One of the greatest things about the Xbox 360 and Microsoft’s online service Xbox Live is the ability to play classic arcade games at home, in high-definition. For the past year we, as Xbox gamers, have had the awesome chance to play instant classics such as Contra, Dig Dug, Paperboy, etc. as well as brand new titles such as Alien Hominid HD and Assault Heroes, etc.; just to name a few. Playing these games on my 56” DLP is great but I have never been able to recreate that arcade experience because of the controller issues, until now. There is nothing wrong with the normal Xbox 360 controller, for some games it works fantastic and I would use nothing else. On the other hand for the more classic arcade titles you really need a joystick to get the overall arcade experience.
MadCatz has finally come to our rescue by releasing the Arcade GameStick for the Xbox 360. This fully functional recreation of a classic arcade joystick, complete with swivel, is a nice addition to the already massive Xbox 360 accessories market. After putting in a lot of time with this controller on almost every Xbox Live arcade title available I have come to the conclusion that it is everything (almost) that I have wanted for so long in a Xbox Live Arcade controller.
With a suggested retail price of $59.99, MadCatz may have placed too high of a price-point for casual gamers, but they have included the added bonus of three free Xbox Live Arcade titles including Frogger, AstroPop and TimePilot; as well as a 48-hour Xbox Live Gold subscription. These three games purchased separately would total twenty dollars, so it’s nice that MadCatz was able to include them for free. Many of the Xbox Live arcade titles take advantage of the GameStick’s well-made D-Pad, which makes the Xbox 360 D-Pad pitiful in comparison. The controller itself is made of really hard plastic that is color coded to match the official Xbox 360 unit and controllers/accessories which is a nice difference from the usual grey or cheap third party accessories that gamers have become used to.
The first thing I noticed when opening the package is that MadCatz decided to go with a wired option rather than wireless, why I am not sure but the cord is really long and once you have this bad boy set in place it is not going anywhere. That is the second thing I noticed about the design of the arcade stick, it’s heavy. This is very important, as any classic arcade player knows; without the right weight to any joystick it becomes useless. From the pictures below you will notice that unlike most other arcade joysticks on the market (mainly for fighting games) this one has a more compact, practical design.
On the top of the unit it has the main joystick handle (with trigger button), a d-pad, the four main colored Xbox buttons, a 360 “home” button, and a smaller joystick (with rotating wheel; think centipede), and a few other miscellaneous (turbo) buttons. Surrounding the controller is a great square design, some rubber grips, and the four shoulder buttons. Lastly on the bottom of the GameStick there are four non-stick pads that help the controller stay gripped to the tabletop when using it. From a design standpoint the arcade stick actually comes together quite well, much better than I had envisioned when I saw some pictures of it a few months ago.
