Posted by Goliat on 24, 2001 at 2:12 PM:
I have been reading the discussion about the superiority of Japanese arcade controls at the Shoryuken forums. Now I'm not so sure if I should order Happ sticks and buttons, since so many people agree that they are rubbish for good performance in gameplay. I'm not that kind of person that abuses of my joystick and smash buttons, and the conclussion of that debate is that the only advantage of US controls is their strenght and durability. I own a Namco Arcade stick, and I have always considered it as inferior to the controls I've tried at the arcades (US cabinets). For instance, the pushhbuttons are almost flat, and leaf style, but very sensitive, very much like the japanese buttons described in those posts. I considered that my Namco Arcade Stick has this kind of buttons because they're cheaper than microswitched pushbuttons, but, knowing the differences between US and japanese controls, I guess that's not the reason. In fact, they are very quick and precise, even though you don't hear any click when you push them. On the other hand, the stick in this joystick is not like the japanese sticks described in the forum. It's short and ball style, but its rage of movement is a bit long. For what I've read, the biggest advantage of Japanese sticks is that they're very precise (short range) and don't need any effort to move them. The point is that I would like to try before I buy. My question is: can these arcade joysticks be found in our arcade galleries? I have seen some cabinets for japanese games. Eg: Naomi stand up cabinet with Virtua Tennis, or the 50' sit down cabinet with Tekken3. These models feature ball sticks, very simmilar actually to my Namco Arcade Stick, but I'm not sure if these sticks are exactly the acclaimed japanese sticks that everybody is now talking about.