Review :: Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 Tournament Edition Fightstick

I grew up in an era when arcades were long dead and the controller was king. I never had that experience of playing Street Fighter 2 in the arcade (which bums me out) and, because of this, I’ve only ever used a D-pad to play the very few fighting games that I do play.

I’ve never been great at fighting games. I’ve got a few combos at my disposal, but the majority of the time I’m just mashing buttons and hoping for the best. This is why I’m so attached to Marvel vs Capcom, I could mash the controller and make cool stuff happen. However, when MadCatz announced they were bringing out a new Fightstick for MvC3, I decided now was the time to finally grasp a joystick (Not like that! You lot are right dirty minded) and see what all the fuss was about.

Before I get to that, I’ve got to say, the stick itself is fantastic. The Tournament Edition has a real weight to it, which is something I didn’t expect. The stick is responsive and gives you great feedback when it comes to dead-zones. Unlike the stick, the buttons give next to no feedback. That satisfying ‘click’ response from the stick isn’t there and it felt like I wasn’t doing anything, that my frantic button pushing was paying no dividends. The buttons felt a little loose and was my only complaint with the overall Fightstick.

From a design perspective, the Fightstick is great. It’s a solid piece of kit that feels unlikely to break if dropped. A must if you’ve got your drunken, fighting game fanatic, mates around. The fact you can replace almost everything on the stick is great too (perhaps another set of buttons might solve my problem?), not that I’ll be messing around with this thing. It’s aesthetically pleasing too. The cable compartment on the back is a great feature if you’re keeping it ‘on display’, although there might be too much cable for that space. It’s a decent size and the MvC3 artwork on the faceplate is fantastic. Even the box is nice, so much so, that I’ve kept it hanging around when, normally, it would’ve been straight in the bin. (ED: This is not recommended for warranty sake and it’s a collector’s edition, you’d probably want to keep the box.)

Overall it’s a great piece of hardware that any fighting game fan would be proud to own. If you’ve never used a stick before, there’s definitely a learning curve. And because you’ve got a stick doesn’t mean you’ll always be kicking arse (trust me.) If you’ve got the spare cash and want a great stick, look no further. If you haven’t used one before, maybe go with the entry-level model. The TE is a little pricey.