I just want the Madcatz gamepad with the very nice DPad.
I play on 360 and that dpad is just not having it.
 I feel like i do a move perfectly and it just doesnt register so ive resorted to using the analog stick.

People will play it however it feels comfortable for them.

I'm liking the analog stick a lot more than the 360 Dpad.  I've need used a stick for a game that wasn't in an arcade so I'm not planning on buying one, though I still want a fightpad so I can get a better Dpad.

I use Zangief, so using the 360's stick  is pretty much perfect.

There are allot of people moding there 360 pads, they are sanding down the ring the d pad sits on so it works better.
The real said thing is all these comments about get a arcade stick, are scaring people away from the game!!! i have heard at least 10 people say, "i will not get this game as i cant afford a stick and iv heard you cant play it without one." this is a load of crap. Yes you can its just what you prefer, and its not a matter of is better. For instance the reason i cant use a arcade stick is when ever i try a fireball it sometimes jumps, hate it when that happens so i prefer a pad. Then there are the people who say well what about the buttons cant use some.....  like 3xpunch and kick, if you go into the options you can map them to 1 button so its even easier, than a stick!!!

I don't mind the 360 d-pad in SFIV at all. I thought it was kinda clunky in Virtua Fighter 5, very unforgiving in SSF2THDR and damn right unplayable in Samurai Showdown 2. But it seems they're a bit more lenient with the inputs in SFIV.
I still want an arcade stick, but it definitely isn't required.

There's no way I'd be able to pull off the supers with an analog stick or d-pad. That's just me though.

I just received my Hori Stick (the same one vinny got), and for me, its soo much better. the controls just feel more fluid and its much easier to pull off moves when i want

I was having trouble playing until I switched to the 360 analog stick and just thought about it being a really really tiny arcade stick...i got the hang of it after that.

Speaking of analogs and arcade sticks, there's some video out there of some event where they had champion pac-man players player Pac-Man Championship Edition on 360 controllers and many or most of them had to hold the analog stick with their fingertips cause they had no experience using their thumb to control a game. Kinda funny.

Doesn't a joystick and the analog stick on a controller basically due the same exact thing?

"Doesn't a joystick and the analog stick on a controller basically due the same exact thing?
"

I feel the opposite way, It seems I really do need a stick to get things going, the dpad on the 360 is just awful.
Got somewhat better with the easy sanding mod, but still it just went from "oh god, why wont you just do the damn ultra already" to a little bit better.

Guess I'll be spending money more money :<

edit: read it wrongly ><

I play the 360 version and since my sticks haven't come in yet i've been using the analog stick on the standard xbox controller.

With a PS3 dpad fter about 30 minutes my thumb seriously hurts. I can do most supers and stuff but, again, after a while they start to fail more - I end up doing a dragon punch instead of a double fireball or whatever. Its just not comfortable. Aside from the dpad, only having 4 face buttons makes many combos far harder and Ultras also very hard unless you bind a button to 3P/3K (and remember which it is when you change character).

I am still considering a stick when they come back into stock.

I would love an Arcade Stick however, they cost money, so Controller it is.

-- God Bless.

I could never go back to playing with a pad.

SEGA SATURN PAD FTW :)
Best d-pad, best buttons placement :)

"I play the 360 version and since my sticks haven't come in yet i've been using the analog stick on the standard xbox controller.

D-pad is junk on 360. One of my friends busted his d-pad already from playing SFIV belive it or not so he's forced to go analog stick until his stick arrives as well.

"

I'm going to have to agree and disagree with you at the same time.

I did learn the fighting game in the arcades but was always too poor to get a stick. That is until recently. Certain moves I am relearning on a stick, but others that I had a hard time with before comes so naturally now. I popped in some older 3d games as well, and I gotta say when you're moving in 3 dimensions it really does matter whether you have the pad or not.

However for the purposes of SF4, I do agree and say you don't need a stick. Getting a stick is like taking a cross country trip in a really nice GT car. You could always take that same trip in 4 door econo sedan and make the trip as well. This aint rockband where you have to buy new shit to play the game. But buying new shit would just emulate the arcade experience more.

That's right, you don't NEED a joystick.  However, the game handles FAR better WITH a joystick.

