Kintaro said:
What the... honey mustard? I gotta start shopping at a different store, we get the crap flavors apparently.
Anyway, so my Best Buy had 360 fightpads today so I snagged a Ryu and left the other 3 for three other happy people (or one greedy person) to find.
I think Markman was asking for impressions so here are mine after playing about 2 hours of HD Remix.
Very nice so far! The face buttons are nice and responsive, my thumb can travel from jab to roundhouse fast enough that I can work in DJ's crossup combos with ease. The buttons are big enough to know you're only hitting one yet small enough that I can play comfortably with just my thumb (as opposed to laying the controller on my leg and hitting the punch and kicks with my fingers). Additionally, the layout of the buttons makes multi button presses very simple, so spinning lariats and hawk dives are simple to pull off.
Since I was playing HDR I really didn't have a need to use the triggers, but they do feel easier to activate from the center of the buttons as opposed to the edges. Not really an issue since my fingers rest easily over the entire trigger.
The pad is big! It's easily wider than the 360 or the dual shock3. Big handed people rejoice!
As for the D-Pad, it's a great improvement over the 360 d-pad, but it is not my favorite d-pad*. I don't have a saturn pad to compare it to, and it's been a long time since I've played on one so I can't give you a direct comparison.
I will let you know about one thing that puzzles me about this d-pad, it has a lot of throw. I don't mind the diameter of the pad; but the thickness, the height coming up off the face of the controller is much greater than I imagined it would be. If you try and fit a penny in between the d-pad and the rest of the controller, it stops at about lincoln's eyes.
As a result, it seems like you have a lot more movement to go from Back to Forward or Down to Up. I could still do B-F charge moves like Sonic Booms and Scissor Kicks, but something was a little off going down to up on my Flashkicks. At first I would end up whiffing and jump and kick instead. I managed to get this a little under control, so it may just be something that requires a little practice to get acclimated.
Something else I'm personally having a little difficulty with are QCF and QCB. Mostly QCB. Again, I think all the throw on the pad means I'm used to stopping my motion much earlier and I end up kicking before my left thumb has made the complete motion. Oddly, my spinning piledrivers are easier from a standing position than they used to be (as opposed to trying to "hide them" with a jumpin or glowing hand). Dragon Punch motions came out very easily for me, so if I can get the quarter circle motion under control, I'll be very pleased.
Disregarding the thickness, the d-pad itself is pretty comfortable on the thumb. No real hard edges to cause pain and the movement itself is very smooth going in 360 motions.
Overall, I'm very happy with the fight pad. It's great for the 360 owner, and I very much prefer it over the DS3 when it comes to fighters. I've been playing a lot of SF Alpha on the PS3 lately, and I would gladly double dip to pickup a PS3 version when it comes out.
* in the interests of disclosure, my personal preference would be the d-pad on the SNES/Wii Classic controller, take from that what you will.