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Mini review: Ultimate Vs. Competition

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subzero23:
Hopefully this will let some people realize that the ultimate isn't complete crap. I do believe it is crap for an arcade enviroment, as it gets TOO loose after extended play.

Anyway
the game I tested these on was Tekken Tag Tournament
The Ultimate Joystick is naturally loose. I believe there are two types of diagonal play....one is where in fighting games and you have to momentarily hit a diagonal etc, or continuous like in a non-fighting game where you move a character a round and may hold the stick in one direction to move the character for a short bit. This stick is very bad at momentary diagonals and is very bad for fighting games. But I see no reason why it'd be bad for continous diagonals for some games. The fact that it is naturally loose is probably better for games like that. Fighting games require precise movements while other games mostly do not. That coupled with the fact it comes with a very smooth feeling handle, which I think feels great, makes any non-fighting game that isn't arcade based a good canidate for this stick. The handle I think is just a dream to hold and use, and I think in arcades the texture smooths out even more and wears off so you get a smooth stick which may or may not be better.

The competition stick, is stiffer and makes finding diagonals better and is really good for fighting games with precise movement. But, to simulate the heavy spring I took the spring and stretched it out (maybe too much compared to the heavy spring). This was great since it allowed me to hit the diagonals dead on. I was able to do moves I had never done before which was pretty cool. 4-way movements were a bit harder but I believe that is because of my over-extending of the spring. This was great for precise movements, and I'd assume this stick would do decently for non-fighting games as well (8-way games I mean, like X-Men or Simpsons, or Metal Slug, can anyone back up this comment?). The thing I don't like is the handle, the texture/feel is different than that of the Ultimate, although I believe (thanks to my cross-eye overlap test) they are basically the same size/thickness except for the shaft. It really makes the stick feel thicker and harder than the Ultimate and makes it less comfortable.

So in the end I see no problem with getting an Ultimate if your favorite games are 8-ways, but not fighters and not 4-way games. I think if you like the loose feel then the Ultimate would be nice for you and I kind of regret that I can not use it on my machine. And get the competition if you'll even be playing ONE fighting game somewhat seriously.

I tried using the Ultimate shaft on my Competition base but it hardly activated any movement so I was disappointed I couldn't bastardize it.

subzero23:
I don't want to make a new post just to ask this but

are there any disadavantages to using a heavier spring?

Or am I correct in assuming it gives you better accuracy at the small cost of being a bit harder to work with? (Which isn't a problem really)

I really like Ultimate's loose feeling but it is just not accurate.

paigeoliver:
I wish I could give a better review of these, but they both rate very poor in my book.

I am not actually sure which one is which, but I have had many of both. I will just call them shiny handle and textured handle. The happ website shows them both with textured, but I know one is shiny and one is textured, I have had enough of the darn things to know that.

Shiny handle. A true joke. Hands down the worst joystick I have ever used, and I have used a lot of them. I am not ever sure where to start. I usually just pull these out of games on site. These also wear faster and harder than happs other sticks and tend to be in poor condition when found used. This one pretty much suffers from most of the problems of the textured handle one, with the addition of other issues (which mostly come from the fast wear).

I am unsure of what game type this joystick would be the correct choice for.

Textured handle. - Also a bad joke. The corners are bigger that the primary directions. And the stick bounces around causing extra button presses. All this adds up to bad performance in puzzle games, and near unplayability in top down games. For example, when using a REAL joystick and playing robotron, if you sweep the joystick around in a circle at a constant pace it will give you an equal amount of shots (or movement) in each of the 8 directions. But not with this garbage. With this garbage the corners are much bigger than the primaries, so those 360 firing sweeps in robotron will be all corners much of the time. Or slow sweeps will fire 4 shots out of one corner, followed by the primary, followed by 4 shots out of the next corner.

With all THAT said. This joystick would be acceptable in fighting games. It gets a bit better if you add the heavy spring (the bouncing problem goes away). I consider the heavy spring a MUST in this one.

Happ Supers

The only one of the big three worth looking at. They last a long time, they don't bounce. THey have a decent feel. They can be tuned so the diagonals are the correct size. If you must use a happ stick, then use this one. This one does not need the heavy spring.

I recently went through all 3 types in my big mame cabinet, in that order. I am still not 100 percent happy with the supers, but I can't find anymore NOS long handled wico microleafs.

Matt Berry:
I'm going to have to agree with paige on this one, my original control panel I built was equipped with 2 competition joysticks. I played a lot of games with them over a 7 year period and got decent scores. My current panel has the supers in it (I'm waiting for my J & T sticks along with the old wicos to arrive so I can test them all out) but hands down every game I've played I have consistently scored way higher then I ever did with the competition joystick. For example in Crazy climber with the competitions I couldn't score higher then 95,000 points, but with the supers I can score 155,000 - 200,000 points no problem at all. Not only that but I still need to tweak them a little bit to get them more precise, and I know my scores will be even higher. Scores talk in my book, and hands down the supers blow the other two out of the water.

subzero23:
Hmm looks to me like you guys are using the joysticks for games other than fighting games, and I think that's where my review really relates. I think the comp is better than super at fighting games but all else super is probably better. Is crazy climber a 4-way game?

I think I'll order a super and test it side by side with a comp but I think fighting games will be heavily used on my machine

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