Wednesday, March 6, 2013

My new Hori VLX diamond fight stick: An elegant weapon from a more civilized age

21 years!
I've been playing Street Fighter on a console controller for 21 years....I've become fairly decent, but it wasn't until Street Fighter IV did I realize I had hit a ceiling with how good I could be using a console controller. In SSFIV I got my Chun to B rank, when AE came out regardless of the twins imbalance I got Chun back to B rank, when I played with friends from Capcom Unity I would have good days and bad days but on my very best days I struggled against my friends playing on a fight stick.
Last year I participated in Capcom's SF25th anniversary tournament in NYC, my best friend CJ and Mike and his wife joined me, and I saw how few people (serious players) came with console controllers. In fact the tournament would not allow the use of PS3 dual shock controllers unless they were hardwired, reason being if the controller came unplugged it would auto pause the match.
My 40th birthday just past last month and CJ hooked be up with what can only be described as the Ferrari of fight sticks! A Hori VLX diamond Fight Stick!
I gave it a test run the other night in an endless room with CJ....21 years on a console controller is not gonna be easy to unlearn! Good games Krogenar My Chun may be B rank but on the fight stick I'm below D rank.
Interestingly the next night I played against Mike using the Dual Shock 3 and I played extremely aggressively.
HUGE thank you CJ!!!! I will train hard like Rocky Balboa and make my new sponsor proud lol!  















Yes that is a Boss 302 Mustang behind the fight stick!














For all yall whipper-snappers on Unity that  bust on me and Brandon's age...Look out here comes the next generation of fighters!!!


4 comments:

  1. Glad you're enjoying it buddy! I'm having huge decals of my face printed, which you will wear at the next tournament.

    So, if I read this correctly, is this fight stick going to make you a better player? I won 5 out of our 6 fights, which is shocking because normally I can barely win. I'm sure there's a huge re-learning curve to a fightstick (important to note to others that we both started on arcade sticks -- yeah, we're that old school).

    Let me know if it improves your gameplay -- start defeating those punks!

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  2. Have fun with the fight stick buddy! I know it will take some time to relearn how to fight using it, but it should be worth it. Hopefully it will improve your game as well.

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  3. I will need intense sparring, if you have some free time LOL (I know I know) I'd love to get and endless match with you me and Mike.

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  4. Just got mine last night too. Its so beastly. I already went all silent with it. It is an experience.

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