Mad Catz Street Fighter V Arcade FightStick TE2+ for PlayStation4 and PlayStation3

I am an arcade stick enthusiastic. I have many arcade sticks, to name a few:Madcatz TE1 (unmodded, Sanwa parts)Hori Vlx (modded with Seimitsu parts)Hori Rap 4 Kai Hayabusa KOF version (Unmodded Hori parts)Qanba Q1 (unmodded, Qanba parts)Hori Mini 3 (unmodded Hori parts)These covered most of the major arcade stick parts (stick and buttons) on the market today. Out of these sticks, I prefer the madcatz TE the most. When I use the other sticks, there are significance drops in my performance. When I use other sticks, I got all kind of errors, many times the moves I want to do don't come out. Maybe it is because I'm too used to Sanwa parts (especially for the Seimitsu stick, it feels really good, maybe if my first stick were to be a Seimitsu, I would say things otherwise). But whatever the reason is, the Madcatz TE is the only stick that brings out my full potential. When Madcatz said the TE will "Level Up Your Fighting Skills", they are not lying. For important games, I will only play with the Madcatz TE. Maybe someone thinks that it is just the Sanwa parts that makes the TE stand out. However, that is not true. For example, a friend of mine said that the Qanba Q4 with Sanwa parts is nothing compared to the TE. There are other things that make the Madcatz TE stand out, such as its almost zero input lag board and its ergonomic design. I strongly recommend anyone, new to arcade sticks or veterans alike, to give the Madcatz TE2+ a try. Especially for beginners, my advise is that do not waste your time on "entry-level sticks". Since beginners are not familiar with arcade sticks, they especially need good sticks to get them used to sticks quickly. Using bad sticks is only going to slow down the process.I have another friend in Taiwan. He is a top KOF player, with years of experience in the arcades. He was using a Hori stick on his PS4, and told me that his Hori stick was not broken but he simply couldn't perform that well with it. I immediately knew what he mean. Hori products used to be very good but currently the quality of their products are decreasing. Their products all have a cheap feel. For example I own their RAP 4 stick and their PS3 gem pad, both of them feel like cheap pieces of plastic. It is not surprising such a cheapskate company wants to develope their own sticks and buttons rather than using Sanwa's to cut cost. However their own parts are really not up to standard, at least for someone who is used to using Sanwa parts. My Taiwanese friend is going to join the KOF world championship in Japan in Feb 2017 and I decide to send him the Madcatz TE2+ as a gift, so he can use it for the tournament. I ordered this Madcatz TE2+ and shipped it to Taiwan.There was a small problem. After receiving it, he found that the X button was not working. After testing the stick on a computer, he found that the X button was always being held down and there was something wrong with the board of the stick. I contacted Madcatz. The people at Madcatz were very helpful. After knowing that the stick was already shipped to Taiwan and my friend needed a replacement quickly so that he can bring it to the tournament, Madcatz graciously agreed to ship a new stick to him without having him shipping back the faulty stick. The new stick reached him in about 5 working days on Feb 2nd and we were very happy that it reached him on time.If you want to step up your game and unleash your full fighting potential, the Madcatz TE2+ is your weapon of choice.

Unboxing this fight stick was like Christmas morning as a child. Reminded me of unboxing my PS4! The packaging looks great, and it was easy to open. You can look at pictures of this thing all you want, but when you see it IRL and get it in your hands, this fight stick looks and feels fantastic. It has some weight to it, but it makes it feel very secure. Even though a lot of it is plastic, nothing feels cheap. This thing is a tank!As the description says, this fight stick is super easy to mod. There are several YouTube videos showing you how to modify it, and the stick itself comes with directions. I'm not a competent handyman by any stretch of the imagination, but I've modified mine a fair amount and will do more in the future, I'm sure.There is a learning curve when it comes to switching to a fight stick. If you use this for Street Fighter V, expect to spend time in training mode learning the basics again, but once you start to understand the mechanics, it all comes together nicely. You will have to invest a lot of time into it, but the return is an amazingly rewarding feeling. Some people prefer a fight stick to the controller, but it goes both ways. There are pros that still use a controller so stick to whatever is comfortable to you. I will say that, for me, a fight stick feels more natural. I'm sure there are people that feel the opposite. The fight stick has elevated my ability higher than it was before, but that's because I've put more time into learning the game and how to use the stick.Using a fight stick took me back to when I was a kid. I spent a LOT of time at the local skating rink sinking quarter after quarter after quarter into the Street Fighter 2 arcade cabinet. Bums me out that arcades are a dead medium (at least, in my area it is) but having this fight stick helps ease that pain. If you're looking for a high end fight stick, I highly suggest this one. I've read reviews where people say that their power cord has gone out, and there isn't a place to buy a new one - but I've also heard that the Mad Catz customer support will send you a new one if you contact them.Overall, this is my new favorite thing. If you're willing to put the time in, this fight stick is a lot of fun. If you spent any time in an arcade as a kid, it's very nostalgic. The Mad Catz TE2+ gets 5 well deserved stars from me.

when it works, it's great...responsive, comfortable to sit on your lap, all around good fighting stick. When it doesn't work, however, the amount of frustration is almost unbearable. When I first received the unit, tried it out, worked fine. After opening the unit multiple buttons stopped working. After checking connections, buttons still wouldn't work unless the unit was open ( the wires were being moved after closing the unit) Over the months i've experienced the same problems off and on, now with the added problem of joystick itself becoming unresponsive and even the unit itself not powering up after being connected to my PS4. Waiting to hear back from MadCatz at the moment. Will update