He just got straight to the point. He lost ALOT of view time doing that. I respect it.

I might be the only guy I know who plays PC DBFZ with a frickin pro switch controller

I've played with a pad all my life and had no idea how clunky it was for me till I switched to a stick. I always keep dropping inputs with a pad due to my big hands. It was like night and day when I finally tried out a stick. It took a couple of days to get used to, but now I have no intentions of going back to a pad.

I also love smashing the stick buttons when things get hype. When you mash on pad your gripping the controller even harder to keep it in place. A tip that helped my on pad was to focus on lifting my fingers for inputs, instead of sliding you thumbs on the face buttons, That’s a recipe for sloppy inputs.

I play all games (that support it) on stick - Mega Drive, SNES, Saturn, PlayStation, everything. Sticks are so accurate, but also so much more enjoyable.

Speaking of the community aspect, I had this one beautiful moment that happened when I went to a USFIV tournament at a convention. Since I was volunteering for a free pass to the tournament I couldn't safely bring my stick to the venue, but there were a handful of people who brought their sticks to the tournament. They all were more than cool to share their sticks for anyone who wanted to play with them, so it was great that everyone got a chance to play with the controllers most comfortable for them.

You can't forget about the God himself Lil Majin who was tearing it up on a pad.

I switched for two reasons, the most important being nostalgia, I love that feeling of playing at an arcade. Bit also I spent alot of years mashing the wrong stuff on a pad never actually looking up how to play these nor having anyone around that knew properly, switching to stick allowed me to bypass the already worked in bad muscle memory and just start fresh:)

Playing on pad would destroy my thumbs, I could only play for an hour at a time at most. Switching to stick relieved the thumb abuse, and was able to play for 2 to 3 hours at a time without any issues.

I just think fight stick looks sick af

Really dig your content, as someone who's always been interested in fighting games but not necessarily had my heart in it, been getting more passionate about new and old series that caught my attention, (mk, dbfz, blazblue) and you are really a wealth of information, presented in a very non condescending way, keep it up bro, much love and respect

Do you NEED a stick? Short answer: Sonicfox

Nicely explained jmcrofts. I love the look of sticks, I think they're cool and buttons making sounds is just so satisfying. This definitely was a good insight.

I play on both, depends on the game.

Pretty informative video overall, i always enjoy your videos, I just hope more people could give enough information about pads too! It seems like people don't really mention stuff outside of the regular ps4 pad or some mods for it

I really like this video and all the points you make seem really rational and good. Thank You!

I switched to stick because it’s more sturdy than pad, I kept wearing out my pad so eventually I just splurged

I bought a stick when I realized they existed mostly because I'm old enough that I first learned to play fighting games in arcades and it enhanced the childhood nostalgia aspect of playing games. I had spent a good chunk of time playing Tekken on PS pad in the middle decades and when I briefly picked up Tekken 7 on stick I found relearning movement took some work despite having been playing 2D fighters on stick beforehand. But one competitive advantage not really touched on was how much easier 2 button inputs are on stick. 3+4 for example on pad either requires playing with a claw grip which is absolute hell on my hand or has a high level of input error trying to hit them both at the same time with my thumb. Stick lets you hit both buttons with separate fingers with an ergonomic grip.

After years of this debate, I came to the conclusion that the best thing is to try everything you can. Your never going to know whats better for you if you haven't really tested out each option. I own or have tried almost every pad out there, all of the Hori fightpads (PS1 to the recent PS3/4 commander), the various madcatz, to the og sega saturn 6 button controller (& several "retro" saturn clones) etc. I plan on eventually purchasing a fight stick and hitbox to see if either one is better for me. Dont be afraid to experiment with different options, it can be a fun process and could end up making you a better player too.

Man... loving the diversity of your vids @jmcrofts. Keep'em rolling bro.

