Are the SF Anniversary Controllers Any Good?

[Kazuya_UK]

Thanks guys, I would appreciate it if you did. I don't think anyone has ever purchased anything after going through that link actually... ah well . If I make a few $'s then it will go towards hosting of the site anyways ;D

If you do, use this link:

www.lik-sang.com/default.php?lsaid=220797

Cheers,
Kaz

[MitchMF]

Righty, played with one in the shop....well I made them get one out.
I do spend lots in there so.....
I like um. There very responsive & just feel ergonomic

My faves the ken one, it's a whole flame thing I think ;D

[Yeton]

Kaz: Sorry, I didn't buy from Liksang in the end: I got impatient and managed to hunt the SF Anniversary controller down in Gamestation during my lunch hour after speaking to someone in Game (who didn't have a clue what I was talking about) and then speaking to someone in Virgin (who, bizarrely, knew EXACTLY what I was talking about, but she said I couldn't order one into their store cos only a limited stock has been allocated to the larger key stores dotted around the UK). The D-pad seemed very bouncy with lots of movement, which had me woried at first, but then I remembered way back to when I bought a Megadrive 2 pad to play SF2 on back in 1993, and I had the same concerns, which were totally unfounded. I've since had a rumble on Virtua Fighter 4, and can say that the pad is superb: comfortable (and quite chunky), accurate and responsive. I can do all those moves cancelled from crouch dashes that had given me such a headache on the PS2 pads - in fact the fire buttons seem maybe slightly more responsive than the PS2 pad too, although it could be my imagination, as I can pull off Akira's Palm into dashing elbow far more consistently! The pad is at least as good as the Japanese-style Saturn controllers that I love so much, if not better, as they solve a couple of minor niggles I felt they had, like the funny feel of the shoulder buttons and the 2 rows of buttons being a different shape (making hitting, say, the X and A buttons at the same time with the same finger a ball ache). I've tried the controller on KOF2000, and can report it's as good as any other digital controller I've played KOF with (DC pads, DC arcade stick, Saturn pad, PS pads). For some reason playing Tekken 3 with it doesn't feel right ... maybe it's because I've played the series for 9 years on a normal PS pad? Anyway, Tekken never really suffered when using a normal PS pad. My only gripe is the Ryu controller has a bright red cord, which stands out a mile from my PS2 that sits shrouded by shadows beneath my TV. Oops. I could have gotten an Akuma pad (I reckon that black/red colour scheme is a little cooler), but I just felt that a break from the PS2's black colour scheme was in order! One last thing though: the packaging freaking is excellent too!

[Yeton]

Whoa, wait ... further play has revealed a fault ... I noticed a very funny problem on my pad, and I was wondering if anyone else suffered the same thing or if it's just mine that's knackered: the d-pad seems slightly innaccurate on the right side, whereas the left side is perfectly precise! For example, try playing a Street Fighter game and doing Dragon Punches over and over, I can do them forever on the 2P side (facing left), but from 1p side (and so facing the other direction) I find that I often fluff them and end up fireballing. It is most definately NOT me ( ), but the pad itself! Similiar things occur in KOF2000, and in Virtua Fighter I often do a diagonal move instead of pressing directly right. Does anyone else have this same problem (meaning that it is a design fault)?

[Kazuya_UK]

Yeton said:

Whoa, wait ... further play has revealed a fault ... I noticed a very funny problem on my pad, and I was wondering if anyone else suffered the same thing or if it's just mine that's knackered: the d-pad seems slightly innaccurate on the right side, whereas the left side is perfectly precise! For example, try playing a Street Fighter game and doing Dragon Punches over and over, I can do them forever on the 2P side (facing left), but from 1p side (and so facing the other direction) I find that I often fluff them and end up fireballing. It is most definately NOT me ( ), but the pad itself! Similiar things occur in KOF2000, and in Virtua Fighter I often do a diagonal move instead of pressing directly right. Does anyone else have this same problem (meaning that it is a design fault)?

Interesting... I'm ordering some of these next week, so I'll let you know if I have any probs on mine. Might be worth going back to Gamestation and exchanging it for a new one justto be on the safe side?

Kaz

[Yeton]

I'll give you the lowdown: I took it back to the shop, talked about with the shop assistants, who basically saw I was a man who knew his fighting games, and we tested out a couple of the pads over a game of KOF2000 to see what the score was wrong. It wasn't the best test, as I'd wanted Virtua Fighter or Street Fighter, but they didn't have a copy, and my 10 minute mess around wasn't too conclusive. They were very accomodating though, and let me have a replacement, but thought I was being a nitpicking sod, lol (I was!). Now, my replacement is an interesting beast: initial tests showed it was stiffer than the first, and (now get this) the problem was now with the left side of the pad!!! Well, overall it is still more manageable than the first pad, and I only fluff moves down the left side once in a blue moon (sometimes pressing left comes out with down+left if you hit it a bit too low), so decided to keep this one. The tightness down the right means that doing diagonals was a bit tough at first, but it is starting to loosen up a little after I did some hardcore blasting out of Akira combos on it! Overall, it allows me to do tricks that were otherwise impossible on the PS2 pad. Do let me know if you notice the same problem with the d-pad though!

Out of curiousity, how much did the NG stick cost you, including postage (I'm assuming you got it via Liksang)?

[Harv]

Yeton said:

(and I most definately am NOT picking up that joke of a game called Capcom Fighting Jam) Yep, I got that the other day and it sucks!! That'll be a trade in I think!!