Review: Mad Catz Arcade FightStick

US$200, madcatz.com

Crafted by Japan’s arcade gaming experts this is an Xbox One peripheral with cred

As there’s only one Xbox One fighting game at present –

KillerInstinct – this peripheral that’s built for arcade brawling on a next-gen level is the definition of a niche product.

love Great build quality. Customisable buttons and design hate Only one fighting game to play. No headset input T3 says The best stick out there, although the fighting genre is seriously limited on Xbox One

But it’s a niche product that boasts some real credibility, with the stick and buttons both made by Tokyo-based Sanwa, the supplier of parts for the country’s still-popular arcade cabinets. You can feel the quality as soon as you start playing. Hugely customisable, the stick comes with a screwdriver so that you can open it up and replace or repair the buttons, print out and add your own artwork, or store other tools inside. Technically, it will work with any game controlled by a D-pad, but it’s clearly tuned and intended to work with fast-fingered fighting games.

We’d like it to be compatible with consoles other than Xbox One – even just backwards compatibility with Xbox 360 would help – and it’s worth noting that the FightStick doesn’t have a socket for a headset, so you’re dependent on Kinect if you want to talk to people online. That last one’s a particularly strange omission considering how popular multiplayer is in the fighting genre.

There are some neat touches here, like the lock mechanism that disables the navigational buttons to stop you interrupting play accidentally, but until there are more games to play this, sadly, is unlikely to score a KO.