First Impressions: Ascii CvS:LE Arcade Stick

Having just played at a local (console based) Third Strike tournament, I got to play around with the Capcom vs. SNK edition Ascii stick and honestly I was impressed with it. I wasn't blown away by it, but I like it. Furthermore, one of the owners of a CvS stick let me test it out on VF3tb. Definitely grateful for that.

Pretty much from here on out, I'll describe my 15 minutes of experience with the stick, which isn't really enough for a review, but at least I can give my first impressions. This might be inaccurate to some, but I'll give my most honest evaluation/impression. For the most part, I'll be comparing it to the Agetec sticks (at least that's what we call them in the US, but most of you know all about that).

The sticks are not like Japanese arcade sticks. They are probably closer to Japanese arcade sticks than the Agetecs, but they're not as far as I understand it. They definitely have a console feel as well.

For those familiar with the Agetec's square area of movement or the "US-Style" circle area of movement; the CvS Stick feels like it has an octagon area of movement. Not quite a perfect circle as you'll definitely feel the diagonals, but I had no issues with this whatsoever. In fact, for 2d fighters, this felt better overall and I think my general precision in execution was improved. As for VF, I personally don't have issues with the Agetec (or at least mine), but if you had any issues with precision, I would imagine that some of it would be fixed with the CvS stick.

As much as I tried with the CvS stick, nothing got stuck. None of that crappy, "the stick got stuck in the bottom-right corner" or "the button won't go down at odd angles!!!" issues whatsoever.

The stick is rather loose (as in, less springy) with a slightly smaller area of movement than the Agetec (though a bit bigger than what I understand of the Japanese arcade sticks). The base is optical so you won't feel the switches or get loud clicky noises (but it's not completely silent either). Very responsive and the feeling I got was that it responds more like a circle/square than an oval/rectangle (this is reference to location of diagonals).

I didn't get to test out where exactly the neutral position ends within the range of movement, so when I get a hold of one of these things or at least more time to test them out, I'll put that in a review so people get an idea on whether it has a lot or a little neutral. I assume it's probably a lot, given that the stick isn't all that tight (as in a tense spring) so having a small area for neutral would have probably driven me nuts if that was the case.

The allignment of the buttons are slightly angled differently than the Agetec. Very similar pattern, but slightly rotated counter clockwise in comparison to the Agetec (hence, you are more likely to have your elbow out, depending on how you use the stick anyways). Also of note is that the buttons are a bit closer to the stick than the Agetec.

The feel of the buttons... how can I express this... they feel different than the Agetec, but not really in any really good or bad way. At least with the exception that I don't think these buttons will ever get stuck the way the Agetec's tend to. At least not until you kill the thing. Hard to describe the feel of the buttons when pressed, but it's different... For me, it felt like I was pushing a piece of plastic on cotton, if that makes sense to anyone. As opposed to the "klak--almost no spring" feel of the Agetec's. Simply something of preference, but the very strong impression that these buttons won't refuse to push down when pressed at odd angles is a major plus. Many of you probably know exactly what I'm talking about too.

Bonus stuff:
-Vibration feature (who in the right mind would ever use this?! I didn't bother to test).
-angled/open VMU slot. To me this is a big plus. Why? Well, the main thing is that I won't have the issue with this stick that I had with the Agetec. Simply put, I put a third party memory card (nexus syle) in one of my Agetecs awhile back and it wasn't built perfectly to spec... Needless to say, it's been stuck in that stick ever since with almost no hope of getting it out without breaking something.
-Start button is on the far upper right of the stick. This is a plus for those that have a tendency to accidentally hit the start button when playing fighting games. Something I don't imagine to happen in VF, but some people tend to do it in Capcom style fighters. On a side note, it's a square button that protrudes a bit.

Gameplay Impressions:
I'm really used to the Agetec, but I feel that the CvS stick is probably better than the Agetec for sure. However, if you are used to the Agetec already, you might want to stick with it. The CvS stick is really good though imo. In fact, I was more comfortable K-stepping with the CvS stick. A lot more comfortable in fact. Don't know why, don't know how, don't know what... I just ended up feeling that everything was "easier."

Guess if I ever write a review for this, I'll simply just put a list of contrasts and additional notes about these impressions I gave here.

-Chanchai

 

aside from the sticks, how did the third strike tournament play go? any top-class players...?

 

I've already done a lot of explaining on the tournament to others, but ask me that by email. I'm bound to respond (these days anyways, I know I've been slow on email the last 3 weeks). I don't think I want to give a Third Strike Tournament report here.