The Victrix Pro FS Arcade Fight Stick is expensive at $399 but it's worth the price for dedicated fighting game fans. (Performance Designed Products)
Fight sticks are archaic. They’re vestiges of a bygone age meant to replicate the arcade experience. While most gamers have moved on to gamepads or mouse and keyboard, dedicated denizens have kept this older control-scheme thriving.
Nowhere is the fight stick more important than in fighting games. Because titles such as “Street Fighter II” and “Mortal Kombat” were born in the arcades, fans who grew up on the genre have become devotees of Sanwa buttons and Seimitsu joysticks with fancy ball tops. Hard-core fans customize the controllers in the same way Jedis craft their lightsabers.
THE PINNACLE OF DESIGN
Every generation the fight sticks become fancier and better built, and sitting at the pinnacle of this category is the Victrix Pro FS Arcade Fight Stick. Costing $399, it’s expensive compared to the alternatives such as Hori’s Fighting Stick Alpha ($199) or the Qanba Drone ($78). The difference between the Victrix and the others comes down to the build quality and features.
The best way to explain it is a Mercedes EQS vs. Honda Civic. Both cars serve the same purpose — they get you from point A to point B — but the ride in the former is more luxurious than the latter. The Pro FS is the same way. It’s made with aircraft-grade aluminum and features Sanwa Denshi parts, which is some of most reliable and sensitive buttons and sticks available. A slight press will actuate a move on screen.
BUILD QUALITY AND FEATURES
The parts would put it on par with other high-end sticks such as the Daija, but what separates it from the pack is the thought and care that Victrix, PDP’s esports-focused label, put into the design. First off, the Pro FS’s aluminum body gives it a heft that other controllers lack. Most of them are plastic and they don’t have the durability of Pro FS.
That’s important if players are going to fighting game tournaments and the gear gets banged around backpacks and tables. When playing on your lap or at a desk, the stick feels sturdy. It won’t fly off your lap, and even if it did, it would probably do more damage on whatever it hit than the controller itself.
The second element is that the controller is built thoughtfully for player comfort and ease of use. It comes with a layout that was popularized by MadCatz during the PlayStation 3 era. It has an integrated wrist slope that’s supposed to help with marathon gaming sessions by reducing fatigue while the foam at the bottom improves comfort if you’re playing with the stick on your lap.
AN EMPHASIS ON PORTABILITY AND FLEXIBILITY
The third part of this is the way Victrix designed the Pro FS to be as portable and flexible as a fight stick can be. It has easy-carrying handles on both sides. The detachable braided cord can be wound around the cable organizer and those can be anchor points for separately sold latches that let players carry the stick with a strap.
That’s all fine and good, but the game-changing design element is the Link 2 Detachable Joystick. At first glance, it’s a confusing device. It’s a stick with a ball top that players need to insert in a divot in the controller. It’s not intuitive, so they’ll need to look up how to do it through YouTube or the QR code-linked manual that comes with the controller. It’s finicky, but once players get the hang of it, they’ll wonder how they lived without it.
The innovation makes the whole device flat so that the joystick doesn’t stick out while carrying it. Victrix even offers a Dust Cap to cover the hole in the Pro FS, and players can tuck the Link 2 Detachable Joystick in the compartment on the bottom. For those who don’t like the stick, the company included an additional Sanwa Denshi Joystick Shaft and Ball Top Grip, but you’ll have to install it with separate parts. That’s a more complicated process for advanced modders.
Speaking of that, players can add new buttons to the controller and mod parts of it. All they have to do is lift the bottom panel up and they can peek at the insides, which have its wires conveniently organized. That makes it easier to switch out buttons, but if users want to do more to-the-bones changes such as switching out the sticks, the process is more troublesome because of the tight space. There’s not a lot of room in which to work.
A FEATURE THAT EXTENDS ITS LIFE
The Pro FS is designed to be great out of the box, and one of the best features is that players can use it on the PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4 and PC. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work with the Xbox even in PC mode. That means players don’t have to carry multiple sticks if they go to tournaments and plan on competing in several games. They just need to bring controller and they can challenge all comers just by moving the switch accessed through the bottom panel.
Similar to a luxury vehicle, the Pro FS has features that you don’t really need but you can appreciate. The fight stick has lighted accents that pop to bystanders or viewers on stream while you play. The lights even color coordinate with row of buttons on top. Players can pick out the colors and the lighting style on the fly, which is the one flashy element the controller has.
Unlike the previous version, the updated Victrix Pro FS has a touchpad, but in order to add that, some of the programmable buttons were sacrificed. Now, there’s only one Pro button that can be assigned for options such as a Training Mode. The audio button lets users adjust the volume and even mute the microphone on a connected wired headset. Lastly, there’s a lockout button that disables all the buttons on the top row so you won’t be disqualified during tournament play.
THE $399 QUESTION
The biggest question facing the Victrix Pro FS Arcade Fight Stick is if all those carefully considered elements are worth the $399 price tag. For a certain segment of the population, it’s hands-down the right value. Without a doubt, the controller is beautifully crafted and has features that will come in handy over the long run.
The fact that the Fight Stick is compatible across two consoles and PC extends its usefulness. Even if you’re not a fan of fighting games, the stick is a boon to players who want that arcade experience. Playing “Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium,” “Streets of Rage 4” or “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge” on Pro FS is as close to being back at a GameWorks or Nickel City as you can get without a time machine or opening one up yourself.
It may be archaic to some, but the Victrix Pro FS carries a heavy dose of performance and nostalgia, and that’s a feeling that’s hard to put a price on.
Originally published at Gieson Cacho