Street Fighter IV: Considering this is the specific game it’s built for, it better do well here... and it does. I tested a variety of characters using different motions, particularly Balrog (Boxer, uses charging motions), Zangief (needs 360/720 motions), and Ryu (Quarter-circle motions and similar) along with trying universal features. First off, the controls are really convenient; just pick Controller (instead of Arcade Stick) in Options and the default keys are perfect. The top face buttons are punches, bottom face buttons are kicks, and the shoulder buttons act as pressing three punches or kicks simultaneously; useful for Ultra attacks and other moves requiring that input. Zangief was a delight to play on this pad, with all of his major moves coming out easily. I was even able to do standing 360 motions (and thus his piledriver), and did plenty of them with reversal timing, snatching people out of combos they previously thought were safe even if blocked.

Ryu was similarly easy to work with, and I was able to easily alternate between fireballs, uppercuts, and EX variations of all his moves with ease. Brief tests with Cammy showed that ’270’ motions also worked fine, so there were no complaints there. My only real issues were with Balrog (Boxer), as I found I had to pay special attention to the motions for his moves. It took about an hour, but I eventually got the ’feel’ for them down, and was able to do things like comboing his headbutt into his Super or Ultra attack with ease. Universal engine features like throwing (and teching out of an enemy’s throw) were fine, as were more advanced things like dash cancels out of a focus attack.

Verdict: Aside from having to re-learn how to do charge motions on a gamepad, I had no serious issues. The majority of the universal features worked great, and most characters I tried did well. Zangief in particular was great, and I felt almost as confident on this pad while using him as I would on an arcade stick.

King of Fighters ’98 Ultimate Match: This SNK fighting game requires motions different from most Capcom titles, such as half circles away from the opponent, then toward them. Or a quarter circle toward, half circle away. I tried a variety of characters, making sure to get every major command type I could think of: Leona’s charge motions, various grapplers and their half-circle based motions, typical ’fireball and uppercut’ types, and Geese since his Raging Storm is challenging to do even on a stick.

The results were pretty good. Like in Street Fighter IV, there were a couple moves I had to re-learn the motions for, but by and large I could do whatever I wanted, when I wanted. I’m also able to do short hops fairly regularly, and I suspect I’ll get it to be outright reliable with a little more practice. I also tried to do Geese’s Raging Storm on this pad, which requires a very difficult ’pretzel motion’ of down-away, half circle away, down-forward. Honestly, I’d say doing this move in real life is easier than doing it on any gamepad, but after about ten minutes of practice I finally got it, and proceeded to do a victory jig.

Verdict: Very good for this game, with only a few minor issues. Of special note, another SNK 2D fighter recently released, Garou: Mark of the Wolves, did quite well on this pad too; I had no problem doing Just Defended (a special form of blocking done just before an attack hits, it requires excellent timing and quick d-pad response to do) inputs on the Fightpad and even Just Defended my way through several multi-hit attacks.

Next: A few more fighting games, along with general 2D platformers, brawlers like Castle Crashers, and more.