The keybox gives a very small distinct advantage when it comes to very precise inputs and speed. I was only able to pull off certain combos with them thanks to the wasd format.

im someone who went both through the keayboard to pad transition, and pad to stick transition. keyboard to pad took me around 2 months to get sompletely used to it. pad to stick took me half a year. stick is very hard to get used to, especially if you never touched a stick before. it's completely different from everything you ever did to control your games

Switch to fight stick around two years ago for third strike and now I find most fighting games not easier but easier if that makes sense. It feels really good and The ergonomics of it really are a selling point. Especially if you play a lot of fighting games or game’s in general I’m the long run I recommend it 100%

My mom caught me playing with my stick in the middle of the night

Got myself a stick mostly due to my hand pain and found this a lot better. Still trying to get better as I still miss quite a lot of inputs

I've been playing fighting games ever since the vanilla Street Fighter II and consistently played on pad all the way up to Tekken 7, where I finally swichted to stick. I enjoy playing on stick so much more now. I feel it's like playing racing games with a steering wheel, it's just so much more fun if you nail your moves/combos on stick rather than pad.

The only time I played stick was when we need an extra controller to play overcooked and I was happy to use the stick, It was almost instant that I new the joystick felt better and bought one. It really is as simple as trying one out, even if that means going to a local arcade and checking how the stick feels. It's hard to know with button placement but it you are using an analog, it's easy to compare it to the feel of a stick

I recently made the change to stick. Its been rough but i love the nostalgia feeling. I will say it has helped with my timing on combos with pad.

i hate fighting games, but idk why i am addicted to watching you jmcrofts 😂

Hello JMCrofts! I personally switched from the dual shock 4 to a stick about a year ago (Nacon Daija - I’m from Belgium) and was really happy about it for the main reasons that made me switch to stick, being my incredibly sore thumbs when playing for an extended time (the DS4 was killing my thumb when it comes to quarter circle inputs). And just like you described in this video, my skills took quite a hit for at least a few months until I got used to playing on stick. There were still some subtleties I couldn’t get around with the stick as opposed to the d-pad (instant air dash for instance), so I also went for the Razer Raion to try out that « best of both worlds » feel, being the d-pad for the left hand and tapping buttons claw style with the typical fight stick layout. Now to be completely honest, I play much better on the Raion pad than on any of the other devices I have (DS4 & Fight stick)... and yet, I still love playing on stick a bit more, there’s just something really satisfying to play around with those big buttons. My question to you would be, would you recommend looking into a hit box to see if that would really actually be the best of both worlds in my case? Have you tried out a Hit box and how do you like it? I’m also curious about the cross/up they’re working on... it intrigued me a lot as it’s a hybrid between stick and the extra inputs for directional buttons. Unfortunately none of these products can be tried out here in Belgium so if I ever want to try it out, I have to go the expensive way and purchase it... which would suck if it ends up not being for me.

I actually just bought one just for the hell of it, I still use the pad but I've been wanting to learn stick for a hot minute. Plus I love using it on MAME games! I think I'm starting to get into collecting them just for fun.

Really good video and thank you for not hiding the direct answer behind 10min of video. I do have to say though, that form personal experience, passing somebody a pad is easier than stick. Sticks have way more parts that can differ from each other and give a totally different feel to the input controller, while most pad players just use a standard PS4/XboxOne/Switch controller.

I love my Hori Fighting Game Commander,I feel it offers me the best of both worlds and it's super affordable. Great vid man!

I started out using pad and started learning stick cause it looked like fun and there were certain things that appealed to me about stick. somewhat recently I switched again to hitbox and am loving it.

I’m glad he was honest about how inputs are easier on mvc2. That’s what I was here for

I gave you a "like" as soon as you gave the short answer, but I also stuck around to the end!

Great intro. Great video. I was felt stick was superior for fighting games, but that maybe because I started on arcade boxes.

