Street Fighter IV Recommended Joysticks

Throughout my entire time playing Street Fighter I've heard a lot of things about joysticks, with the one common complaint that commercial joysticks suck.  Although it is true that most commercial joysticks DO suck, there are three that I can definitely recommend to you.  One is out of print and hard to find, and the other two are rather expensive.

Why is that?  Because any serious Street Fighter player needs a serious good quality joystick.  You will find that a top quality joystick is a lot more durable, reliable, and just plain better to play on.  Also, if you're using an arcade quality joystick you won't have issues in transitioning to live play.  A lot of players with a low grade stick will eventually "upgrade" it or have it break and need to put in new higher quality parts regardless, so lets skip that step shall we?

First on my list:  The Official Street Fighter 15th Anniversary Joystick.  Created to coincide with the release of the Playstation and X Box version releases of the Hyper Street Fighter II Anniversary Edition and Street Fighter III 3rd Strike port this was a top quality joystick in the American style and one of the few to be done correctly.  It featured the standard straight across layout, red white and blue buttons as common in the US, and featured a medium spring HAPP 8 Way Competition Bat style joystick and HAPP Concave buttons, this was the home version of the joystick we all played on as kids at the arcade or 7-11.

There is a used one currently going on Ebay for around 90 dollars.  

Why you might want to consider getting one:  This joystick and the American style in general have a much harder snap and shorter "throw", meaning you won't have to manipulate the joystick as far as on a japanese style.  The gate is also octagonal or round as opposed to square, so it can feel a bit more accurate when moving to a specific direction.  The snapback will also help with things such as charge supers as the stick will do some of the work for you, with japanese style you have to do the motion with wrist power.

Why you might not:   The American style joystick has fallen out of favor in the US due to newer players simply preferring Japanese style, especially Street Fighter III 3rd Strike players.  Also, the newer Joysticks being produced by US companies are ball style as well.  It can be a bit difficult to do double qcf motions due to the stiffness of the spring, you need a lot more wrist power to get it back to neutral and back around for the second fireball motion.  The buttons also must be hit with a lot more power to register than a Sanwa or Seimitsu manufactured button.

Games that are best played on a HAPP:  Marvel vs Capcom 2, America's game, is played almost 100% on American style joysticks so keep that in mind if you'd like to play that in the arcades.  

Other ways to play on a HAPP:  Get a custom stick builder to make you one, that's it!  I own a Custom HAPP joystick built by my friend that fits what I said about the Anniversary Edition, except mine has a HARD spring.

Hori Real Arcade Pro Series / Madcatz Street Fighter IV Tournament Edition:

There are a lot of people talking about the Madcatz TE and for good reason.  It has all Sanwa parts out of the box, a nice design, and a low profile.  It is going for fairly ridiculous prices due to supply and demand at the moment.

It is the only good Xbox360 joystick that I know of though.

I mainly wanted to talk about the Hori Real Arcade Pro.  Popularly known as the HRAP these joysticks are fantastic, I own two models.   I own the HRAP 3 for Playstation 3, and the HRAP 2 SA for PS2.  The main difference is that the HRAP3 is built with Hori buttons which are not bad by any means, they are quite durable and arcade quality, but they are a bit more difficult to activate than Sanwa.  Any HRAP model that ends in "SA" is a Special "Addition" (sic) that will feature ALL Sanwa parts, and a metal overlay.  The SA's are a super limited edition and can be resold at a premium price, for example when I bought my SA2 it was sold out in under a month from then... and I pre ordered!

Why you might want a Japanese stick:  It is more popular, and the motions are done with a lot less wrist effort.  Definitely get it if you are a  Street Fighter III 3rd strike player.  Buttons are also a lot more sensitive as well.

Why you might not:  Basically, the square gate is a tough adjustment.  Rather than doing qcf's you seem to be doing quarter squares, also the sensitivity of buttons is to such a degree that you might make some execution mistakes.  A Sanwa button can be activated by the weight of 2 quarters.

Have fun playing Street Fighter 4!