Mad Catz had a clear winner with their Tournament Edition FightStick design ("TE" or "TE stick" from here on), providing top-notch fighting game control from a retail product. Even its very high price (most TE models run for well over $100 USD, often closer to $150) did little to diminish its success, and it’s really no surprise the company has continued to make variants of it. Some of them, like the S-type, have made significant changes to the design and updated its features. The Marvel vs. Capcom 3 Tournament Edition FightStick however is simply an art variant of the original model; it has the same features (including the same lock switch) and is in every way an original TE stick with new art; its only other distinguishing feature is being part of a collectible limited run of 5,000 units per system.
This makes explaining the MvC3 TE stick pretty easy, since its target audience is already familiar with what this product does. The eight Sanwa face buttons and Japanese ball-top style stick work as well in most fighting games now as they did when the original model debuted just a few years ago, so going from playing on any other TE stick to this one is very easy. It’s even a great controller for Marvel vs. Capcom 3, which it needs to be since it carries that game’s artwork and logo. Everything you would expect to be able to do on a competition-ready arcade stick is possible on this one, ranging from wavedashing and ’Tiger Knee’ motion aerial attacks, to lengthy combos and fundamentals like blocking cross-up attacks. If you have the skill and knowledge to win, a stick like this can make sure you perform well.
That said, it does have a few shortcomings. The most significant is that it maintains the lock switch of the original design, rather than incorporating the S-type’s improved lock. To be precise: the lock on this stick only disables the control panel in the upper left corner, while Start and Back can still be pressed so the user still risks incurring a mid-match ’pause penalty’ at tournaments. While that isn’t a huge flaw, it is one that the S-type stick fixed and it’s baffling that such an obvious improvement didn’t carry over to this product. The artwork also deserves some critique; what’s present looks great and is taken from existing Marvel vs. Capcom 3 art, but it is only present on one half of the stick. The right side is almost entirely devoid of decoration, and it looks weird to have great visuals on only the left half.
To give a quick summary, Mad Catz’ Marvel vs. Capcom 3 Tournament Edition FightStick is a simple ’art variant’ of the original TE design that has already been on the market for a few years. What this product means to you thus depends on your situation, with specific recommendations made on the next page.