Look up battle beaver controllers. You can buy a kit that turns your dpad into 4 directional buttons rather than one large button that is used in ps4 and xbox controllers. The kit only costs $20 and if you want a controller that can be used for multiple genres, they have a custom controller builder and you can basically customize everything. Affordable too

I got into fighting games in 2008 because my friends were playing super turbo HD remix and vanilla sf4, and back then the attitudes seemed a bit different where it was stick or bust. It was painful at first to play stick but it's worth it in the long run. It's a lot of fun having arcade hardware and playing stick with other arcade games. On the topic of injuries, I mostly play sf which I don't get any issues but if I play darkstalkers it's harder on my wrists and forearm.

I think you cannot underestimate the fun factor when finally changing over to stick... really adds new life and energises the game... not a MK player mind but can really see how that would be more pad geared... did MK ever play well on stick? Even back in the arcades lol ;)

Coming from melee where we all have dying hands, i think i'd definitely like to try a stick out. i always thought they looked fun to play with, too. thanks for the video! probably going to start with the drone to see how i like it.

stick just feels way more fun to use. I'm switching to it knowing that I'll likely be way worse for a while, but will have more fun than with a boring old pad

Thanks for making this!

one reason to play stick is negative edge, where you do a move when you release a button as opposed to pressing it. On a pad, your thumb can only do so much at the same time, while on stick you can dedicate a finger to holding down buttons while still being able to press others reliably. Noteworthy examples being playing Zato in guilty gear, Arakune in blazblue or Cody's zonk knuckle in street fighter.

Super informative for someone who knew nothing on a topic, thanks

I NEEDED THIS, Thank you daddy crofts

TL:DR Play what's most comfortable to you.

Good video! I use both I never want to be bad at either one even though I might not be amazing at either

Might be also worth to add that pro pads can really help as well.

One thing that was sort of touched on but wasn't really addressed was how much easier doing motions is. For myself, I found using a stick was easier than using a pad and using a mix/hitbox was even easier and I ultimately rely on a mixbox layout for my fighting games because I am used to gaming on PC and the all button style is easy to get the inputs I want. Also a stick you hadn't recommended was the F500 or F300 elite which comes with the Sanwa parts in a cheaper shell and is reasonable to mod. Things like the odin drop in also provide a slightly less expensive option to get an all button layout with minor modding involved. That being said, sticks are crazy expensive and unless you plan to stick to older games compatibility can become an issue later, but it does mean you can get sticks on a good sale once the next console generation's sticks arrive. So getting one for cheaper is also a possibility once the first few playstaion 5 and Xbox Series X sticks drop. Also if you use PC for the most part all the current sticks should be compatible through steam even into the future.

Great video explaining the reason's the arcade stick is beneficial, controller most people use because it's what we get used to.

the Hori REal Arcade Pro V is the one I have, nice to see it get a good review. Being a Saturn pad player for fighting games all my life, buying adapters or clone controllers of that type for new consoles, I found it very difficult to adapt to stick. In fact, I haven't adapted yet, despite having this stick for 4 years already.... But to be honest I was quick to neglect it when I realized I was still so much better with pad. These quarantine times I ogt the stick out of the closet and trying to get used to it in a wide variety of arcade games... Gonna take a long time.

I learnt with a stick right out on SF4. The only other time i had play was in the Arcade. So it felt natural. I attempted the D-pad, didn't work.

