Before I describe the product itself, I must mention why I gave it a mediocre rating. Frankly, Mad Catz's customer service is horrible. I was excited to get the fightstick because I got a very good deal on it. Unfortunately, it arrived with a broken Heavy Punch button. It just wouldn't work. I bought the fightstick from Amazon via [...], so Amazon was not responsible to replace the product, which meant I had to get a replacement from [...], but they were out of stock. I could simply take a refund, but I still wanted the fightstick, so I called up Mad Catz to see what they could do for me.
1st Call: They told me to go talk to Buy.com.
2nd Call: They tried to help me fix the stick myself over the phone. This did not work since the cables inside were too tightly connected. In the end, I wound up damaging the button beyond (home) repair. They said I should send it to them and they would repair it themselves, but they wanted me to pay the shipping! I couldn't understand why I should pay the shipping costs when it was their fault it was broken in the first place. (Obviously, no one tested the unit before it left the manufacturing facility.)
3rd Call: I managed to talk to someone who would send me a new button and cable set free of charge, so long as I did the repairs at home. I figured this was better than nothing, so I accepted. After I received it, I rewired the new button into the circuit board, but I soon discovered that the button was never broken at all. The circuit board simply wasn't receiving input from it. I verified this by connecting a different (normally working) button to the same spot and finding it ineffective.
At this point, I was so frustrated that I then rewired the Heavy Punch button into the 3 Punches contact point and just change the button configuration accordingly, something I could have done days ago. In other words, Mad Catz did almost nothing to help me. Yes, I could have had them repair the fightstick themselves, but it would have felt wrong to me. How can they sell a defective product like that and then just expect someone to pay $10 or more to ship it back?!
Also (just FYI), there have been a good number of reports of fightsticks of this type being broken to begin with or becoming broken faster than a user would expect. Buyer beware.
That said, when it's working, the Street Fighter IV FightStick is one of the best ways to get the arcade experience at home. The buttons and stick are as responsive as one would expect and (so long as one is used to using his fingers to hit the buttons) it should not be a problem to pull off most special moves.
So, in summary, only buy this product if you buying from a company besides Mad Catz who is able to replace the fightstick for free. Amazon.com itself would probably be great to buy from.Get more detail about Xbox 360 Street Fighter IV FightStick.
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