« Mad Catz Tournament Edition Fight Stick Round 2 Review »

 

Before Mad Catz unleashed their line of Tournament Edition Fight Sticks in February 2009, no one ever thought that a consumer arcade stick could cause mass retail hysteria. Discussions on how to properly modify the equipment and artwork of your stick were regulated to only the most hardcore of fighting enthusiast message boards and most US gamers probably thought “Sanwa” was a specialty brand of Top Ramen. The Tournament Edition Fight Stick changed the face of the game completely and whether its the local tournament crowd of anywhere, USA, or beasts from another land such as Daigo Umehara, chances are good that if you’re playing a fighting game on a modern system, you’re doing so on a Mad Catz.

Since that time Mad Catz has repackaged the Tournament Edition stick in both limited edition and retail forms, and is once again dipping back into their lucrative well with the release of the Street Fighter IV Tournament Edition Fight Stick Round 2. It retails for the same price of the original TE at $149.99 and should be available in stores by the time you read this review.

The number one question is, of course, what’s the difference between the Round 2 Fight Stick and the one you already dropped $150 bones on last year? Not much, to be honest. The Round 2 still features the same solid construction, genuine Sanwa Denshi parts and the ease of customization that made the original TE the most widely adopted arcade stick since the glory days of the MAS. As far as I can tell, all the changes in the Round 2 are purely cosmetic, and in my opinion, for the better.

The surface art is a huge improvement over the original’s hokey, if not utterly generic look, opting for a much more subtle black-on-black approach on an official Street Fighter IV promo piece.  An all-black base compliments this serious look, though the dark-red bezel of the original Tournament Edition remains. All of this is subjective of course and a good number of owners will most likely make their own modifications to Mad Catz’ design, but out of the box, Round 2 is infinitely more appealing than the first.

Of course, first impressions aren’t everything, so I went ahead and cracked open my original, launch day Tournament Edition while a friend brought his exclusive San Diego ComicCon TE over for inspection, and compared the two sticks to the Round 2. Unsurprisingly, there were no differences to the naked eye.   

The true test of any good arcade stick, however, is how it performs and as expected, the Round 2 executes beautifully. Fresh out of the box, the Tournament Edition Round 2 outperforms every other consumer stick on the open market. The sensitive Sanwa buttons coupled with the sturdy base of the TE makes for very satisfying play, especially when you’re really hammering down to nail more precision-based techniques, and when it comes to fighters, nothing beats a Sanwa stick. It may last year’s model under the hood, but there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.

On the other hand that’s also the biggest knock against the Tournament Edition Round 2: it’s last year’s model. While it’s difficult to think of any substantial improvements that could be made to its design, other than to make one definitive stick that’s compatible with both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, there’s still no reason to be particularly excited about its release as it doesn’t offer anything more than a new paint job.

For those who are looking to upgrade from their Tournament Edition stick, you’d be much better off ordering new sticks and buttons from one of the many reliable online retailers and doing it yourself. But for those who have been either on the fence about making the investment, or simply wanting to put it on their holiday wish list, do not hesitate: the Tournament Edition Fight Stick Round 2 is still the best arcade stick on the market today.