So usually when one purchases himself an arcade stick for the price equivalent to a small child, you think he bought it for his profound desire to perfect some sort of Street Fighter character. But today I wanted to try something different.
What if an arcade stick was used to play… Arcade Games.
Now settle back down, this moment of madness makes sense to some degree. There are plenty of games on the Arcade well suited to this device and in some twisted way I thought I could justify an arcade stick for more than just fighters. I’ve seen a few shops sell small arcade-like joypads but in reality, if your gonna do it, do it right. I switched the Xbox 360 to green lights mode, strapped on (easy now) my Hori EX2 and went through a selection of my Arcade games.
Here are some of the results:
Bomberman: Bomberman played well. No more clunky D-pad for those elusive seconds to get around the corner. I’d imagine any game that involved the D-Pad will be greatly improved with the stick. This works better that the L Stick from the pad too. More accurate.
Castle Crashers/Teenage Ninja Muntant Ninja Turtles 1989: Ahh now this is what arcade sticks were made for! Granted CC has little more than hack and slash but when pulling off magic, buttons are fluid and button bashing feels good. Took me a split second to remember controls for the game but once used to it again, I considered the controls well laid out. Very enjoyable. Ninja Turtles is a blast from the positive past when using the arcade stick as well. Of course all you need is one button but then it was the same arcade button I was mashing in the early 90’s.
Puzzle Games (Lumines/Puzzle Quest/Hexic ): Their controls are simplistic and work a treat. For me the issue with a 360 pad when playing these games is the left stick can skip to far left or right and the D-Pad can feel quite clunky at (most) times giving the same effect as the stick. With the Arcade stick you know that one click means one move either side.
Duke Nukem: Doesn’t work for this game. Damn Left Stick.
I think overall the arcade stick is quite useful if your looking to take on many high scores with great accuracy. Having side scrolling beat ’em ups and an arcade stick also gives a great sense of nostalgia that mashing big round buttons can only give. Also bear in mind that I haven’t tested shooters like Ikaruga that were made for sticks like this. I can only imagine Ikaruga could be well handled on an arcade stick.
Just don’t play Duke Nukem with it. Ever. Because you can’t.
:'(
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