One of the many things you find while playing games, aside from occasional abandonment of other projects, is that, for some games, the controller itself can have a major impact on not just how you play, but how well you do. The first genre of games that one should think about is fighting. Games like Soul Calibur, Virtua Fighter, and Tekken all have different gameplay mechanics depending on the controller being used. It's widely known, especially within each community, that controllers like the PS2 Dual-Shock 2, or the PS3's controller, are not very practical for such games. Let's leave that aside, for now, as I will cover that more in-depth later.

There's another genre where the controller can affect gameplay performance: First Person Shooters. The dual-shock controller is a very good controller for this kind of game, though there are better. I believe the XBox controller is widely touted as the best FPS controller around. The problem herein lies that, what if someone wanted to use said controller on a system like the PS3 for games like Resistance: Fall of Man? There are conversion utilities, though in this case, I'd be willing to take the dual-shock design, given that's what I'm familiar with.

There are many other situations where the controller will affect how the game plays and how well you do. Take games like Dance Dance Revolution or Guitar Hero. Each have their own custom controllers. Does it mean you have to use them? Not necessarily, but, in order to get maximum enjoyment out of the game, it'd be a good idea. The idea behind this article, however, is not about games like these, or FPS games, but rather, the trend in fighting games. Rather, two trends in fighting games.

Firstly, I should say that my experience with fighting games has really only started this past year, particularly around May. Beginning with my enrollment at DeVry (as of March 2007), I have become surrounded by a group of people that share many of the same interests as me. Since then, I have been growing accustomed to the ideas and mindsets that one finds with games such as these. Now, with that out of the way, how does the controller affect fighting games, and what are the trends that I mentioned earlier?

The first trend is the growing propensity towards purchasing arcade sticks for use with fighting games. If you've played fighting games in the arcade, then you know how different a joystick setup is compared to a standard controller. Many people that play games like Soul Calibur and Virtua Fighter on pads tend to find it difficult to switch to arcade sticks, but after switching, they find it hard to switch back to pad. This commonly leads them to purchasing their own arcade sticks. Yes, there are American manufacturers, but being a quality whore, many of us are aware that some of the best arcade sticks (and parts, to be elaborate on later) are found in Japan. Typically, we'll purchase sticks from manufacturer Hori. I myself, shortly after moving into the fighting game genre (though I still suck, really badly at that) purchased my first stick, a Hori Fighting Stick 2. For people that want a real good stick, ignore the FS series and get a Real Arcade Pro, they're made with much better parts.

Don't get me wrong, my FS2 isn't a bad stick and all, but it's just not up to the quality I'd like. It is Hori's inexpensively branded model. As such, it's built with inexpensive parts, most notably, the stick itself. The rebounding action on the stick is so loose that it'll typically bounce back and hit the opposite input before returning to center. E.g. I hold the stick down, let go, it'll register the down input, then bounce back, go through center, register the up input, and finally return to center. This is just unacceptable, especially in technical games like Virtua Fighter. This brings me to the second trend: Custom arcade sticks.

Jaxel over at Team Crooked Jester has a high quality Hori stick, made with Sanwa parts. Sanwa is a Japanese company reputed to make the best arcade parts available. That stick is worth around $300, in terms of purchasing cost. Is it actually worth that in labor and parts? Probably not. This is where creating our own custom sticks come in. We want the best and most accurate parts for use in our sticks, namely those Sanwa parts. We can order the buttons and the sticks. We can build frames with wood and paint them. We can use other parts to make the interface to, in our case, the PS2. All for a cost of less than that $300 stick. Better yet, take into account that the basic HRAP (Hori Real Arcade Pro) model runs around $130 plus shipping, we've undercut that as well. At least, for ourselves.

I'll show you pictures later as to how my stick is looking and what not. For now, you can gaze at the following two threads over at Crooked Jester about custom arcade sticks:
Purchase a Custom Arcade Stick
[WTS] Custom RahXephon Melismatic Reika Mishima Joystick