SoulCalibur II Universal Arcade Stick

The soul burns brighter than ever with the Soul Calibur 2 Universal Arcade Stick.

Up until recently, American gamers always seemed to get the short end of the stick.  In Japan, Tekken, Soul Calibur and other major fighting games have had unique or special edition joysticks.  Most of the time they were the exact same joystick that had been selling in Japanese game shops for years, only now it included a flashy picture of, say, Heihachi.  Such a stick would have been nice to have in the States, as it is very hard (i.e., next to impossible) to find an arcade stick that's worth anything.  I mean it – I have tried several different arcade sticks, and if it isn't the buttons themselves that fail, it's the formation.  Or the shape of the stick, or the base, which is often clunky.

Finally someone has changed all that.  Peripheral manufacturer Nuby Technology has released the Soul Calibur 2 Universal Arcade Stick.  Intended for use with the year's biggest fighting game, Soul Calibur 2 (nearly one million copies sold!), this universal stick works with all games (duh) and – surprise, surprise – all three game consoles: Xbox, GameCube, and PS2.  And you don't have to buy a console converter either.  It works with each console right out of the box.

Like most console joysticks, this one uses the traditional four-on-four button layout.  What that means is that you've got four buttons on top (L1, SQUARE, TRIANGLE, R1) and four buttons underneath (L2, X, CIRCLE, R2).  Each of these buttons is labeled with three icons designating their function for each console.  For example, the PlayStation 2 "X" button is the "A" button on Xbox and GameCube.

This layout is perfect for Tekken, Street Fighter or the Marvel Vs. Capcom games since the buttons are already lined up exactly the same as their arcade counterpart.  If you want to make the controls match those of the arcade layout used for Soul Calibur 2, you'll need to adjust the controls using the in-game editor.  Then you can have it set up so that A, B and K (the attack buttons) overlap G (guard), just as they do in the arcade.

Now that you're ready to game, you'll be instantly impressed by the buttons.  They're big (roughly the size of a quarter) and very firm.  They have that great tappabiltiy that makes arcade buttons so...tappable.  Seriously, I've used several game controllers and many joysticks that felt like they were broken right out of the box.  The buttons felt sticky -- you could depress them, but would they come back up?  Maybe, maybe not.  It was always a guessing game.  If you can't press a button multiple times in a row, how can you expect to play a frantic fighting game like Soul Calibur?  Those issues were clearly addressed with this joystick.  To be honest, the buttons feel so sturdy I'm surprised it's third-party.  Third-party developers make great stuff, but this joystick is as good as the one Nintendo made for the Super NES.

The stick itself is also very, very sturdy, and is actually shaped correctly!  No more gigantic ball-shaped sticks to grab onto – this one has that comfortable semi-oval shape that arcade games began using in the early 90s.  I wouldn't pull on it with all my might, but it's easy to tell that the stick can put up with an extreme amount of usage.

The base of the Soul Calibur 2 Universal Arcade Stick is – do I even have to say it? – also very sturdy.  The hard plastic doesn't appear to be that thick, but it's hard enough to last, and comfortable enough to rest your hands on.  It's slightly curved and has rubber where your wrists will presumably rest (you know, when you aren't trying to win by frantically pressing every button in sight!).  The rubber wasn't necessary, but it certainly didn't hurt the stick at all.  Now that I've used a stick with rubber I wouldn't want to have one without it.

For cheat freaks, the Soul Calibur 2 Universal Arcade Stick includes the usual Turbo and Program button features.  You can make it so that several functions can be executed with the press of only one button, or you can use Turbo to add some auto-fire-like effects to your games.  This isn't the kind of thing I use very often, but some gamers do, and I'm not one to turn down extra features.  The more, the better.

Normally I might say something like, "If you love Soul Calibur 2, buy this arcade stick."  The thing is, you don't have to love Soul Calibur 2 to love this stick.  If you love any fighting game at all, then you probably wish you had an arcade stick that emulated arcade play.  This is the best one to buy for that.

Of course, given the name of this product – the Soul Calibur 2 Universal Arcade Stick – it's unlikely that you'd bother reading this review if you didn't already love the game that it was made for.  That said, you must buy this stick right away.  You can't take your game to the next level without it.  And even though the soul will never stop burning, it'll burn a lot brighter if you have that classic, unforgettable arcade feel to go along with it.  This game started in the arcade, and regardless of which platform the series lands on next, the gameplay should never provide anything less than a true arcade experience.

Pros:

• Works on EVERY game console – Xbox, GameCube and PlayStation 2!
• Sturdy base, durable buttons, excellent feel
• Programmable buttons
• Turbo feature

Cons:

• Could use a longer cord

Overall:   9.0