HORI PS3 Soulcalibur V Arcade Stick

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I recently received my HORI PS3 Soulcaibur V Arcade stick and the only complaint I have is the USB cable is shorter than I expected. The cable is shorter than a HRAP and a Madcatz TE stick, so I had to purchase an extension cable to sit comfortably from the television. My futon is around eight feet from the television, so plan accordingly.

Other than the short cord, I have no complaints. The construction is sturdy and the joystick and buttons are all confirmed Sanwa. (I opened the panel and all the buttons are quick disconnects and the wiring is done well with no bunches of cables or loose wires.) The panel is easily accessible much like the TE sticks, with only a hex key needed.

I love the artwork on the panel and have no intentions of changing it. The stick looks absolutely gorgeous though it is prone to finger prints, but that's certainly not abnormal.

The stick does include a compartment to tuck the cable away, and also two ports for keyboard support and headphone support. It's also slightly larger than the TE stick.

I'm impressed. I haven't purchased a HORI stick since the HRAP came out and I'm loving the size and quality of this stick more, especially the Sanwa buttons. The black casing with the red plunger was a nice choice for this stick.

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I recently bought this arcade stick on another major online retailer when it was still at the promotional sale price. I have been playing Street Fighter X Tekken with it for about two weeks. The stick and the buttons are very responsive. I can pull off shoryuken easily. I haven't played Street Fighter for a long time. The last Street Fighter game that I played was Street Fighter II. I played some in arcades and I played some on SNES. I was never good at it. After 20 years of playing RPGs, I decided to play the fighting games again. And the first one that I wanted to play is SFxT. This time, I want to get serious. I want to do those crazy combos and I want to play online competitively. That's why I decided to get an arcade stick. Because I think the right way to play a fighting game is playing it on an arcade stick.

I have done a lot of research before purchasing this arcade stick. Not sure if I should shell out $100+ for a peripheral just to play the game, I was originally looking for cheaper joysticks like NEW PS2 PS3 PC USB Universal Arcade Fighting Stick (Joystick / Joy Stick) or Playtech Pro Arcade Fighting Stick for Sony PS3 PC PS2. But the ratings and reviews for these cheaper sticks are generally bad. I have heard that the better entry level arcade sticks are PlayStation 3 WWE All Stars Brawl Stick and Xbox360 Fighting Stick EX 2. But if you can pay roughly $60-$80 to get a mid-level arcade stick, why not wait for a price drop of a top-level arcade stick at roughly $100? Usually, when there is a major tournament going on, Hori and Mad Catz would do a promotional sale for their arcade sticks. This Hori Soulcalibur V Arcade Stick is exactly the same as HORI PS3 Dead or Alive 5 Arcade Stick and HORI PS3 Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Arcade Stick except for the art work.

For the arcade stick itself, it is a top-level arcade stick. The stick lever and the buttons are all Sanwa parts. They are loose and sensitive. It is built for competitive play for a long period of time. It is big and sturdy. There are some buttons configuration and turbo features on top of the left hand side. There are two USB ports in the front for headset and keyboard. The restrictor gate of this arcade stick is a square gate. Most of the Hori and Mad Catz arcade sticks have square gate at stock. Like I said, this is my first arcade stick, so I cannot compare it to other sticks. However, from my reseach, this stick is a tournament level, high-quality stick. It is comparable to Mad Catz SoulCalibur V Arcade FightStick SOUL Edition for Playstation 3. Notice that for both of these SoulCalibur V arcade sticks, both companies are using a new "Namco Noir Layout." This layout is different from the Vewlix layout that both companies have been using on their arcade sticks, like HORI Playstation 3 Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 Arcade Stick, Mad Catz Street Fighter X Tekken Arcade FightStick PRO Line for Playstation 3 or Mad Catz Major League Gaming Arcade FightStick Tournament Edition for Playstation 3. All of these arcade sticks are high-end products and you cannot go wrong with any of them. Many people complain about the placement of the "Start" button on the Hori Real Arcade Pro (HRAP) series arcade sticks. Their newly designed arcade stick has a feature that the "Start" button can be covered.

All in all, this is a high-quality arcade stick. I give it 5 stars. Playing a fighting game with an arcade stick is totally different from using a pad. You need to learn how to hold the stick lever and how to use your index, middle and ring fingers to hit the buttons instead of your thumb. It just adds that much fun on playing the game. One little complaint is that the cord that connects the arcade stick to the PS3 is only 9.8 feet. If you want to sit farther than that, you need an extension cable.

