Hori has been known as a top name in the arcade fight stick scene for a while now. Unfortunately, my first experience with Hori products was awful. My Hori EX 2 broke within an hour of owning it, which I fully documented on this very blog.
So it was fair that I was a bit hesitant in picking up this limited edition Tekken 6 bundle that comes with a Hori stick. If I wasn’t able to buy this for 60% off the original price, I probably wouldn’t have given this a shot.
I wanted this bundle not so much for Tekken, but for a second joystick. I don’t need a high-end or high-priced Mad Catz TE stick, since my brother (who will be using it mostly) isn’t a fight stick connoisseur. Entry level sticks are even harder to find than top-quality sticks, because the demand for entry level sticks isn’t there. Outside of Hori, there isn’t much to choose from in this category, unless you’re willing to roll the dice with something like this.
The moment you hold the thing, you realize how light it is. I’m reluctant to say it feels cheap, because it appears to be well built for what it is. However, it feels like its a quarter of the weight of a Mad Catz TE. Depending on what you’re looking for in a stick, this could go one of two ways. One, you want a lightweight stick because it’s easier to carry it around. Or two, you want a heavier stick so that it doesn’t slide around on your lap or other surface. The Tekken stick did not move on my lap as much as the EX 2 does, but it never felt quite solid enough on my lap or on a surface. For me, I don’t think this accounted for any messed up inputs, but I was constantly thinking it would as I was using it, which may bug you more than it did for me.
The other major element of this controller that you’ll notice is that it’s wireless. As far as I know, this is the only wireless fight stick on the XBOX 360. Some purists fear that wireless controllers feature lag, but I’ve never noticed anything using this Hori stick. It runs off of batteries and I’ve heard it has a battery life of 40 hours, which sounds great.
Between my brother and I, we’ve put in a few hours into it, which automatically makes it better than our EX 2 experience because it’s still not broken. Overall, I thought it worked really well. The stick has an octagonal gate out of the box, which is great for players who only want to play with Japanese joysticks. The button layout swoops down more dramatically than the TE, which will take me time to get used to. If you’re comfortable with this layout, you’ll be fine. During my time with it thus far, I was just as competent with this as I was with the TE once I got used to the different joystick and button layouts.
Overall, I feel like this stick is a bit better than the Hori EX 2, but it won’t blow your mind if you’ve been spoiled by a Hori Real Arcade Pro or Mad Catz TE stick. It’s light weight make it good for traveling and the build quality is good enough for the average player (or new player) to get by.
This bundle is hard to recommend at regular price at this point in time. Since the price of Tekken 6 has dropped so dramatically, it would be cheaper to buy Tekken 6 and a Hori EX 2 separately. However, most retailers have this on sale now, so shop wisely if you’re looking to pick this up.
In Third Person 