The u360 is a great stick and can play any game that mame and the other emulators offer. I love my 2 u360's. There are lots of upgrades available for it as well. eg. stiff springs, ball and bat top handles, regular and long length handles, restrictors, round, 8way hex, and 4way, and you can add a button harness and wire 8 buttons to each stick, changable ball top colors. Think of the u360 as a analog gamepad for windows (thats how windows sees it) but you have to pay extra for the buttons.
Via plug-in support the u360 analog stick can be programed to be anything, 2way only, 4 way only, 8way only, analog or any number of user created maps.
The only consideration would be if you have already decided on a frontend that does not have a u360 plug-in. I know mala does and I think there is a plug-in for 1 or 2 more frontends but I don't know which, as I am currently using mala.
If you use a frontend that does not have plug-in support Then you would have to manually select the map prior to each game. Not a huge big deal, but an extra step.
Other joysticks are cheaper but don't offer what the u360 does.