PSA: I'm like six months in and still practicing the basics every day... it can take some people a WHILE. However, with that said I can see the benefits and say it is worth it. I'm not ashamed to admit I've hit a brick wall with dragon punch motions but seeing small improvements as I've stuck with it; up to 25 consecutive without a mistake 1P side and 16 consecutive 2P side with no mistakes. All the other motions on Ryu in SSF2 Turbo I have down no question (and yeah, I'm that insane person who wants to work up to Hawk). If you are looking at something like Tekken (or something that has a lot of fast dashing) you might want to go with Korean style lever, if something like Street Fighter (lots of quarter circle and 360 type motions) Japanese style is best suited for that. Also, don't forget about something like Hitbox, it does make some things possible that you can't on stick and can be an easier transition from keyboard. The comparison to learning a musical instrument is 100% correct. What you are practicing is proper technique and trying to develop good habits instead of bad ones. It means doing a lot of very basic things over and over, but if you want to be a wall to your opponent you have to start with a solid foundation. Also, just like an instrument you are looking for ergonomics; everything is as relaxed and natural as possible, NOTHING should hurt. If something hurts you are doing it wrong. You are developing muscle memory, which means you want to do at least a little EVERY DAY. Practicing 8 hours one day a week does almost nothing, while taking 10 minutes every day in that week will yield progress; just like learning an instrument. Your practice should be very focused and not just going through the motions on autopilot; think about what you are doing. Visualize the motion in your head, then execute, rinse and repeat. Looking down at your hands as you do it can help at first. When starting out, take as much time in between each action as you need to visualize it. Slow the motion down if you have to; you are attempting to have EVERY time you do it be correct, no matter how long it takes to do... speed comes with time. If you are going on autopilot and missing half of your inputs you are NOT building muscle memory as fast as you could if you slow down, do half as many are you currently are, but they are all correct inputs. Think of muscle memory like an XP bar; every time you do it right, you gain a little bit of XP... but every time you do it wrong you lose even more XP. THAT is how you need to approach it, you will gain more XP taking your time and getting it right. If you are just going at it trying and miss, miss, miss... stop for a second. Take your hand off the controller and take a relaxing deep breath. Place your hands back in position and visualize the motion. Then, very slowly practice what the motion is, being completely relaxed (don't worry that it isn't fast enough to come out). Do that a few times and gradually speed it up, visualizing the motion between each time, until you work it up to speed. I know that sounds like a pain in the ass, but you will be a fucking execution MONSTER when you are done. I went to college for music and spent a LOT of years teaching people how to play various instruments. It will take you years to master something difficult, and there is always room for improvement. So I know the best way to approach it; It is a marathon, not a race... and try not to be hard on yourself, stay positive and know that getting frustrated is actively working against you. Know that you will get there eventually if you put in the work.

I just switched from pad to stick and it's really frustrating having to learn the inputs again. I'm improving and I can tell that once I get good it'll be easier to do certain inputs with it, but in the meantime it's pretty annoying knowing what to do but not how to do it.

love your content

I switched to stick because of ergonomics, I have Arthritis due to playing alot of precision games and had to start wearing a hand brace, plus the longer stick felt better and less cramped

people have generally told me that the defining factor on whether or not you want to play stick or pad is that certain things are easier to do with each. iirc someone told me that movement is a lot better with a stick, while certain button combinations might be easier with pad. i don't remember the exact advice i was given, but there are pros and cons to play with both and neither is better than the other.

I made the swap to stick back in march due to wearing out too many d-pads on xbone controllers. I would really recommend the stick I went with which was the mayflash f500 its a $70-80 stick with sanwa parts and compatible with all kinds of stuff.

Hey jmcrofts, have you ever build your own stick and do you recommend it? I'm really looking forward to building a stick myself with the a bit of unconventional button placment for max comfort. It's really not that hard to do and costs less

the obsidian id say is a high end stick at the 199 msrp it goes on sale for 99-150 sometimes and has the option to pick up hitbox mod kits which is great

I played on pad until Marvel 3 came out and bought a TE. It took me awhile to get used to. Just play on whatever you're comfortable with. I will say this though, once I learned how to play on stick, it made playing charge character in street fighter so much easier for me. Hearing the sound of the buttons on stick also made learning combos slightly easier.

I scratched the itch to get a FightStick early this year by simply buying the Hori FS mini for the Switch. Some say I should have saved more money for better sticks, especially because some say the size is just way too small, but since I have no reference point because I never played on a stick before the one I bought, I am just fine with the one I have. I already got used to it. I might change it in the future, but I’m not in a hurry to do that.

As someone who suffers from Athrosis, I can tell you that the accumalating weight of a controller really creats fast pain. Although resting most of the weight on my PC-Desk helps a lot.

