Review: SoulCalibur IV Hori Fighting Stick EX2

After getting the heads up from Ancient Flounder about the killer deal on the SoulCalibur IV joysticks at Fry’s, I rushed down after worked and pick up one for myself. After playing around with this joystick for a couple of days, I’m actually quite impressed with its build quality. Hori is general know for their solid peripherals and for the most part the Hori Fighting Stick EX2 delivers.

This isn’t the first time the Hori Fighting Stick EX2 was released here in the states. The first time we saw this touching down on our shores, it was badge as a Dead or Alive 4 limited edition joystick with the DoA4 decals then quickly re-released as a Hori Fighting Stick EX2 with the generic Xbox green lines decal. The most recent and surprisingly cheapest is the SoulCalibur IV again with the game specific decal.

The overall feel of the joystick is light and sturdy with the button lay out in the classic Japanese Capcom angled with the six buttons aligned in an arching row. I find this setup easy on the wrist and prefer it over to the American parallel rows. I’m glad they decided to go with just six button layout because like the Wii and PS3 versions of this stick, you have to fiddle with the extra set of buttons which will always screw you up in a fighting match. There’s also a headset connector on the base, which is located right in front of the player. This is nice because your headset is usable and you are not going to get tangled up in the wires.  And speaking our wires, this is a corded USB joystick with about 6-7 feet which should be good for most.  Sadly it’s about 2 feet too short for my needs.  I have to use a USB cord extender to play in my living room since I sit so far away from my setup.

The stock parts that are in this stick are quite impressive. It blows away the Street Fighter Anniversary Edition Arcade Stick that was released for the Xbox & PS2. The EX2’s joystick is very responsive and quite fluid. I was easily able to pull off Zangief’s 360 degrees pile driver on my copy of the Street Fighter Anniversary Collection for the original Xbox. With the EX2, I was able to pull off combos and special moves with ease. Playing a few rounds of Street Fighter II: Third Strike and Hyper Street Fighter II with the EX2 then compared  it to the arcade controls.  I played a few rounds on my arcade and tried out the same moves on SFIII: 3rd Strike and Super Street Fighter II Turbo. I rocked and sucked equally as hard with my arcades setup. I could easily pull off the same combos and specials with this joystick when compared to my arcade setup.

There’s only two negative points that needs to be brought to you attention. The first on is that you will not be able to play an Xbox 360 games that requires the analog joystick as the only form of character control. You see the joystick is mapped from the “D-pad” and therefor doesn’t support analog functionality. So if this was going to be your replacement of the Xbox 360 controller, I’m sorry but you are going to have to look elsewhere.

My second minor complaint with this joystick is that the buttons feel all mushy and lack that “feel” that I expect from an “arcade quality” home joystick. So to remedy this error, I’m planning on replacing the buttons with Sanwa buttons and at least upgrade the joystick restrictor plate so it would be easier to pull off shryukens. I’m still contemplating if I should replace the Hori joystick with an actual Sanwa joystick since I’m so happy with it. Restrictor plate upgrade is a piece of cake but dremeling away at Sanwa joystick and heavily modify it just so I can tout that my joystick has true arcade parts, I’m not sure if it’s even worth the trouble.

Like I said before, it’s quite comparable to my SSFIITurbo setup that actually has Sanwas. I still need to think about that portion of the upgrade, but I know for a fact that the buttons are going to get replaced no matter what, as is the decal art because I really could give a rat’s ass about SoulCaliber IV and I want this stick to be mine with art that I picked out. Besides, I can’t go off ordering the buttons before I know if they will match with my as-for-right-now-unselected artwork so here’s where you can come in and help me. I’ve selected three pieces that I think would look cool on my joystick but I can’t figure out which one I want to use as my final decal. Which one do you think will look freakin’ sweet?

All in all this joystick delivers and for the casual gamers who loved their Xbox Live arcade games or happens to favor the classic 2D fighters then this will be all that you will ever need in a joystick and for the tinkers, like myself, it’s a great opportunity to make a good joystick ever better. So for only $38.90, I would strongly suggest picking this peripheral up.

Below are the three art pieces that I want to use for my joystick. Please post your likes/dislike or even suggestions below. I’ll probably order my parts in the middle of next week.

Posted by Jangofatt