So you have seen our panel review of the Mad Catz FightStick Tournament Edition. Now it is time to see a side that is not often covered in product reviews. Join me as I dissect and explore the technical side of this lovely joystick. Allow me to void my warranty so you, the viewers, won’t have to. Learn a thing or two and enjoy this tech review series.

For the rest of the series, visit the playlist: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=BDEC0E72AC5926C6

And here we go.

The audio is a little out of sync thanks to youtube, but you get the picture!

My Street Fighter IV Tournament Edition stick just arrived via my local Fedex driver (who by the way, I think he opened it and used it to play some STHD). Over the next few days, ill be taking it for a test drive over various networks, like XBOX Live and GGPO and backward compatible games like 3S on XBL as well. Look for a full review in the coming days.

 And the back … 

Oh its gonna be a fun couple of days, thanks Madcatz and Markman!

Experience the hottest moves and most devestating combos from the world’s largest open fighting game tournament! With over 2000 top competitors from Japan, Europe, the US, and more, Evolution 2007 was the true world championship for all of today’s most popular fighting games.

Head on over to www.evo2k.com/dvd now to order up a copy!

Everyone knows from my past review of the Street Fighter Anniversary Edition Pad by NubyTech that I love the original Japanese Sega Saturn Pad. It’s the best gaming pad for Fighting Games to have ever existed and, outside of using a good joystick, nothing is more comfortable to me. In fact, I can honestly say that during the golden age of the Sega Saturn (if there was ever such a thing), when all of the best Capcom Fighters such as Marvel Super Heroes, X-Men Vs. Street Fighter, and the entire Street Fighter Alpha Series were released on the Sega Saturn, I was much more adept at using the Sega Saturn Pad than I was with any joystick. And most pad players I’ve talked to agree: the Saturn Pad is about the best pad you can find for Fighting Games.

Continue on to the full review.

There is definitely something to be said about form vs. function. Function is obviously the most important factor in any product. I mean, you just want things to work properly. But oftentimes, if the form is bad, you won’t care how well it functions. Fortunately for the “Component VGA Box,” the form is a pretty significant problem until you get it working once, ’cause then you’ll never have to worry about it again. But it is still a problem.

I have a nice HDTV, but a lot of times I just want to play games in the comfort of my bedroom. But with the way game graphics are improving, playing games on my little TV in the bedroom seems such a waste when many of the games I play, these days, can output in beautiful 480p Progressive Scan. So I was trying to think of a solution and I came upon this “Component VGA Box,” which allows you to output console video games in Progressive Scan to your computer monitor. I’ve got a nice 19″ flat-screen monitor in my bedroom, so I figured I give this item a chance and Lik-Sang was nice enough to send me one of these to try out.

Continue on to the full review.

So I just downloaded and tried out the Fight Night Round 3 demo on Xbox Live. Can someone explain the appeal of this game to me? I mean, the game looks crazy good graphically. It’s close to photorealistic. But it plays like molasses. Jabs are slow, my guy shuffles around like a zombie, and there’s no on screen display telling me if I’m winning or losing or anything. Can I get a power meter at least? Aren’t demos supposed to make you want to go out and buy the game?

For some reason I like to review controllers, so here we go. I got the new Dead or Alive joystick (made by Hori) off Ebay recently because I couldn’t find it anywhere near me. It has exceeded my expectations in several ways. I’ve been pretty happy with my Soul Calibur stick (also by Hori), and it doesn’t even have an R2 or L2 button.

The DOA stick has:
1) All the buttons, including triggers, start, back
2) Even that crazy Xbox Live button, and even the four lights around it, telling you which player you are
3) A nice input on the front (toward you) for the headphone jack.

The game DOA4 even recognized that I had the DOA stick, had an in-game picture of the stick, and automatically set the buttons for me to something reasonable. Plus, it’s USB, so you could even use it with your PC (though I haven’t tried that yet.)

Meanwhile, the official 6-button game pads for Street Fighter Anniversary Edition were set so that by default, Fierce punch and Roundhouse kick were reversed when you played Street Fighter Anniversary Edtion!

Are Hori parts as good as Sanwa parts (e.g. those used in the Real Arcade Pro stick)? No, but Hori’s are still damn good. I’m totally satisfied with the product. All they have to do now is make a wireless version.

–Sirlin