The fighting game 🥂genre is one of the oldest types of video games around, and they're only ever-growing in popularity. Since the dawn of arcade machines, fans of the genre have grown near and dear to the old-school controller schemes of big buttons and a protruding joystick.
Now that home consoles are far more maꩵinstream, most modern fighting games incorporate the usage of "standard" controllers, causing difficulty and confusion of which option is best. For these ten fan favorites, what games are worth shelling out the extra cash for a fancy joystick?
10 ꦗ ꩲ Joystick: Street Fighter
As the pioneer of the fighting game genre, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Street Fighter defined the experi🐷ence of duking it out with your friends at the local arcades and still remains as a prevalent title even as arcades fizzle out and home consoles dominate the market. The game was entirely built around the control scheme of arcade machines, so it only makes sense for a joystick to be the prime choice for high octane street fighting.
Playing with a standard controller proves to be way more challenging, as the usual buꦡtton layouts make it far more difficult to pull off combos and super moves. Modern titles still give the option to use them, of course, but investing in a fight-stick is a must for anyone looking to come become the next EVO champ.
9 Controller: Leth🎀al League
Baseball…? A fighting game…? This strange mix of archetypes works surprisingly well and makes for a one-of-a-kind, literal balls-to-the-wall experience. The gꦡame has a pretty simple control scheme with movement, swinging, bunting, and grabbing.
Because of its simplistic nature, any control scheme will work just fine, but pla♔ying with a controller makes it feel like it was definitely built to suit it more. Although, mashing the life out of a big arcade-style button while in the middle of a long, time-shattering voll𝓰ey isn't half bad.
8 ꦺ 🌺 Joystick: Marvel Vs. Capcom
This of the century is not only an ongoing series with a huge dedicated fan base, but it suffered from the other games in the genre at the time for implementing an extremely fast, team-based combat system. Like Street Fighter and Tekken, arcades were the go-to location to use Ryu, Captain America, and Mega Man to show your friends who's b🔯oss.
Big arcade buttons are a great choice to compliment the more fast-paced nature of the game, and you’re able to quickly pull off your g💧round and air combos with more ease than the smaller, more cramped face buttons on a controller.
7 Controll🐲er: Dragon Ball FighterZ
“Why?”, you might ask, “it’s essentially Marvel Vs. Capcom with 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dragon Ball characters, so why is ♚a controller a better option?”. Watching tournament matches will show a fairly even split between those who use pad or stick, so the difference is pretty much up to personal preference.
But, the Instant Air Dash mechanic is the biggest elephant in the room for deciding your means of play, as it is usually considered far easiꦛer to do on a normal controller since the joystick is far smaller and more efficient for quick and precise movements. It all comes down to preference on this one, and the strength and speed of your battle-hardened hands.
6 Joystick: Soul Calibur 🍷 🏅
As one of the earlier emergences of a 3D fighter, Soul Calibur has a very unique style of gameplay that is very much suited to traditional control schemes. Most games that premier in arcades tend to fair better with their original controls and Soul Calibur is no different.
Strafing ꦗback and forth and playing footsies with your opponent definitely feels better with a joystick, and the game's multitude of different attacking options fairs better with a joystick's button layout🦩.
5 🦩 Controller: Super Smash Bros.
Playing Smash with a stick is...an odd experience, to say the least. Ever since the release of Super Smash Bros. Melee in 2001, the majority of the community favors the usage of Gamecube controllers for their optimal button layout, as it feels like the controller is perfect for Smash.
The button sizes feel all too right for what they were intended to do, and other controllers just don’t live up to the same standard and legacy. Joysticks are typically used for traditional fighters, and Smash is about as far from those traditions as it gets. While Ryu, Ken, and Terry all play more akin to their respective games, it d🍰oesn’t change just how awkward a jo🐼ystick feels.
4 🌳 ꧃ Joystick: Guilty Gear
Guilty Gear is another 2D fighti𒁃ng series with a big emphasis on speed and combos, and the controller benefits have become more narrow when looking at more modern titles. This series does a great job at making pad-warriors not feel left out, but joysticks still have their advantages for most 2D fighters.
When executing attack cancels and complicated ♑supers, the flexibility of a joystick and their button layouts usually come out on top in terms of pure execution, but both are a fine choice. These communities will usually point you in the direction of a joystick, but it's equally important to use what you have fun with.
3 Controller: Rivals of Aether ﷽
As a heavily Smash Bros. inspired game, it only makes sense for 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Rivals of Aether to follow suit ༒in terms of controller options. Hell, it even has officia🧸l support for Gamecube controller adapters, which are used by most players.
Rivals is actually more controller dependent than newer Smash games are, as, like in Melee, Wavedashing is a vital mechanic for moving around the stage and it becomes far more difficult on a traditional joystick. It isn’t impossible by any means, but you’ll probably get the same confused stares as if you walked into a Smash tournament with your decked-out fightstick.
2 Joystick: T🎃ekken
Tekken is certainly an old-school classic, and it'll forever retain that timeless difficulty. Tekken c✱an be extremely dau🐲nting to newer players with the sheer amount of attack combinations and move lists to memorize, and playing on a controller seems like a self-inflicted obstacle.
It isn't undoable by any means, but the 6-button layout of a joystick is all too perfect for the way Tekken plays, as well as complimenting its movement syst🅺em pretty well. This game se🐼ries was built around arcade-style gameplay, and it'll forever feel like it belongs right at home on a huge arcade machine.
1 🌸 Controller: Divekick
While most fighting games use four or six different buttons for attacks, Divekick only u🌸ses two. Players are given the choice of either jumping (referred﷽ to as "Dive" in-game) or kicking, obviously.
Divekick is a rare instance where a joystick may be uncomfortable compar𝓰ed to a regular controller. The quick, frantic gameplay combined with the dual button control scheme leads ༒to a game that’s optimized for speedy, pass 'n play action.