Game review: Wii-U arcade fight stick

During my childhood, I spent my week’s pocket money down my local arcade every week because of the games’ high quality and superb controls, and with their beautifully decorated cabinets.

However it turned out to be quite an expensive gig in the long term, leaving me wishing I could take an arcade machine home to play whenever I wanted.

Fast forward to today and my wish has finally come true and I didn’t even have to win the lottery thanks to the creation of the Arcade fight stick, but I’m not talking about the older ones,

Mad Catz has released the very first fight stick to be released on the Wii-U to complement the release of one of the best launch titles and fighting games ever created Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Wii-U Edition.

The premise of this fight stick is exactly like the kind of control scheme you would find at your local arcade.

You have a joystick and 8 face buttons next to it with two on the top of the main unit which are the Wii-U’s + and – buttons featured on the standard controller.

Also positioned at the top left corner of the stick, you will find a small panel containing a rapid fire toggle button, the Wii-U’s home button and two flick switches to toggle different button layouts.

Also beside the + and – buttons is a flip lid compartment that houses the lead and connection that connects into a standard Wii remote via the nunchuck port.

The buttons and stick are nicely placed and succeeds in giving you the arcade style feel.

The buttons are large and coloured in two different colours to help identify which button you are pressing at a glance.

The disappointing thing about the design of the fight stick was that when a Wii remote is connected, you have to leave it dangling or if you are on a flat surface, laid above the main unit.

It would have been nice to have the lead compartment big enough to place the Wii remote inside.