As Nintendo Switch continues to sell well globally, whether it’s wandering alone on the Hailar continent with Link fishing and catching birds, or lying in the bed before going to bed and building their own islands with friends, all players have gained. Countless fun.
But arcade game players, one of the core player camps, seem to have become a neglected group in this era.
The arcade has left indelible memories for countless post-70s and post-80s. In that era when Internet cafes and home consoles were not yet popular, the arcade hall gave countless people happiness, including me.
With the popularity of the Internet and the impact of diverse entertainment methods, the traditional arcade game halls have gradually faded out of our sight. Want to relive the happiness of the year, I opened the Street Fighter King of Fighters collection on the Switch, but I was frustrated to find that the original red and blue handles could not bring the pleasure of the “Papa Papa” button in any case.
What we lack is just a device that can bring us exactly the same operating experience as an arcade machine. The 8Bitdo Arcade Stick we experienced today is specifically designed to meet the demanding needs of arcade fans for the operating feel. A game peripheral.
8Bitdo Arcade Stick for Switch & Windows: $89.99
The outer packing box of 8Bitdo Arcade Stick adopts a portable carrying case design, and the overall color is retro-washed white. The rocker is fixed and placed with black plastic foam, and inside the plastic groove is an external USB cable. A copy of the manual is attached. The rocker connecting line uses a hidden design interface, which can be stored in a plastic foam storage bin for convenient storage.
The rocker size is 303mm*203mm, and the panel size is medium to small among similar products, which is easy to carry and store at home. However, compared with the exquisite appearance, the weight is unexpectedly satisfactory. The weight of 2.1kg is no matter placed on the table. The upper or leg will not move sideways due to operation, and the anti-skid pad is also arranged under the rocker for easy fixation.
The layout of buttons and joysticks is centered, inheriting the Vewlix style layout of the standard arcade joystick. To be able to perform well on different devices. There are 8 buttons on the front of the joystick, which exceeds the actual usage requirements of up to 6 game buttons in arcade games. The 2×4 button arrangement not only brings good compatibility when players are playing Switch games, but also allows players to choose the most preferred button arrangement according to their habits when running arcade games on the PC.
The function buttons on the upper left of the panel, from left to right are Switch / Xinput switch (corresponding to Switch / PC), LS / DP / RS switch (corresponding to the left stick/cross button/right stick of the gamepad analog joystick) ). I also found a thoughtful design: depending on the game console the player switch corresponds to, the button side of the panel will light up the indicator light of RB / LB / RT / LT or R / L / ZR / ZL, which is convenient for the player to recognize when setting the button.
The three brightly colored green, yellow and blue buttons below become a decorative color embellishment on the panel. Its functions are wireless connection pairing key, Turbo key and Home key in order. The Home button is a home button added specifically for the Switch. The Turbo key is to reduce player operations and achieve the function of maintaining a continuous trigger state.
It has three connection methods. In my experience, I personally feel that Bluetooth and 2.4G connection methods are better than portable. Among them, the Bluetooth connection can connect with the new host at any time, and you can go out and have fun with friends. 2.4G connection, as an old-brand wireless connection protocol, has a longer connection distance than Bluetooth and is more stable. It is suitable for long-term pairing with the host used in the home; and for fighting game players who pay attention to more immediate operation and lower latency, the wired connection provides the greatest degree of immediate input feedback.
On the upper right of the panel, there are two custom function physical buttons, P1 and P2, which can be used with 8Bitdo software to realize the macro definition function. The original complicated input operation can be realized by editing with one key. For fighting games, this function is probably not commonly used. The gorgeous combo formed by precise input commands is the greatest joy.
8Bitdo Arcade Stick uses Omron’s non-chip micro-movement, moderate elasticity, smooth circumnavigation, and the sound is very crisp when used, whether it is for fighting games or shooting games, the hand feel is excellent. The buttons of the standard version are slightly harder and feel similar to Hori’s first Real Arcade Pro.
In general, the 8Bitdo Arcade Stick has a much better experience than the original controller in terms of game operation feel. When using it, various tricks and tricks are used as arms and fingers, so that players can experience exactly the same use as an arcade machine when using the Switch to play games. Feeling and operating experience, experience the thrill of punching in a fighting game.
Industrial design and appearance can only be regarded as the icing on the cake for the joystick. What we are most concerned about is its performance in the game, and CAPCOM, SNK, etc. have successively launched their arcade classic game series on the Switch. In familiar games such as “1945”, “Famous Generals”, and “Three Kingdoms: Devouring Heaven and Earth”, 8Bitdo Arcade Stick performed well. The smooth rotation of the joystick and the crisp sound of the keys made me immersed in the classic childhood game atmosphere Can’t extricate themselves.
In the game “Metal Slug”, everyone knows that if you keep using a pistol to shoot to maintain maximum output, the amount of finger button operation is very huge, and thanks to the Turbo button setting we mentioned earlier, players are doing this During the game, the burden on the hands is greatly reduced. You can experience the game itself more relaxed.
In order to test the advanced input performance of 8Bitdo Arcade Stick, I also specially used Street Fighter 3.3 in Capcom’s “Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection” as the test software. Street Fighter 3.3, as a pyramid-like existence of a fighting game, has always been one of the highest games in the history of fighting games because of the number of frames required for sequence and operation.
It should be said that the feedback and delay performance of the joystick is beyond expectation, and the effect of the delay is completely unnoticeable, which perfectly reproduces the feel of arcade operation. In fact, in the delay test of different connection methods, the 2.4G wireless connection performed well, just like the USB wired connection, the inconvenience of input delay was not felt at all.
The standard Vewlix key arrangement, combined with the input pleasure and excellent feedback brought by the intimate materials, allows players to use it to play games, which can help you retrieve the dusty childhood memories. If you happen to have similar needs, I believe 8Bitdo Arcade Stick can bring you a good arcade/fighting game experience.
8Bitdo Arcade Stick for Switch & Windows: $89.99
