I've always been partial to the supers, but if you're sure you want 8-way, the competitions are better than I expected.
Just make sure you get competitions and not imperials. Imperials look a lot like comps but they suck big time.
You can't go wrong with the super (easy 8-way 4-way switchable by flipping the plastic underneath). I don't know that the comps do that (I don't think they do, do they?).
The Perfect 360 is a little controversial. There are not notches and the feel is totally circular. It has 8-way and 4-way switchable like the super, it requires +5v power. The optics need to be blown clear of dust only about as frequently as you'd replace a cherry switch. Some people are huge fans of the super, but the value of your dollar is potentially lower compared to a competition.
I recently put two red-ball-top happ competitions (Tornado Terry's) on a perfect robotron that had some older wico leaf joysticks that weren't doing so well, and I've been scoring over 1,000,000 on difficulty levels that I previously couldn't do (still working on difficulty 7, but went well beyond a mil on difficulty 6). I wasn't able to hit a million on difficulty 5 before, and the competitions make the exact switch times easy to hit with the loud clicking micros .. i'm not sure exactly how or why .. but they work great.
For a 4-way stick, I'd recommend the Happ Super, I think. For 8-way, the comp. And if you want the stick to make no noise and the perfect-circle thing doesn't bother you, then go with the perfect 360. A perfect 360 is sort of bling to me, but not necessarily the best performing.
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- Ahigh