Think fast – - outside of the Neo Geo and the Japanese Sega Saturn, how many consoles comes bundled with an excellent controller that’s conducive to a robust fighting experience? None, most likely.
I’ll be honest, this post was born from a desire to find a controller that wouldn’t work against me as I crafted combos in King of Fighters XII. Fighting fans almost uniformly agree that the Xbox 360′s gamepad is an abomination; it’s brick thick, and the start button is placed too closely to the “X” button, resulting in accidental pauses when you should be tossing jabs and soft fireballs. In fact, only the Dreamcast’s bloated controller is worse.
Enter: MadCatz’ Blanka 360 FightPad, created in celebration of Street Fighter’s 20th anniversary and the release of Street Fighter IV. Upon picking it up I immediately noticed two things: First, it’s thinner than the standard Xbox 360 controller, but keeps a good amount of width, making it perfect for lion-pawed gamers. Second, it’s wired. Fortunately, MadCatz built in a cable that’s nearly 10 feet long, so you don’t have to park yourself directly in front of the console to play.
The face of the controller has the expected X, A, Y, and B buttons, but adds two more: RB and RT. LB and LT are moved to the top of the gamepad. The buttons are nicely spaced, and provided adequate feedback when I busted out Kensou combos, but they felt a hair hollow; I would’ve much preferred buttons with more meat. On the plus side, the turbo, back, dashboard, and start buttons are stashed out of the way toward the bottom of the pad, so I didn’t endure any mis-presses while in the heat of battle. I really dug the rubber on the back and sides of the FightPad, which ensures a firm grip. The artwork doesn’t do anything for me, but I can see some folks digging it.
The large 8-way D-pad executed near flawlessly when laying down the law down online, but i had a bit of trouble executing Joe’s HCF x 2 Tornado super. It wasn’t due to the pad not registering the input, but due to me having to make a bigger HCF movement due to the increased size of the D-pad. Even after a few hours of intense fighting action, I had to consciously and deliberately make the move, but I’m sure that will disappear in time. A handy switch on the back can alternately switch the D-pad to a left or right stick, and a headset port resides on the controller’s bottom for those time when you long to talk smack.
Priced at $40, the MadCatz Street Fighter IV Blanka Fightpad is a solid controller, albeit one that’s a tad overpriced. True fight fans would probably want to opt for a stick for the ultimate arcade experience, but those tend to run for at least twice as much as this bad boy. Still, MadCatz’ offering is a very nice step up from the Xbox 360′s bundled monster, so if you’re in a pinch for a good controller, this one is recommended.