I dont really understand all this fuzz around the stick, I have always used a gamepad for street fighther since SNES. 

I'm frustrated with this controller issue. I ordered mine from Amazon quite a while ago, expecting it to ship right around the game's launch. Amazon now says they'll update me when they have a ship date, but as of now there is no info. I think that Madcatz royally screwed up. Gamers are so frustrated that they're paying WELL OVER TWO TIMES the retail value of the fighting sticks on eBay.

I prefer sticks for fighting games, but each to his own.

I use the 360's D-Pad.  You just gotta muscle the little sucker around a bit, but I can pretty much execute any move on command.
However, I must admit I pretty much forced myself to get good with the 360 controller because I don't have the dough to fork over for an arcade stick.  Maybe one day I'll upgrade to the fight pad, but for now, I'm fine.

A joystick would be great, honestly i also feel that i don't really need it.

Joysticks are much more fun to use in fighting games.

I don't want to brag or anything, but I've got me the FIGHTPAD & TE stick.
There is a night and day difference of how PRECISE the TE stick is in my hands.

I've been using the standard 360 controller since I got the game, and got pretty good at it. I finally picked up a fightpad and sucked with it. It all comes down to what you're used to or what you like best. I HATE d-pads.

Agreed as above, that arcade stick theory, busted as well. I paid quite a bit of cash that could of went to hookers, coke and alcohol. I now have a Tournament Edition Fight Stick I have been trying to get a hold of since day one Gamestop screwed me on my pre-order Collector's Edition SF4 and Tournament Edition Fight Stick. One of the employees was hording them and rumor leaked out and district manager was also fired because he got caught making a profit selling through craigslist (a local customer answered the ad and recognized the seller as the manager at the store). I stalked the local GameCrazy and had a friend there call me when it arrived, profit.

Just practice with whatever you have, No matter what you got, it just takes the time and patients. Valuable lesson in owning an expensive fight stick, you can't fuck it.

What turns me off SFIV so much is how bad I am at it.

"To prove my point bring your stick ill bring my pad and i bet it would still be an equal match."

that is a very ignorant thing to say, which completely discredits your argument.

though, i completely agree with you that sticks shouldn't scare people away from the game.

but furthermore, street fighter was designed for arcade components so.... yeah....

and as much as I love jeff gerstmann, are you seriously using him as an example? to which I retort, Daigo Umehara, and the rest of Japan uses sticks.

" That's right, you don't NEED a joystick.  However, the game handles FAR better WITH a joystick. "

The game is very accessible using the 360 pad, the problem lies in the fact it is damn near impossible to successfully pull some of the truly advanced combos using it with some degree of consistency. Try getting through Ken's hard trials (namely 3+) using the 360 pad. I cannot do it for the fucking life of me. I had to eliminate the 3 kick button in favor of a single focus attack button. Using a single button for focus attacks is almost necessary, trying to hit to 2 face buttons/dashing consistently is a problem....at least for me.

You can still play competitively though.

" @jakob187 said:

" That's right, you don't NEED a joystick.  However, the game handles FAR better WITH a joystick. "

That's right, they're more faster and intuitive than the D-Pad, "

" The game is very accessible using the 360 pad, the problem lies in the fact it is damn near impossible to successfully pull some of the truly advanced combos using it with some degree of consistency. Try getting through Ken's hard trials (namely 3+) using the 360 pad. I cannot do it for the fucking life of me. I had to eliminate the 3 kick button in favor of a single focus attack button. Using a single button for focus attacks is almost necessary, trying to hit to 2 face buttons/dashing consistently is a problem....at least for me.You can still play competitively though. "

I like playing Dan mostly. So I might as well just use a modified Atari 2600 joystick.
 If I'm playing "serious" with chung Li then the d-pad is okay. its not great but its fine.

