Madcatz Screwing People Who Were Going To Give Them A Second Chance. Also, Why You Shouldn’t Care.

Street Fighter 4 will be sitting in many an Xbox 360 disc tray this coming week and the hype is really starting to get out of control. Personally, I’m extremely excited. There is a problem though; the majority of Xbox 360 owners don’t have the means to actually play the game. Anyone who buys Street Fighter 4 and expects to play it with the standard 360 controller is going to learn what it is to be truly infuriated. However, for a brief moment, there was an answer to this problem. Someone had come to our rescue, and that person was…Madcatz.

Now now, I can hear you hissing, calm down. They had a good plan. They were going to release two different arcade sticks. One standard edition for the more casual fan and the 150 dollar Tournament Edition monster stick. Both of these looked like quality products and it seemed like Madcatz might be able to turn their reputation around. And they might have, had they actually gotten the sticks to the people who pre-ordered them. I’m aware that quite a few people have received their sticks, in various different states of functionality, but the majority of pre-orders, even those that were placed in early December (mine included) won’t be fulfilled until mid March or April. That means I’ll have my collector’s edition of Street Fighter 4 sitting here on my shelf, sealed and collecting dust, for over a month… that isn’t an option. It’s not an option for me and it certainly isn’t an option for you. So, let’s go over some alternatives.

While Madcatz’s new sticks are shiny and exciting, they haven’t been without their problems. People have received the TE stick with large scratches on the face of the stick and on the buttons, with some buttons not working at all, with the joystick not registering and some with stripped screws on the bottom panel. Some people believe that they have been shipped display units from various events. The kicker here is that most of these problems could probably be fixed by opening the stick up and readjusting a wire or plugging in a quick disconnect that was dislodged during shipping. The problem? Opening your stick voids the warranty, so if your problem is actually related to the Madcatz brand PCB…you’re screwed. So the only option is to get your brand new 150 dollar stick, test it out and if something is wrong with it; pay to have it shipped to Madcatz and wait for them to do something that might’ve only taken you a few minutes.

The SE isn’t without its problems either. People have received sticks that have buttons that don’t register, a joystick that doesn’t register and in some cases a joystick that has a piece of metal stuck to it that is wearing away the contacts every time it’s used. These are probably just quality control issues that will be ironed out after the initial rush to get these things into people’s hands is over, but what to do until then? Well, it’s times like these when it’s good to have the old standby…Hori.

For 360 users the only other viable option for a good arcade stick is the Hori Real Arcade Pro EX. Now there are some differences between this stick and the TE Madcatz stick. The first being that the Hori is actually available to be purchased. The other differences between the TE and the HRAP EX are the buttons (The TE comes with a Sanwa stick and Sanwa buttons, while the HRAP EX comes with a Sanwa stick and Hori buttons), turbo switches (which will only get you in trouble), the ability to switch between dpad, left stick and right stick, and the cord compartment. All of those things would be nice to have… but then again it would be nice to have the stick in the first damn place.

As far as price is concerned, the only way to get the HRAP EX is from Amazon.com. Here’s how the price would break down: The TE would be 150 from Amazon if and when they get it in. The HRAP EX is 130 dollars. If you are at the level where Hori buttons are just unacceptable to you, then 8 Sanwa buttons from lizardlick.com at 3 dollars a piece would be 24 dollars before shipping. So the HRAP EX is definitely going to cost a bit more for fewer features but at least you’ll have a stick to play all your fighting games with right now. Also, the longevity of the Madcatz PCB remains to be seen, while people have had HRAPs last for years.

This article isn’t meant to bash Madcatz; I do believe that they tried very hard to make a quality product. All of the problems right now are, in all probability, just because of the rush to get sticks to people. What’s more annoying than the fact that the sticks are arriving damaged or non functional, is how Madcatz has handled this entire release. They had Seth Killian doing video interviews about the sticks where he actively encouraged people to buy as many sticks as they could and put them on Ebay. To me, that doesn’t scream “Hey we care about our fans and we have measures in place to make sure everyone who is willing to give 150 dollars to a company that has released nothing but shit in the past will get this new piece of hardware”.

This whole situation reeks of drumming up hype and selling as many units as possible before word gets out that something is wrong with them. Remind you of a certain console? In the next couple of months, more people will have gotten the sticks and we’ll know more about how Madcatz handles the warranty as well as if the quality control steps it up a bit. I know that these have been marketed as limited. Initially they were said to be limited to 3000 but now no one can get a number from Madcatz. The bottom line is this; as long as there is a demand, these sticks will continue to be made. They may be a bit different down the road, they may not have the same artwork or color scheme. They may even come in a different box without the signed certificate, but no company is going to see a demand for a product like this and just stop making them.

If you have a stick already to play Street Fighter 4 with then by all means, wait it out. If you don’t have a stick, please don’t go and buy a Hori EX2 because it’s cheap. It’s cheap for a reason. If you want a stick now, that with a little modding (and by little I mean you unscrew a few screws, lift the top up, push the original buttons out and push the new ones in) will have the exact same arcade parts as the TE, order a Hori Real Arcade Pro EX.