Everyone was saying that I needed a fight pad or an arcade stick to hold my own in Street Fighter IV. I was trying to avoid purchasing yet another game peripheral, but it was discouraging to get my ass kicked by shotos throwing fireballs and shoryukenning all over the place. I passed by my local game store on the way back from lunch and poked my head in just to see if they had one of those Mad Catz Fight Pads in and SUCCESS, they had just gotten a box of them in. I didn’t want to be a stereotype, but I couldn’t help picking the Chun Li one. All the others were ugly.
I was doubtful of how the Fight Pad would improve my game since I relied on the analog stick of the 360 controller most of the time. WOW. What a difference a good d-pad makes. I was pulling off combos left and right without even having to think about it. I could string quick moves together and end with an ultra easily.
Charge characters are still a bit difficult to play, but I think I’m slowly getting used to it. For charge characters, it’s easier for me to hold the controller with my left hand “piano-style” instead of regularly. Of course, that makes it awkward to press the left trigger so I need a way to work around that.
As for the quality of the controller, it’s not so good. The controller feels super light, which usually is a good thing, but in this case, it feels cheap. I’m glad I’m not one to frequently throw controllers because I don’t think this one would take much of a beating. For $40, I hope the controller holds up to at least a year or two of wear. I’m going to be pretty angry if the buttons stop working after a month.
One thing buying the Fight Pad taught me was that the Xbox 360’s d-pad is AWFUL. I can’t believe I had been using it for so long.