Are you a Sanwa stan? Suzo Happ purist? Tried out a bullet topped Nobi? Or a Taeyoung Fanta lever? Crown? Hori? Anything far out in left field or unusual?

What did you think of them? Any standout features or drawbacks?

Hold Back to Block visits the Arcade Stick Museum at EVO to get a rundown of sticks over the years dating back to early MAS and Neo Geo offerings.

Started with a fightstick I bought for Street Fighter 4 many years ago. Now that Street Fighter 6 is out, I've become interested in hitboxes and have started making them myself.

When I first started I bought a fight stick. Now I'm finding it really enjoyable to make hotboxes.

One of the reasons I chose to name this community Arcade Sticks rather than Fightsticks is because these controllers are great for more than just fighting games. Any game that has roots in arcades or otherwise features arcade-inspired gameplay can benefit from the precision and snappiness of a nice arcade stick (including modern leverless variants).

Personally, I tend to use mine a lot when playing bullet hell shmups on my PC. Pictured in this post is my beloved Qanba Q4RAF, which is IMO the best stick that Qanba ever put out. Hell, I'd argue it's the best commercially released stick ever, but that's probably worthy of another thread sometime in the near-future...

Figured I'd kick things off in this new community with a picture showing how my Madcatz TE2 (PS4) stick has evolved over the years.

I got the Guilty Gear Xrd version when it released many years ago, and it's still what I'm using today to play GG: Strive, Street Fighter 6, and all other PS4/PS4 fighting games.

It feels fitting to post this now, as it will likely be retired/replaced in the next month or so when my first leverless stick arrives (the 2023 Snack Box Micro). I'll be sure to post a picture of that as well once I get it customized with some new artwork.