XGaming X-Arcade Stick Review (PS2, Xbox, GC, +)

The X-Arcade Stick from XGaming, Inc. is the answer to the prayers of fighting game fans everywhere that want the arcade experience at home. You can get the stick in both single and two-player versions, but no matter which one you get you can be sure that the construction and performance is going to be flawless. These are high-end sticks with a high-end price, but if you are a hardcore fighting game fan you’ll definitely get your money’s worth.

Features

The X-Arcade Stick has all of the features that you would expect on an arcade joystick and then some. The dual stick has two American-style sticks, eight action buttons for each player along with player one and player two start buttons as well as left and right pinball-style flipper buttons on the sides. The single stick has all of these same features just for, you know, one person.

What makes the X-Arcade stand out above the crowd, however, is that it is a universal stick thanks to a nifty system of adapters. With the right adapter, you can hook the X-Arcade up to your Xbox, GameCube, PS2, PS1, Dreamcast, PC, and Mac. Even better is that work is already underway to create adapters for the Xbox 360, PS3, and Nintendo Revolution so you can buy an X-Arcade now with no worries that it will be worthless six months down the road.

Setup

Setting up the X-Arcade is a breeze as all you have to do is plug in the included serial cable to the back of the X-Arcade unit itself and the other end of the serial cable into the adapter of your choice. The adapters are labeled with P1 and P2 so you just have to plug the right end into the right controller port on your system and you are ready to go. The cables are long enough that you can sit a fair distance back from your TV or position the unit however you want to find a comfortable spot to play in.

The button layouts vary from console to console, but they were intended to be as close to the original controller as possible. Since there are eight action buttons on the X-Arcade, the A,B,X,Y,Black,White,L,and R buttons of the Xbox controller or X, Triangle, Circle, Square, L1,R1,L2,and R2 buttons on the Playstation Dual Shock are all accounted for and within easy reach. The buttons fall right under your hands and it is easy to press more than one button at a time. Another nice feature is that if a particular game doesn’t support analog controls, you can easily switch from analog to digital with a simple button combination. They thought of everything!

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