Mad Catz Arcade FightStick Soul Edition Review (Xbox 360 Hardware)

Mad Catz has been hesitant to make any huge modifications to their successful Tournament Edition line of arcade sticks, which is good in that it allows players reliable access to a strong design. Yet it has also resulted in ’diminishing returns’ on each new product using the TE design, made all the more apparent by the slow but steady rise of competiting sticks. Yet the recent release of SoulCalibur V presented them an opportunity to make a stick more suited to that game, and the Mad Catz Arcade FightStick Soul Edition is the result. It combines the main features of their Tournament Edition S stick with a series of subtle but important changes that optimize it for a different set of fighting games than their previously Street Fighter oriented offerings were built around.

Make no mistake, you can use pretty much any stick with any fighting game. You don’t need this to play SoulCalibur V, any more than you’d need a Marvel vs. Capcom 3 stick to play MvC3. The basic features are pretty familiar, using the TE S case to host a control panel with an anti-pause lock switch, eight Sanwa buttons and a Japanese ball-top joystick, plus Start and Back on the rear panel. You even have the cable compartment back there, plus the usual headset port on the front panel, so all of this matches the TE S. The features are thus typical of Mad Catz designs, but they work fine and it’s not a bad thing. This includes the seemingly odd use of a square gate for the joystick’s movement; I was of the mistaken belief that all devoted 3D fighting fans insist on octagon gates for use with the eight-way run mechanic. Research found that it’s actually a matter of personal preference, so the square gate isn’t a design flaw but simply a choice between two acceptable options.

What lets the Soul Edition stick stand out is a series of features taken from either the SoulCalibur license itself or Namco’s ’Noir’ arcade cabinets. The former are the easiest to notice, with a transparent case that fades from blue to gray to red, matched by top panel/bezel artwork of the SoulCalibur and Soul Edge weapons from the game. When combined with the new stainless steel screws replacing the rust-prone ones of earlier models, the result is a stick that is flat-out beautiful. Other touches such as a gray ’sword edge’ frame around the bezel are equally nice (don’t worry, it’s not sharp and your arms can rest on it just fine), and are the sort of thing you’d pay extra for on a custom made stick. Offering top-notch visuals on a retail stick is definitely playing to Mad Catz’ strengths, and one of the best things about the Soul Edition.

Outside of cosmetic changes, the most important difference is the previously mentioned Noir cabinet layout. The stick and buttons have been moved to match that cabinet, though it’s also fairly similar to the Sega Astro City for those more familiar with them. By bringing the buttons closer together and changing the curve of their placement, you get a layout that helps keep your fingers in better posture for four-button fighters such as SoulCalibur, BlazBlue, and King of Fighters as compared to six-button games like Street Fighter. The change is a subtle one and it doesn’t make all the difference in the world, but it does help. It’s particularly helpful if you have smaller than average hands like I do. This change alone makes the Soul Edition stick stand out from most other designs that follow a Vewlix button lay-out.