Mad Catz has primarily been making fight sticks with the Capcom fighters in mind up to this point. And while they've been doing a fine job of that, Soulcalibur V has provided them with a prime opportunity to reach further in bringing arcade experiences into homes.
Their new Soulcalibur V Arcade Fightstick: SOUL Edition has all of the elements that make their other arcade-style controllers great. It's the same Sanwa hardware on the inside of the chassis and offers the same level of customization, whether you're replacing your buttons or the artwork.
The real difference lies in the layout of the controls. Mad Catz has endeavored to recreate the Namco design, which features attack buttons arranged in an arc instead of flat across. Additionally, the stick itself has been moved closer to the buttons to conform with their standard cabinet panel layout.
While I'm not a particularly active player of fighting games, I've always preferred the Namco arcade design over that of Capcom's. That's probably because I just wind up mashing buttons and having that little curve makes it easier to hit a bunch at once and feel like I'm doing something. For someone who actually knows what they're doing on a Tekken or Soulcalibur arcade machine, it's great to see Mad Catz deliver another solid product to take care of those players. The Arcade Fightstick: SOUL Edition stick will launch alongside Soulcalibur V when it drops at the end of this month.
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Contest:
3:00 PM on 01.14.2012 | 
I'd assume they're all the same parts as the Street Fighter sticks. Why change midstream?
If you really want to get some solid in depth info go check out soruken.com
They actually had all this madcatz info posted like 2-3 days ago with a great info video with a madcatz rep posted from gamespot.
As far as Sanwa, their considered the best parts by maaaaaany users thus any high end stick expect to see it have all sanwa parts.
*shoryuken.com
Seriously though, SC is one of the few fighter series where a lot (possibly the majority) of the best players are pad users.
Might change this gen with the emphasis on expanded character movement. I just hope it doesn't turn out to be another Tekken. I love Tekken, but I play SC to get a break from that style of play.
madcatz is okay but nothing special.
love the box though :P
I still want to get a better stick for 2D fighting games (that SFxT one does look mighty tasty...), but for Soul Calibur you'd have to be quite a masochist to us a stick.
"and you've got an instant leg up over anyone using a stick or a stock controller. "
I'd really like to hear an explanation to this. How does using a single thumb on a d-pad give you better precision and control over using your whole hand with a stick?
I was just referring to directionals because he was.
But given that than yes directions wouldn't be to big of a deal, that said I would say the stick is still gonna offer more precision when it comes to dial-a-combo as you can hit many more attack buttons on a stick waaaaaay faster and more precise than on a pad.
With a stick I can place all 5 of my finger OVER the buttons making attack button strings incredibly fluent and precise, think typing on a keyboard because its basically the same method. Where as on a pad you have to use your thumb to cover all 4 of the face buttons or 6 with most fight pads which is obviously more troublesome.
Though given the SC system I'm sure a pad would suffice but my point is why not play with a stick in SC? Acefibble actually said a pad would give you some sort of advantage and I'm really interested to know what that would be?
That said, I dont think this stick will take off, due to the fact that its has an irregular button layout, making it less convenient to play other games than with a nondescript stick.
The advantage may be the quicker reaction time for running, since you're less reliant on accuracy; your thumb moves faster than your wrist.