Hi, I like fighting games. I'm not a "pro" or anything, and I don't play tourneys... I love SSBB and still play that actively, but this thread is not about SSBB and SSBB-esque games, it is about more traditional fighting games...

I used to own people at all the local arcades as a pre-teen to teenager (10-14). Mainly I liked the Street Fighter and Marvel vs. Capcom series. I was decent at Tekken and played Mortal Kombat a lot just for fun... But when it came to Street Fighter II or MvC II, I'd beat 25-year olds all the time... I also played SFO (Street Fighter Online) for a good few years. I got a GameCube for the first time (I had played on N64s and PS1s at friends house at age 13 and expanded my tastes in terms of game genres (including the more "casual" fighting games, such as SSB, DBZ Games, and Naruto), fell in love with SSBM and tons of other games... 

I recently bought SSIV Arcade Edition (a few months ago) for PS3, and it's pretty good. I'm starting to get back into it... I'm still kinda rusty (I get pwnd online about half the time), but I'm not terrible. Anyway, I recently bought my Dad Namco Museum Megamix for Wii, and my Mom (she plays PacMan a lot) complained that it wasn't quite the same as using an arcade joystick... So, I did a little research and found this baby at GameStop for $13:

http://www.amazon.com/Wii-Tatsunoko-Capcom-Arcade-FightStick-Nintendo/dp/B0032ISZL8

There were two within my state (about 50 miles away), and I had my gamstop ship them over to my local store and bought both of them. I converted one to a 4-way (for games like galaga, pac-man, dig dug, etc) by opening up the inside and turning the restrictor plate. I tried out the other one for a few weeks before I converted it to a 4-way also, so that if two people were playing, that they wouldn't have to unplug their remote so the other person could use the fight stick...

So, in my using the fight stick, I didn't really see the big deal that most fighting game enthusiasts make. I understand the idea of digital input vs. analog (which is why I like the D-pad for pulling off hadoukens), but I don't understand why it's "so much better" than a standard controller (except xbox, i understand because the D-pad is terrible)... 8 buttons, a digital input analog... There are 4 face buttons and 4 trigger buttons on a Dual-shock, and a digital D-pad... Same number of inputs (and 2 additional analog sticks)... What's the big deal/advantage? Maybe I'm just used to console controllers now instead of arcades, but I just don't get what the big deal is... Will someone explain it to me?

D-pads ftw!

Its the same feeling for me for three generations I've been using the Duelshock controller and whe I tried a joystick it just doesn't feel right to me.

Fightstick.. Because you can use all your fingers on the buttons and not only your thumb and index fingers you can execute everything a tiny bit faster which on high level competition is the difference.. And 99% of the dpads sucks on gamepads except for the Sega Saturn gamepad..

Having all the buttons together makes multiple button presses easier and more accurate (LP+MP+HP, for example). More important in Street Fighter because it has 6 buttons (LP, MP, HP, LK, MK, HK) and most pads only have 4 face buttons.

Three (some people use four...) fingers are better (and faster) than a thumb. I play with pads because I'm used to them, but I use my fingers instead of my right thumb in fighters.

Plinking in Street Fighter, slide inputs in Tekken (example: Yoshi's 2~1), etc are easier.

Shorter distance from neutral and directions allows faster inputs and makes things like this easier:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_748344&feature=iv&src_vid=7uwfjpfK0jo&v=ISKfZgwRT4U

Most pros started in arcades so they're used to them.

The diagonals of the playstation controllers suck, and the xbox d-pad is even worse.

Wireless controllers have lag.

I'm sure i'm missing some.

I don't like fightsticks....yet lol. I prefer a controller on all fighting games that I play though fightsticks make it easier to reach buttons and most people seem to prefer them wired for no input lag or some nonsense.

*comes to talk about SSBB*

*reads first sentence*

D:

*leaves*