and all that.

I get what NeoJedi is saying but other than the lock switch doing more, a Tournament Edition is a Tournament Edition. And if the extra lock functionality is something you want in a non-S TE stick, that would be an easy mod to add on.

There are a few threads on EightArc and Qanba on the SRK Tech Talk forums: http://shoryuken.com/forum/index.php?forums/tech-talk.6/ so you'll find some impressions there, and probably some comparisons between some stick brands if you look enough.

Anyone ever use an x-arcade tankstick? Have seen them advertised on the internet, but I don't know anyone who has one.

X-arcade doesn't even use HAPP parts, just some lookalike clones. So it looks and feels kinda arcade grade, but it's not as good as the real thing, you basically would have a stick that looks like an "arcade" stick but isn't really arcade-grade. Maybe things have changed but it's my understanding that's how it's been since way back, please correct me if I'm wrong.

The layout isn't very great either, that button layout sucks and two players on one stick gets old.

If you want an American stick, MAS is still in business, or there are plenty of older ones you can mod HAPP parts into (and IIRC a variant of the SF Anniversary stick even comes with actual HAPP parts in it, good luck finding it though).

I like hori stuff, but was impressed with the Madcatz TE and got one for my 360. Feels great with KOF!

DanAdamKOF said:

X-arcade doesn't even use HAPP parts, just some lookalike clones. So it looks and feels kinda arcade grade, but it's not as good as the real thing, you basically would have a stick that looks like an "arcade" stick but isn't really arcade-grade. Maybe things have changed but it's my understanding that's how it's been since way back, please correct me if I'm wrong.

The layout isn't very great either, that button layout sucks and two players on one stick gets old.

If you want an American stick, MAS is still in business, or there are plenty of older ones you can mod HAPP parts into (and IIRC a variant of the SF Anniversary stick even comes with actual HAPP parts in it, good luck finding it though).

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I would recomend not fucking with any happ parts nowdays, they are a shadow of their former quality, my beloved super joystick is now a peice of shit a friend bought a couple brand new ones for his cab, from the very first test both sticks felt like shit and one wouldn't hit corners properly. If you like the happ competition joystick (I hate them even when they are good quality) you can get the IL euro joystick from lizard lick which will be the former high quality happ competition joystick.

I now play on japanese joysticks exclusively, not because I don't like american parts, but because of reliability and confidence that I am going to get the part I ordered.

XcomplexzX said:

I would recomend not fucking with any happ parts nowdays, they are a shadow of their former quality, my beloved super joystick is now a peice of shit a friend bought a couple brand new ones for his cab, from the very first test both sticks felt like shit and one wouldn't hit corners properly. If you like the happ competition joystick (I hate them even when they are good quality) you can get the IL euro joystick from lizard lick which will be the former high quality happ competition joystick.

I now play on japanese joysticks exclusively, not because I don't like american parts, but because of reliability and confidence that I am going to get the part I ordered.

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Yeah I didn't really wanna get into that either but that's 100% true. Bad habit of mine, saying "HAPP" when I mean "American-style controls (that were made by HAPP back in the day but nowadays they make inferior quality parts to the ones we remember from our youths spent in arcades)".

Just as an aside... note that not all Qanbas are dual compatible with both ps3 & 360. I've got a dual compatible one. Haven't spent too much time on it, but it seemed quite nice.

Overall I'm a Hori guy though.

.

Sexual Instinct said:

No offense man, but don't say stuff like this based on your experiences ten years ago. I can't speak for Mad Catz's other products but their arcade sticks are well made. I still prefer Hori stuff but I've owned a TE stick in the past and it was nice.

I'm thinking about getting a Qanba stick though, they come out of the box dual modded and that would be useful for me.

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I agree, madcatz te sticks are great. You can't really go wrong with hrap sticks either. Ukee, I have a ecksnine stick I don't use any more if your interested.

If i recall correctly the X arcade had a happ clone, i replaced it with a happ, but the quality was still shitty (this was right when happ was sold out to suzo or whatever happened).

X arcade isn't really a bad choice, its easily modable its a plus in that aspect, at least its easier to work with than the SFAC. the SFAC was a bitch to work on to switch the stick.

And yeah if you want American style stick go with IL, and for a store, i highly recommend paradisearcadeshop > lizardlick, i dont know what happened to the great rep lizardlick had, but they have a lot of shit backordered...

I bought a HRAP3 years ago and fitted Sanwa buttons to replace the cheap crappy ones. Already had a Sanwa stick. I've never had an issue with it. Honestly though does it even fucking matter what stick you get as long as you can fit aftermarket sanwa/seimitsu parts? when you're talking about lag in the matter of frames it's a bit absurd unless you're a pro IMO.

DanAdamKOF said:

If you want an American stick, MAS is still in business, or there are plenty of older ones you can mod HAPP parts into (and IIRC a variant of the SF Anniversary stick even comes with actual HAPP parts in it, good luck finding it though).

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MAS is in business still !? Hmm odd last time i try there old web adress it took me to page saying domain for sale