Sony PS3 Street Fighter IV FightPad - Blanka

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I'm going to start by saying, all in all.. I really like my fight-pad controller. I've played Street Fighter 4 since release and then moved to Super Street Fighter 4 upon it's release. I consider myself a generally serious SF player, as I play in local tournaments, play on arcade machines, and own a tournament edition joystick controller for the game. I became interested in the fight-pad controller after I purchased the tournament edition joystick ($140). After many months of using the joystick, it just never felt "right" to me. The joystick itself felt too heavy and just generally wasn't what I wanted to use when I played the game. I was hesitant to buy the fight-pad controller, because it is Madcatz brand and inexpensive. Madcatz is a company that makes notoriously HORRIBLE quality products. Ever since the 1990's, they've made copies of official controllers and various video game controllers... all of which usually break in mere days of normal use, don't work upon purchase, or are just complete low quality garbage. I must say, I hate Madcatz as a company and hope that they do end up going out of business. However, this fight-pad controller is a gem among garbage in Madcatz products. I started using it as soon as I received it in the mail and noticed a problem with my d-pad sticking. I ignored it and continued playing for about a week, the d-pad would get stuck maybe once every 4 hours or so, every time that I would play the game. (Once every 4 hours so you know how frequent/likely it was for this to occur) All that I had to do to get it to correct itself was push down with significant force on the d-pad in the opposite direction that it was sticking. I know, it sounds pretty bad so far.. but the good part is yet to come. I play SSF4 quite a bit, usually about 2-8 hours per day.. 5-6 days per week. After the first week of using my controller, the issue with the d-pad sticking went away. I'm writing this review months after I purchased the controller and I haven't had ANY issues with it since the first week that I used it. I assume maybe since it's from the original SF4 release, maybe it just required some breaking in to get all the kinks out from sitting around for a year. This controller does require 2 AA batteries, but to all the people complaining about batteries in their reviews.. how often do you play? As I said, I play quite frequently and usually only change the batteries about once a month.. which isn't bad considering that sometimes I can rack up 40 hours per week on the game.

All in all, I'm happy with my purchase and do not regret it.. the controller is easy to use and has worked well for me. If you're someone who is tired of using a normal PS3/360 controller or joystick, it would probably be worth giving a try. However, being that it is a Madcatz product.. there is a chance that you may have issues with the controller. I'm lucky that any issues that I had with it went away, but other people may not be so lucky. I was about to return mine, but then fortunately the issue with the d-pad just went away. My advice is, purchase with caution.

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+

comfortable

nicely sized

lightweight

feels sturdy

rubberized grips

fluid d-pad movement

-

not rechargeable (uses 2 AAA)

not bluetooth (comes with usb/ir dongle)

no analog sticks

small/recessed PS, start & select button hard to feel/press

My biggest complaints are the usb/ir dongle taking up another port so it should've been a bluetooth controller. There are no analog sticks but there is a switch to enable the d-pad as the left stick or right stick (but you couldn't use them in any combination together). And not having a built-in rechargeable li-ion battery is a waste. I guess you could use rechargeable AA though.

In the end this is a great SF controller. When configured for SF, the punch and kick buttons are nicely spaced apart so your fingers don't feel crammed together. You can easily pull off sonic booms, shoryoukens, hadoukens, super pile drivers, spinning bird feet, etc.. So it is perfectly suited for SF. But I found it hard to use for Tekken and other games mostly because PS, Select and Start buttons are recessed and hard to find/press. I don't use the turbo buttonnever haveeven back when the NES had it on the ASCII pad. Hahah remember that?

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This is an outstanding controller. Very comfortable to hold and all buttons are in easy reach. It is already perfectly set up for use with the Street Fight IV & the default button configuration. Moves requiring quarter, half & full circle movements are incredibly easy do, thanks to the floating digital pad. And they can be done consistently. It comes a with handy Turbo button which makes characters like Chun-Li & E. Honda especially dangerous.

My only problem with the controller & its floating digital pad is that it may be too sensitive sometimes. For characters that require charge attacks or precise up and down movements of the digital pad for combos, the Dualshock 3/Six-axis controller is actually easier to use & more consistent.

If you have PS3 then you already have the standard controller & I highly suggest you try out the Fight Pads to get the most out of this game. It will probably come in handy for other fighting games as well. I fully intend to use this pad on Tekken.

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I purchased the Street Fighter 4 Fightpad, for Capcom's latest scam, Marvel Vs. Capcom 3. It worked, but even on the first day i played, I noticed technical issues. The controller kept on inputting my commands as down for what ever reason, and the diagonals were not as responsive. Why the hell a fightpad SPECIFICALLY made for fighting games would be wireless, is beyond me. I feel as if the controller could have been spared these troubles if wired. I bought this in May 2011, so I doubt that if they didn't have wired then, they most likely stopped improving the fightpads, and will never make more that are wired. The actual performance was decent, and improved my inputs by a fraction; certainly not worth anything over $20. The floating d-pad sucked for me, and I found my fingers getting stuck in the bulbous creases of the diagonals. The button layout was extremely poor in my opinion. I felt that the buttons should have been left alone, and just a better d-pad. It will take A WHILE to get used to the six button layout. They are so weirdly spaced out, that you will be pressing the wrong commands often. I played for about a week, then gave up, because MVC3 was boring after 2 weeks.

Pros:

Slight better inputs

really cool design

...

Cons:

floating d-pad is too uncomfortable

registers incorrect inputs when not even touching anything from time to time

Spacing of the buttons are awkward

wireless

uses 2 AA batteries

Feels cheaply made

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Ordered one, worked for two days then control pad got stuck in down position. Sent it back, received second one that worked for two hours then broke. Real pain to get these things.