PS2 Stick Impressions (by yours truly)

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CONTENTS

1) Link to IGN review of Shadowblade
2) Impressions of Shadowblade by Chanchai
3) Impressions of TTT Stick by Chanchai
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Well, for those of you who are interested, here's a link to a review of the PS2 Shadowblade arcade stick:

http://ps2.ign.com/hardware/269.html

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Shadowblade Impressions:
Ptooey! Okay, so I give you a guys a link to a review that praises it, and then I tell you what I think about it... weird... but felt like oh well, for those who are gonna get a PS2, here's one of the options.

However, my recommendation for those getting a PS2:

A) Homemade Stick
B) Pray that something decent comes out in the future, perhaps Ascii will release their Capcom vs. SNK edition sticks to the PS2. Or satisfy with the decent TTT stick (if you don’t intend on using it for 6 button fighters).
C) Whatever PSX stick that seemed good to you (if any, I haven't seen one yet, so I guess a MAS Stick will have to do here)

Okay, why do I put "Pray..." for B) instead of C)? Well, maybe it's me, but I think the PSX controller ports and all are typically slow, and I'm *ASSUMING* the PS2 ports are fast. Similar to the difference between a serial port and a USB port. I don't have much to prove this and I'm not gonna read into the specs, but it feels to me that when I was playing PS2 software, the PS2 controllers seemed to have a nice overall feel to them in terms of registering. I don't know if PSX hardware gets this benefit (if it indeed exists) when plugged into the PS2. Perhaps it's really just in the PSX's processing, but there's a huge difference in feel to me between TTT on PS2 and T3/T2 on PSX. Feels kind of laggy on the PSX games.

If someone could offer researched support or naysaying, I welcome it.

Anyways, back to the Shadowblade stick:

Background: Many of you will remember the "Alloy Stick" by Interact that was to be released in the US for the Dreamcast and then after about a week of distribution (and IGN praises, ugh) and then it was suddenly pulled (which an EB manager friend of mine told me was because they were costing them more to make than sell or something like that--I'm guessing this is only an excuse Interact gave to retailers). Basically, upon the launch of the PS2 comes the Alloy Stick, but now called the Shadowblade and put on PS2.

So, what's the stick like? It's supposedly like a US arcade stick. Well, imo, everything you can say bad about US sticks, you get that 10 fold here.

The stick itself is like the long-teardrop sticks that were standard in US VF2 machines. Something I personally can't stand as they are exceptionally long and well, kills my wrist after awhile. I'm convinced they're about an inch or two longer than those that were in VF2, hence even more "carpal tunnel syndrome" hazard (excuse the mispell). The range of movement? EXTREME! This just kills it for me.

On the subjective matter of buttons, I could care less about the ones used on this stick, but some might like it. Perfectly lined up in straight lines, I'm too used to curved arrangemtns now I guess. But I guess one can make do with it.

Features: I could care less about rapid fire or analog buttons, but I guess that's just me. I could also care less about programability, but I'm sure some would like that.

Anyways, my friend (Rayblade) would probably review the stick by saying something like: "It sucks! I've spent enough time to test that thing out and my conclusion is that it actually makes things worse for 2d fighting games and is somewhere decent on 3d fighters" or at least that's what I got out of what he told me. Ray, you can put up a review here if you want, I know you are reading this (and probably cursing me for putting you in this post).

Anyways, that's my take on the Shadowblade. You can take my word or IGN's word on it, that's your choice. But I thought I would share. Keep in mind one other thing: THE SHADOWBLADE IS $59.99!
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Impressions of TTT Stick:

However, seems that the only decent alternative for the PS2 at the moment is the Tekken Tag stick. I have my gripes with this thing, but it seems like it's the only decent thing that's on PS2 (maybe it works on PSX? I don't know).

TTT Stick Pros:
-If you get used to it, it works well and the Korean PS2 (TTT) owners seem to like it as a workable substitute (like we do with the Agetec, good for but not perfect, disliked by others).
-Your arm is less likely to get killed, 50 times less likely than with the Shadowblade.
-It is responsive and everything works. Probably the best retail hardware (which excludes homemades and private distributions)

TTT Stick Cons:
-Stick is really close to the buttons, this is not an awful thing but certainly requires some getting used to for many people, it also adds to the weight problem.
-5 buttons, this thing is not gonna do it for fighting games using more than 5 buttons. It's also weird in setting up buttons for games other than TTT, but it's very possible (Ray seemed to like it for DoA2 Hardcore, I'll let him post if he wants). This problem shouldn't exist in VF4, and the curve will be slightly different, but still very workable (still has a decently nice curve arrangment).
-The stick is LIGHT. Some people might have issues keeping this on a surface, on their lap, etc... It's not extremely bad, but it's still a con and an issue.

Misc:
-If I recall, the ball on the stick is rather big. I don't think of this as a con, but some might. It worked perfectly alright for me.

Well, congratulations on getting this far, hope it shed some light for you guys.

-Chanchai

 

Thanks for your impressions Chanchai; I am also shopping for a stick to play TTT (and eventually VF4, heh heh) but it seems that there is no decent one available yet. 5 buttons are not going to cut it--I do play some SF.

ice-9

 

Well, you know my fighting game buddy just got his a few months ago. So I assume you can still get them.

I do have to admit, besides homemade sticks, those are probably the best things I've used on a PSX/PS2.

Regarding my comment on control between PSX and PS2, when I think about it... I'm guessing what I'm feeling is in the PSX and PS2 console themselves... as PSX devices seem to be just as responsive on PS2 as PS2 devices. It's just that when I play a game on PSX, I can just feel some sort of tiny lag in it. Another person's experience with this was with the bemani style games (particularly DDR) and how they just felt less responsive on PSX than on Dreamcast, while for me, Tekken 3 as well as other fighters (on PSX) don't feel as responsive as say, TTT or DoA2 on PS2 and I really feel it has to do with how the controller port is handled, technology, etc... Like I said before, serial vs. USB. I haven't tried PSX games on PS2 yet though...

-Chanchai

 

Hoo haaa
I hated those sticks!!!!

Ah, I'm sure they can come up with some controller adaptor port or such, that way, all we need is that n bingo, DC stick on PS2

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