14 DAY TRIAL // Mad Catz was caught totally unaware of the genuine gold mine it stumbled upon when someone in development came up with the idea to create a Street Fighter IV arcade controller. The Tournament Edition FightStick is assembled from actual arcade parts and, priced at $150, was believed to be a little too big of a stretch to make it as a viable idea. But it looks like game fans swallowed whole the vintage arcade nostalgia and the Mad Catz stock quickly depleted. The Fight Sticks were sold in line with the $40 FightPads for the Xbox 3600 and PlayStation 3 and quickly flooded homes everywhere.
To follow up on this success, Mad Catz will prepare a Round 2 line of Street Fighter IV accessories, including six new FightPads with character-specific artwork and a new version of the Tournament Edition FightStick. The fighters used to decorate the pads are M. Bison, C. Viper, Zangief, Sagat, Guile and Cammy. The Special Edition FightStick, made from imitation Sanwa parts and sold for $80, won't make a comeback in the Round 2 edition. It seems the hype around the controller was caused mainly by the original arcade parts and far too few people are interested in the imitation.
A FightStick frenzy has completely engulfed Mad Catz as they have already released a Tournament Edition, with new art and color combinations for the Penny Arcade Expo and San Diego Comic-Con. Mat Catz will also offer, via GameStop, Capcom and their own online store, a Marvel vs Capcom 2 based FightStick that goes for $160, by the end of the year.
Street Fighter IV is a resurrection of the old arcade-style fighting games and was developed by Capcom and Dimps Corporation this year. The game proved to be a real success, especially with fans of the series that missed the old-fashion fighting genre. The special controller that features game art might seem to some like milking the series, but as long as it proves a money-maker, it will fuel the game and lead to the development of yet another Street Fighter and everyone would like to see that happen.