" @Kou_Leifoh said:

" @jakob187 said:

" That's right, you don't NEED a joystick.  However, the game handles FAR better WITH a joystick. "

That's right, they're more faster and intuitive than the D-Pad, "

i would say the D-pads faster!! as you have to do less movement... "

" "To prove my point bring your stick ill bring my pad and i bet it would still be an equal match."that is a very ignorant thing to say, which completely discredits your argument. though, i completely agree with you that sticks shouldn't scare people away from the game. but furthermore, street fighter was designed for arcade components so.... yeah....and as much as I love jeff gerstmann, are you seriously using him as an example? to which I retort, Daigo Umehara, and the rest of Japan uses sticks. "

@babz said:

"bring two players of equal skill and it wont mater what there using..."

that wasn't how your phrased it before (you claimed you were as good as everyone here if not better.) I agree with you here though, obviously if the two players have equal skill it doesn't matter.

and yeah, daigo is good because he's been playing forever and started with stick. same can be said with gerstmann, he's been playing forever and started with pad.

but the shortcut motions were not created with pads in mind (not neccessarily). They were created to eliminate barriers of entry into the game. Street fighter is still an arcade fighter. It was designed with arcade components in mind first, and then adapted to controllers on home console. So its the PURE way to play, as the designers intended. (don't misinterpret, i don't mean best way, thats your own opinion). But sticks to me just seem like a more precise gamepad. I mean think about it, everything is larger. Hence, sensitivity is larger and you get more control out of it.

And almost all good players (and i mean really good, like pro players) uses sticks. All the top players in Japan uses sticks (so yeah, i might not know everyone in japan, but why would i need to know of a scrub playing with pad?), because they play in the arcade. And pro pad players generally play tekken or soul calibur. You hardly see any pro players using pad in street fighter.

but hey, back to the point, you are right, i'm not trying to disagree with you. I'm trying to point out some facts that you seem to be missing. At our level of play, pad and stick is indistinguishable. So to each their own.

for the past 2 months i have used the 360 analog for sf4 and did quite well. yesterday i got the mad catz TE(my first stick ever) and i suck so bad with it.

"

@babz said:

"bring two players of equal skill and it wont mater what there using..."

that wasn't how your phrased it before (you claimed you were as good as everyone here if not better.) I agree with you here though, obviously if the two players have equal skill it doesn't matter.

and yeah, daigo is good because he's been playing forever and started with stick. same can be said with gerstmann, he's been playing forever and started with pad.

but the shortcut motions were not created with pads in mind (not neccessarily). They were created to eliminate barriers of entry into the game. Street fighter is still an arcade fighter. It was designed with arcade components in mind first, and then adapted to controllers on home console. So its the PURE way to play, as the designers intended. (don't misinterpret, i don't mean best way, thats your own opinion). But sticks to me just seem like a more precise gamepad. I mean think about it, everything is larger. Hence, sensitivity is larger and you get more control out of it.

And almost all good players (and i mean really good, like pro players) uses sticks. All the top players in Japan uses sticks (so yeah, i might not know everyone in japan, but why would i need to know of a scrub playing with pad?), because they play in the arcade. And pro pad players generally play tekken or soul calibur. You hardly see any pro players using pad in street fighter.

but hey, back to the point, you are right, i'm not trying to disagree with you. I'm trying to point out some facts that you seem to be missing. At our level of play, pad and stick is indistinguishable. So to each their own.

 

"

" for the past 2 months i have used the 360 analog for sf4 and did quite well. yesterday i got the mad catz TE(my first stick ever) and i suck so bad with it. "

I just got a stick and I'm still getting past the learning curve but I can already see my game improving. My main issue with using a PS3 controller was having to use the shoulder buttons would mess me up, I also had some occasional difficulty pulling off EX moves, throws, and focus attacks as it would only register one of my presses. So no, you don't need a stick to be competitive, but it might help.

You don't need a stick, but your game will improve considerably if you use one.  I was using a pad for all my fighting games until SF4 came out.  Not having to shoehorn certain commands to the shoulder buttons makes a HUGE difference.  I played SF4 on both the PS3 and 360 controllers, and while the PS3 pad plays decently enough, I can't stand the 360 pad.  I lost a tourney at work partly because of the pad and sticks were banned.  Nobody should have to mod their D-pads to get them to function properly.

There's a bit of a learning curve with a stick, but once you get past that, it's hard to go back to a pad.  The cool thing is that you can transfer your stick skills across different games, and you can use the stick for non-fighting games, too (like arcade-style shooters).

After only one day of owning a stick, the rate at which i mistakenly do say a shoryuken instead of a hadouken has gone down about 80%.

This is off topic, but how is my punctuation? I wanted to put a comma here..........^ but I'm not sure.