I've never bought a dedicated fighting game controller before and it's been hard to find solid information on which is a good one. The Madcatz Fightpads are apparently notorious for D-Pad failures so I want to avoid those I think. I just need a good D-Pad and 6 reliable buttons!

Skull girls pantie closet

I've been using a Hori Fighting Stick V3. It works pretty well with the button configs: Three punches up top and three kicks on the bottom row.

I didn't use the fightpad I bought for very long so I can't really say one way or the other. I would however recommend you keep your eye on the madcatz brawl stick on Amazon. I picked up the one for 360 (works for pc as well) for $30.

@snowsprite: I have a Macatz SF4 Sagat version from the 2009 launch still going strong, I also have a xtekken one from that games launch which I prefer due to its smaller size