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(More customer reviews)For serious fighting game fans, a decent stick is a key part of your arsenal. However, the parts and construction generally used to make up consumer-grade sticks, especially in the US where Arcades are more or less dead, have almost universally been of sub-par quality when compared to the real thing you find attached to arcade cabinets.
This makes sense, of course. Arcade components are designed to withstand full-scale assaults every day all day; it's a safe assumption that something bought for home use isn't going to go through the kind of abuse you'd expect an arcade machine to go through. On top of that, constructing something out of industrial-strength arcade parts ain't cheap. Who's going to pay over $100 for a game controller?
Well, as it turns out, a lot of people. Left with no other solution, fighter fans who want the genuine article have traditionally turned to simply making their own sticks. You buy the parts from a japanese manufacturer like Sanwa or Seimitsu, plot out where the holes are going to go on a chunk of wood, and drill and solder and screw your way to perfection. This approach, however, is expensive, time consuming, and requires some level of expertise to pull off correctly.
The other approach was to wait for a Japanese company to produce one of their factory sticks (usually in extremely limited numbers), put them up for sale in Japan, and pay through the nose to import. While this was a lot easier than buying your own parts, you always wound up paying some kind of premium. $200+ was not uncommon to own one of these things.
We're at the point now, however, where the industry has gotten large enough that you can just up and buy these things on Amazon.com now. My sincere recommendation, if you're at all interested in owning a stick, is that you bite the bullet and shell out the money for a good one. Once you pass a certain threshold in quality with these sticks, you enter the realm of specialized consumer electronics that are made to specifications without regard to your average user.
The HRAP3 is one such stick. This thing is designed from the ground up with the assumption that the only people who are going to buy it are serious connoisseurs, so damn the price, let's make it properly.
If you're not a SERIOUS serious stick person and are just getting into the swing of things, here's all you need to know: This is one of the best high-end sticks money can buy, and it will last you a decade or more. These are extremely durable, very responsive, and have a very well-defined functionality about them that you won't get from cheaper products. Yeah, they're expensive, but honestly? You're getting your money's worth and that will become apparent the instant you use this stick. Buy it, be happy.
As an aside, this stick has a USB lead and will also work with your PC out of the box (just hold the HOME button for 5 straight seconds upon plugging it in). This is absolutely perfect for emulators like MAME, or any other PC game you wish to play with an arcade stick.
That out of the way...
Okay, let's assume you're a serious stick person. Here's a more in-depth rundown:
The stick itself is a Sanwa with a square gate, and the buttons are all Hori. This isn't bad, but the good news is that they're all attached with a quick-detach lead and can be popped loose with a screwdriver easily, no solder required. If you want to go the serious route and swap the buttons for Sanwa and the stick for Seimitsu, this stick will let you do it pretty easily. Google has many picture tutorials to do this.
I replaced the gate with a Sanwa Octagon (I like Sanwa sticks but a lot of people prefer Seimitsu) and all the buttons with Sanwa. It took about 10 minutes and was completely painless.
If you do this, you have a stick that is officially on par with the Street Fighter IV TE stick (also made with all Sanwa parts) and the special import-only editions of the HRAP, but it is much cheaper to buy this one and do a little surgery than buy the factory-stock ones that come with Sanwa. This is a lovely medium ground between building your own and buying a factory made one; you get some level of customization, you're saving a little money, and you're still getting full-on arcade quality. Go for it.
I hope this review helped!
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Product Description:
*Hi-end next generation arcade style controller. *Turbo (20times/sec) function can be set up on all buttons. *Withtoggle switch, the stick control can be directed to PS3 controller's directional pad, left stick, or right stick controls. *The 8 main buttonds are designed and placed on same layout as the arcades. *Recommended for fighting, action, shooting, FPS, and other games that are available through PlayStation Network.
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