Today I picked up my long awaited Mad Catz Street Fighter IV FightStick for my PS3. I’ve never played with an arcade stick before, only regular hand controllers, so it was a bit weird getting used to how to push the buttons.

As soon as I started using the stick I started to suck (or suck slightly more perhaps) because I couldn’t switch between the buttons quickly enough. Combos are much easier though. With a little practice, I think the arcade stick will be fun.

I’m not especially good at the game, but I enjoy playing it online and with my friends (who, luckily, seem to like the game). I just looked at my stats and apparently I’ve played for 34 something hours and nearly 400 matches (that’s quite a lot by my standards)

I got the Street Fighter IV game for PS3 earlier this month. I thought it’d be a game that I would like. While I was at it I pre-ordered one of these sticks at the same time, but was later talked into cancelling the order. I regretted cancelling it, but by that time they weren’t taking any more pre-orders. Luckily the same place where I placed the original order had a few left over after all the pre-orders had been shipped out, so I could get it at the same price

The FightStick came with a card (see the photo above) which lists the moves of the characters in the game. “This is great!” I thought. I was thinking just a couple of days ago that such a thing would be prefect for when you’re playing multiplayer, both online (when you can’t access the command list) and when playing with friends (when waiting for your turn).

So I thought I’d look up Sakura, which is my current favourite character (second fav is Chun-li)… “Hmm… her moves must be on the other side of the card” (the card is printed on both sides) “… nno… Where’s Sakura?!” Luckily I know her moves pretty well, so it’s no biggie.

Later I was playing online and thought I’d glance at Fei-long’s moves… His moves aren’t there either. “OK, what about Rose?” Nope. “Surely Cammy is included” Nope. They do, however,list both Ryu and Ken, who both have the exact same moves! Aargh!

After playing with the stick (nothing dirty) for a couple of hours, I noticed that it feels more ergonomical than with a hand control. Normally when I play with a hand control I tend to hunch forward. With the FightStick in my lap, I sit more straight up.