I switched to stick like 3 months ago. I still suck but I'm almost at the level I was with a pad. The reasons I changed are: 1. input feedback, there's something in my brain that makes me need to hear my own inputs in order to know if they are right or wrong. 2. customization and style, just having a stick with a layout I designed is something that makes me want to play with it 24/7

+1 on the qanba drone I use that thing as a loner stick for friends or a stick for friends to play on. for the price I snagged it on sale it was like 44 bucks and well worth having it

But also feel free to try stick. I had a feeling I would like stick better so I bought one and I love it.

I have tendonitis and just started getting getting into street fighter, I'm definitely gonna try to get a stick or hotbox now, I always thought that's be more painful but I'm willing to try anything

I cant do circles on keyboard. I imagine its gonna take me days to figure out. If a stick could make that easier, id def consider buying one

Do you have any preference on the surface texture of the stick? My friend is letting me borrow one with a gloss finish on top and it sticks to my wrist and irritates them. Also do some surfaces wear down more noticeably than others from skin oils?

I’m mostly interested in getting a stick at some point because my thumb hurts when I play with pad for too long

I played fighterz with a controller before. I bought a stick and it was much harder to play at the beginning. However, after some time I felt like doing more advanced combos was easier on the stick then on the controller. I think it's because I prefer to hit multiple hands with the hand instead of having fingers on both the buttons and on the Ls and Rs. So I think it's a matter of preference

I have huge hands and long fingers. Playing on the pads are a pain and everything feels cramped. I might try a stick soon.

I think the biggest advantage is the consistency. Updating you stick for a new console or buying a new stick will feel the same as opposed to different controllers.

i bought a stick took me a week. I'd reccomend starting with street fighter helps you get comfortable and trains your brain. i play dbfz but when i tried with the stick i just got it was very hard at first. but after about a week i got the hang of it. i think its a lot easier to pull of combos on stick and do instant air dashes but that's just me. I wouldn't recommend if your only into one game

Practise and comfort, just like you said. I'm old now but even as a kid I couldn't play fighting games on a DPAD (and no, analog stick is no option for me lol) because my thumb would hate me. Especially when deathgripping.

I had to mostly switch to stick because my hands seize up holding a tiny controller while playing fighting games. Took a long while to get muscle memory down for sure

For a fairly short answer for anyone who plays on PC: Keyboard is borderline broken For decent examples, you can have multiple binds for moving in a certain direction. So if you struggle with a shoryuken motion on the four directional arrows, you could use something like a numpad, or if you think that a normal 3x2 button layout for your attacks is uncomfortable, you could have the attacks on a 2x3, or you could bind your most used attacks closer to where your fingers usually sit, stuff like that. Another example, for Tekken fans, Korean Backdashing is complicated to do. For a backdash that works on characters with sways, you need to tap back once, go to neutral, tap back, go to down back, then back again, go to neutral, and do the back, down back, back, neutral cycle. This takes weeks, if not months to get fast and consistent with. In a keyboard though, you can hold back and tap forward and down repeatedly and you'll get a fast backdash. And for the last example, it's just easy to grasp. Doing a consistent Akuma combo in 3rd Strike (low mk, short tatsu, heavy shoryuken, optional cancel into super art 1, then light shoryuken) was very hard when I used a controller, but then I decided to use my keyboard and I started hitting it consistently within a few minutes of practice. Understanding motions in a controller is easy but handling them is a different chore. But personally I picked the keyboard because the under side of my left thumb started blistering when I tried to do fast execution in Tekken, so there's that.

Yeah i might need a stick because over the years my left fingers had become more crackly as i can close them in a specific way they crack without fail

It took me a couple weeks to get the stick down. imo, it’s harder to mash on stick and just “hope” for an outcome. Once you start to feel the clicks in the stick you feel how much more control you are in.. These days it can be so character dependent on the stick/pad you use. GGS on arcade stick just feels right. DBFZ i’m just not there yet lol

I love the idea of fighting games but I never played them growing up so I suck at the inputs. Holding the stick upwards to jump feels weird to me too because of all the platformer games I've played. I like smash bros because it's kind of easy to control but I really want to get into something that's more of a "true" fighting game with that more intimate 1v1 close in camera feel.

