Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsBest Arcade Stick I've ever had... but wait... there's more...
Reviewed in the United States on May 13, 2017
I needed to replace my old Mad Catz TE PS3 stick because I didn't want to go through the hassle of modding it, or using a Brook adapter and have the feeling I could "lose" some input lag (I know this is like the boogey man in arcade sticks but going over 20 milliseconds equals more than a frame, so if you play Street Fighter 3 or 4 Ultra you know some combos have very strict timing).
I have to say I was kinda hesitant with this because we all know how expensive these sticks can get. I was about to close my eyes and buy a $350 bucks Mad Catz TE2+ (Mad Catz by the way went bankrupt a few months ago I guess it was April?).
So! Let's talk about the obsidian!
The box was not as "nice" as the other brands like Mad Catz (it was still decent though) and I opened it with a regular enthusiasm.
When I took it out of the box, I couldn't believe how nice this stick looked. Seriously, it put my old TE to total shame. Absolutely sleek, elegant but it had a hidden feature. It is WAY MORE DURABLE (at least in frame, I don't know about the PCB) and everyone here probably knows that Sanwa buttons are the same in all Arcade sticks (except Hori) so we don't need to talk much about the superb quality of Sanwa.
In this stick there's absolutely no compromise, those silver things you see in the pictures? All SOLID aluminum. This is the most solid stick I've ever had in my hands (the Qanba Dragon must be a monster).
At this point, I'm all smiles and I'm so glad I didn't buy a Razer or a Mad Catz. Don't get me wrong, those are great products as well! But the difference here is that those feel like plastic toys while this feels like a piece of gorgeous well built equipment.
Pros-
-Unparalleled construction build. This thing is built like a tank and still not extremely heavy as a Qanba Q4 I used to have as well.
It's way sturdier than the Mad Catz TE and parts are not flimsy at all like in other sticks.
-Best looking stick I've ever had. Period. Sleek, elegant and robust. It has it all (I don't use the side lights because I'm not a fan of it but I'm glad you can enable it or disable it at will, still it's a free feature considering other sticks don't have anything like it).
-JLF stick and OSBF buttons from Sanwa are always a guaranteed quality assured experience. Think of it.. If you buy a 150 dollar Hori RAP the buttons are good but not as good as this one so you'll end up spending the same.
-I'm surprised how Qanba managed to pull such an incredible package in this price range. This feels like a much more expensive stick. Worth every penny. I can imagine only a Hori VLX which costs $300 could compete with this in durability and oddly the VLX has one of the worse input lags of all sticks.
-Support a company that's not mainstream and that makes by far the best bang for your buck.
-Perfectly possible to mod it 100%... provided you're a bit savvy and good with your hands and careful electronic equipment.
CONS (not cons at all if you ask me)
-The cable bay feels a little bit tight. That's the only thing that feels that needs a bit of attention. (Mad Catz TE2+ in example feels flimsy on the FRAME which is unacceptable in such an expensive stick so take that into account.
-If you're into modding, replacing parts are not as easy as a TE2+, but in my opinion, this is worth the hassle as the frame is way better.
Conclusion.
This is the best stick I've ever had and I had them all except the Razer (which is tempting for a stickholic like me).
Nothing, I repeat, nothing will look as good as this guy in your lap. There are pictures if you google it to see how it looks modded (I didn't mod mine yet but the procedure is almost the same as a Qanba Q4 I still have which is not that hard). It's a frigging beauty.
In my research for a perfect stick I landed with this, I have yet to try the Razer, but this one certainly puts the Mad Catz to shame in terms of durability. If I were you, would only go for a Mad Catz TE2+ in case you are absolutely abysmal,clumsy and still want to mod it. That being said, modding this is way easier than modding a Razer. In a Razer, if you want to change the art, you have to unglue the super hard plexi/acrylic top with a hair drier. That's a total pain in the butt.
In this one just remove a few covers, the buttons and that's it (in the Mad Catz you just have to remove the plexi which is just a click away).
I would give this a 6 Stars if I could. My old Qanba Q4 blue was better built than a Mad Catz, but it did not look much better. I would say they were on par. This one, is seriously better built and better looking than any other stick I ever had. Can't recommend it enough.
I put a picture of my old modded Qanba next to it for the sake of comparison.
