SoulCalibur II Universal Arcade Stick – GC – Review

The
soul burns brighter than ever with the Soul Calibur 2 Universal Arcade Stick.

Up
until recently, American gamers always seemed to get the short end of the
stick.  In Japan, Tekken, Soul Calibur and other major fighting games have had
unique or special edition joysticks.  Most of the time they were the exact same
joystick that had been selling in Japanese game shops for years, only now it
included a flashy picture of, say, Heihachi.  Such a stick would have been nice
to have in the States, as it is very hard (i.e., next to impossible) to find an
arcade stick that’s worth anything.  I mean it – I have tried several different
arcade sticks, and if it isn’t the buttons themselves that fail, it’s the
formation.  Or the shape of the stick, or the base, which is often clunky.

Finally
someone has changed all that.  Peripheral manufacturer Nuby Technology has
released the Soul Calibur 2 Universal Arcade Stick.  Intended for use with the
year’s biggest fighting game, Soul Calibur 2 (nearly one million copies sold!),
this universal stick works with all games (duh) and – surprise, surprise – all
three game consoles: Xbox, GameCube, and PS2.  And you don’t have to buy a
console converter either.  It works with each console right out of the box.

Like
most console joysticks, this one uses the traditional four-on-four button
layout.  What that means is that you’ve got four buttons on top (L1, SQUARE,
TRIANGLE, R1) and four buttons underneath (L2, X, CIRCLE, R2).  Each of these
buttons is labeled with three icons designating their function for each
console.  For example, the PlayStation 2 "X" button is the "A" button on Xbox
and GameCube.

This
layout is perfect for Tekken, Street Fighter or the Marvel Vs. Capcom games
since the buttons are already lined up exactly the same as their arcade
counterpart.  If you want to make the controls match those of the arcade layout
used for Soul Calibur 2, you’ll need to adjust the controls using the in-game
editor.  Then you can have it set up so that A, B and K (the attack buttons)
overlap G (guard), just as they do in the arcade.

Now
that you’re ready to game, you’ll be instantly impressed by the buttons.
They’re big (roughly the size of a quarter) and very firm.  They have that great
tappabiltiy that makes arcade buttons so…tappable.  Seriously, I’ve used
several game controllers and many joysticks that felt like they were broken
right out of the box.  The buttons felt sticky — you could depress them, but
would they come back up?  Maybe, maybe not.  It was always a guessing game.  If
you can’t press a button multiple times in a row, how can you expect to play a
frantic fighting game like Soul Calibur?  Those issues were clearly addressed
with this joystick.  To be honest, the buttons feel so sturdy I’m surprised it’s
third-party.  Third-party developers make great stuff, but this joystick is as
good as the one Nintendo made for the Super NES.

The
stick itself is also very, very sturdy, and is actually shaped correctly!  No
more gigantic ball-shaped sticks to grab onto – this one has that comfortable
semi-oval shape that arcade games began using in the early 90s.  I wouldn’t pull
on it with all my might, but it’s easy to tell that the stick can put up with an
extreme amount of usage.

The
base of the Soul Calibur 2 Universal Arcade Stick is – do I even have to say it?
– also very sturdy.  The hard plastic doesn’t appear to be that thick, but it’s
hard enough to last, and comfortable enough to rest your hands on.  It’s
slightly curved and has rubber where your wrists will presumably rest (you know,
when you aren’t trying to win by frantically pressing every button in sight!).
The rubber wasn’t necessary, but it certainly didn’t hurt the stick at all.  Now
that I’ve used a stick with rubber I wouldn’t want to have one without it.

For
cheat freaks, the Soul Calibur 2 Universal Arcade Stick includes the usual Turbo
and Program button features.  You can make it so that several functions can be
executed with the press of only one button, or you can use Turbo to add some
auto-fire-like effects to your games.  This isn’t the kind of thing I use very
often, but some gamers do, and I’m not one to turn down extra features.  The
more, the better.

Normally I might say something like, "If you love Soul Calibur 2, buy this
arcade stick."  The thing is, you don’t have to love Soul Calibur 2 to love this
stick.  If you love any fighting game at all, then you probably wish you had an
arcade stick that emulated arcade play.  This is the best one to buy for that.

Of
course, given the name of this product – the Soul Calibur 2 Universal Arcade
Stick – it’s unlikely that you’d bother reading this review if you didn’t
already love the game that it was made for.  That said, you must buy this stick
right away.  You can’t take your game to the next level without it.  And even
though the soul will never stop burning, it’ll burn a lot brighter if you have
that classic, unforgettable arcade feel to go along with it.  This game started
in the arcade, and regardless of which platform the series lands on next, the
gameplay should never provide anything less than a true arcade experience.

Pros:

• Works
  on EVERY game console – Xbox, GameCube and PlayStation 2!
• Sturdy
  base, durable buttons, excellent feel
• 
  Programmable buttons
• Turbo
  feature

Cons:

• 
  Could use a longer cord

Overall:   9.0