I wish the joystick wasn't always so close to the buttons on prebuilts. I have always had to build my own.

Plot twist: The only reason he says that switching to stick won’t help you become a better player is because he doesn’t want other people to become better.

I switched from pad to Hitbox. Played on Pad for about 10yrs and decided to switch because my thumb kept taking a beating from the DPad. I did not get a stick due to past experiences playing on my friends's sticks. I just couldn't get my motion inputs to come out clean so I opted for a hitbox. Went and got a modded Qanba Obsidian, it took me a couple hours to get used to it. My biggest trouble nowadays is getting a consistent and fast DP motion on P2 side, just haven't practiced it much since I mostly play DBFZ lol

If I want to continue using a pad, (I use a PlayStation 4 controller), should I invest in making the D-PAD separate buttons or keep it how it is?

I really like the stick but it's so hard playing Just Dance with them

Good stuff

I messed around on a buddy's stick and picked it up pretty quickly. I really wanna get one but idk if it's worth the money to get a good one for just one game(DBFZ)

I've only used pad but switched to stick like 2 weeks ago and the biggest problem I have is sliding my hand back and fourth for buttons. I can deff yeet things much faster for sure though

@jmcrofts how do you feel about the hitbox?

Yes for the popcorn sound.

I think it matters on what you're used to cuz when I play stick it hurts my wrist and hand

I feel my switch joy-cons are garbage imo! I have missed inputs constantly, mainly with assists and changes! I tried to play with a pro controller that felt worse! I heard that there is a snes wireless that you can actually use on the switch do you know anything about that?

One thing I never see mentioned is blocking I feel that blocking on pad is very difficult as the ps4 controller specifically has a short joystick and blocking through tough strings gets very difficult over time

Generally, I learned SF2 in an arcade with a stick then played some versions on console. Was never happy with a gamepad/controller compared to stick. Muscle memory and all that. Having recently bought SFV, I'm probably going to get a stick controller, if only to save my controller from abuse (already too late). :)

The only fighting games I’ve played for a while are MVC3 and DBFZ. And both I think are fine with a pad because of the 4-button structure and tags. But then I started trying out SF5 and Killer Instinct, and I gotta say the 6-buttons are killing my mind and I think I’d need a stick just because I’ve had the 4 buttons ingrained in my mind. LMH kicks and punches are just weird layouts on a controller.

I got a stick recently and started practicing like mad man to keep up with my pad level. But unfortunately i had to send it back, I was getting big pain in my right hand ( pinkie and ring finger specifically) after maybe 1 hour of play time, probably due to a old injury. It sucks cause my IAD consistency went up (also I was able to weave the IAD into blockstring which I can never do with pad) but oh well. As JM puts it very well you dont need a stick, just look at SonicFox

I wish you would have talked about hitboxes. Been thinking about getting one, but still on the fence. Also I have been using a Hori Rap4, and it is NOT the way to go compared to the other sticks you mentioned. Crazy amount of stick bounce, and the buttons are so sensitive (after a year of using it btw) that I can sometimes activate a button by pressing a different button.

I grew up in arcades so i WAS used to them, but after relearning on controllers, the march of time, I find it hard to RE RE learn stick. I have two really good ones but don't use them often. And keyboard use is just hethanistic.

I'm getting into strive as my first fighting game and after about fifty hours of play I'm still frequently failing motion inputs on pad. I thought it was my controller so I bought a Hori Fighting Commander and although things improved, ultimately I'm still failing lots of motion inputs. I tried keyboard on my PC and that has improved things significantly and I'm far more consistent now. I know some people don't have issues with motion inputs on pad, but I think for some people it's super hard.