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Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program Full Sanwa parts in an attractive high quality cabinet, not much else to say really. So I'll just mention some nitpicks and let you guys decide if this is the box with the Sanwa parts you're after.

* Cable is on the short side at about 10 feet it is just a hair too short to use on the big TV with an extension cable. (Fortunately, those are very cheap online).

* Edges of cabinet are not beveled. would have made the stick a tad more comfortable. (Edit: Rounded so not sharp but just not beveled like the pro stick.)

* Sliding panel to cover the start button. Awesome feature that prevents inadvertent press during play. Just remember to flip that lid down.

* Soul Calibur V graphics are nicely done in my opinion.

* 2 Front facing USB ports for headset and keyboard and a cable storage compartment.

* Comes with the standard assignable turbo bells and whistles.

In summary this a great stick that has it where is counts. The little details are what will decide this for you.

Note: For users not familiar with arcade fight sticks, this stick comes with 8 buttons for games that are arcade configured for 8 but is compatible with games that are arcade configured for 6 like Street Fighter.

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I love this stick. Hori never lets me down. Of course like everyone now it comes with the sanwa parts and sanwa stick. its bigger and nicer than it looks. very sturdy stick. i love the start button compartment. overall get this over mad catz because the mad cats sticks pcb is not as good as the hori one.

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I've owned a few arcade sticks over the years, with most of them being the MadCatz TE sticks that have been released since Street Fighter IV. I've been fairly happy with them, but always wanted to try a Hori stick out since they tend to be placed higher on the stick food chain than MadCatz. I'm happy to say that this SCV stick by Hori is excellent and very much worth your money if you're serious about fighting games, or just can't stand the horrible broken-up d-pad on the Dual Shock controller (seriously Sony, FIX THIS!). At the same time, if you're used to the MadCatz fightsticks, making the switch to this one might take a little time to get used to since the button layout is angled differently, as you can see in my customer image above.

The first thing I noticed about this stick was just how much empty space there is on the bottom. This was a turn off at first, since I usually play with my legs crossed and the arcade stick sitting in my lap, so I didn't like having the extra space of nothing. Again, this has to do with the transition from the standard MadCatz TE stick to this new model, which is a completely new model by Hori. All of the buttons work perfectly and are responsive, as is the joystick. It makes the same clicking sound to confirm the direction of movement, and it uses a square gate. A lot of people prefer octagon gates, but I honestly have no trouble pulling off 360° or 720° motions with the square gate. In fact, it's ridiculously simple and I have a much easier time doing them on here than I do with a Dual Shock controller. All the turbo features are at the top, just like a MadCatz stick's, and work as they should. The Select, Home and L3/R3 buttons are here as well. I really liked that they have the L3/R3 buttons on here, as the majority of arcade sticks out there for the ps3 don't. While these controllers may be primarily used for fighting games, they work with -anygame that doesn't require analog control. Want to play an old fashioned arcade shooter that might need the L3/R3 buttons? Go for it! Want to finally obliterate everything in your path with the help of a Turbo button? You got it!

Another very cool addition is the port for a USB keyboard, and the port for a headset located on the front of the base. It makes sending a message to a friend much simpler with this feature. And of course, there's the infamous shielded Start button. While I get what it's used for, I think it's kind of stupid. There's a shield that can be put over the button so you don't 'accidentally' hit it during a match? How would you even accidentally hit that unless you're mashing like crazy and slamming your open hand over the entire area of the stick? Well, it's there if you need it, and is a cinch to open and close. As for the USB cable that stores in the back of the stick, it's thinner than that of the MadCatz TE's, and is just the right length as well.

As an arcade stick, there's nothing bad I can say about this SoulCalibur V model. It works like any arcade stick should, especially in this price range. But there are still a few things I don't like about the design. First off being that since this is an entirely new model, there's no way to simply order a plexiglass plate to have custom artwork at the moment. That shielded Start button is to thank for this. But I'm sure someone is working on it right now. The other thing has to do with comfort, but this is just me and might not apply for you. Since I play with the stick in my lap, the handles on the bottom of this thing can get uncomfortable after about 30 minutes of playtime. If you play standing up or with the stick on a table, then this shouldn't be a problem. The last thing is just a cosmetic issue, and it's that the face of the stick with the artwork is easily scratched.

If you already have a good Fightstick, I'd suggest keeping it unless you really like SoulCalibur V, or unless you can get a good deal on this one. It's not bad at all, but I'm happy with the TE series. Maybe I'll give one of those Real Arcade Pro sticks a shot somewhere down the road.