Many serious gamers - especially those that are into fighters - buy or consider buying fighting sticks. And then you get the crazies who even BUILD their own.

So, naturally, every gaming community needs a place dedicated to discussing them. So, if you have one, or you have experience using one, tell about it! Have you actually built one? Share about that! And if you're considering buying one in the future, ask your questions about them here. You'll probably fairly easily find advice here.

Me, I started building one a couple years ago. I'm planning on having it AT LEAST compatible with PS2 and 360. I built it large enough that, if I find small enough PCBs, I can build it to be compatible with PS2, 360, GCN, and Dreamcast. I did REALLY well building it and got everything complete, then ran into a brick wall when I started doing the wiring. Soldering onto controller PCBs is SUPER hard, and I screwed up a PS2 and 360 PCB both in the process. Since then, I've been looking for better alternatives. Right now, my best bet seems to be to find cheap fighting sticks for the aforementioned systems and just gut 'em, then switch the PCBs over. I'm probably going to try finding a Hori EX2 for my 360, and I'm not sure which PS2 one I want yet - there are a LOT of cheapo sticks to choose from. For my buttons and stick, I went with Happ instead of Sanwa, like most builders, because I like the feel better. My stick has a bat joystick instead of a ball-end, again, a preference difference. I'll post pictures when I get home. It's not the prettiest thing, but it's comfortable and very practical.

I also own a Hori EX2 and Hori Real Arcade Pro Tekken 6.

So, let's talk fighting sticks!

For real? VGChartz has nobody else that cares about fighting sticks?

hi there... i am planing to get a fight stick to play blazblue and SSF IV... but for PS3... notice a few days ago that sony has a official F.S. build by hori... since you have two by that manufacturer, i want to ask... are they good? the ones from madcatz (tournament edition) look good but they are hard to find (near impossible) in my country and they are a bit expensive... who has them... do you recommend them?

Edit: also prefer the bat over the ball (in my youth those were the ones i use more, soo...); is it easy to change the stick?

The stick itself shouldn't be a problem at all to change. I haven't toyed around with trying to take apart my factory-built sticks yet because I'm pretty satisfied with them so far.

I DID disassemble my EX2 when I got it to take a look at the inside. If the stick itself doesn't unscrew to be removed, your options are very few. Most replacement stick assemblies take up a little more space inside the box than the typical Hori stick, so you may have trouble replacing the assembly itself.

Hori is considered the top of the line for widely available fighting sticks. They make a wide variety of models, though, from low-end (the EX2, available for about $50 usually) to really high-end (like the Real Arcade Pro 3 Premium, MSRPing at $300).

I don't know much about other commercial brands. I know MadCatz has a good reputation, but Hori is typically considered better.