The Greatest Arcade Stick Ever Made

“Greatest Ever” is a tough claim to make, evidence notwithstanding. The world is just too damn big, and it’s getting bigger every day.

Fifty years ago, we put three dudes on the Moon! Quite the achievement. Nowadays, billionaires launch themselves and other doodads into space practically every weekend… And bigger ops have their sights set on Mars. Over time, the extraordinary has just become plain ‘old ordinary.

Whether it’s in Science or Sport, everything gets trumped eventually. Everything except for the Madcatz Tournament Edition Fightstick, that thing is perfect.

I can’t say exactly what the future holds, but I’ll die on this hill for MadCatz. The “TE” is emblematic of an entire generation of fighting game players. Built by the underdog for millions of Pot Monsters, Button Mashers, and Hometown Heroes, this specialty controller has no reason to exist- But it does, and still it endures.

Running a company doesn’t work the way it does in the movies: Razor thin margins, a breadth of competing brands, and fickle consumers bear down on entrepreneurs like a black cloud. You could bring a truly revolutionary product to market, only to be undercut in a month by your rival. All that work and risk for naught. It’s small wonder why so few people start businesses.

MadCatz in 2008 was the runt of runts. Founded in 1989 and having been bought and sold countless times thereafter, they manufactured Third Party accessories for game consoles. Emphasis on Third Party. Sold at a lower price than other offerings, MadCatz controllers were fragile, gaudy, and perfect for a second player or little sibling.

Then, with the console launch of Street Fighter IV, MadCatz shocked nearly everyone by taking a risk and acting unlike themselves. They would release the greatest arcade stick of all time, capturing an entire market all at once and staving off bankruptcy with one product for ten years.

In less than a month MadCatz had a monopoly, more money than God, and set precedent for every arcade stick that dared release in its wake. A hard act to follow; How can you trump perfect?

The Fighting Game Community has had a love affair with specialty controllers for decades. The obsession began as early as Street Fighter II’s first home conversions. Arcade players found themselves let down by the Super Nintendo’s D-Pad and buttons. In the event you couldn’t afford to buy a state-of-the-art arcade cabinet to practice, any controller that mimicked the weight and layout of a Street Fighter machine was coveted for home play.

For most of the 2000s, American fighting game players were very comfortable with controllers built by MAS Systems. Founded during the fighting game boom years, MAS was the specialty arcade stick builder in North America. Sole proprietor Thao Nguyen worked tirelessly to perfect his design of a portable, yet durable joystick with arcade-quality parts. Until he and his wife’s tragic passing in 2021, every MAS Stick was custom made right in Southern California.

By all accounts, a MAS is nigh indestructible. So, what’s the problem?

Well, Arcade Controls in East Asia were very different; Some say superior. Mega-Manufacturers like HORI had been making quality joysticks before the fighting game explosion. Japan’s love affair with spaceship shooters created a seller’s market for arcade styled levers in the late 80s, and that’s reflected in the controllers on offer. Everybody sold arcade sticks! Street Fighter II was just the catalyst that bumped Japan’s production into overdrive.

So, what possessed MadCatz, a company built by penny-pinching Westerners, to sell an arcade stick with budget-busting Japanese parts? These components were so rare to North America in 2000, the few players that preferred them ordered directly from contacts at Sanwa and Seimitsu. If no one answered your email, you weren’t getting a new lever or buttons for months.

Tournament-going Americans had been exposed to square gate levers and light actuation buttons as early as 2001, but nearly every arcade still operating in the region opted for domestic parts (HAPP, IL). Multiple events in tandem contributed to the MadCatz TE’s success, and it all starts this early: A year out from the Capcom Fighters’ Dark Age, and five years before Street Fighter IV entered development.

As an aside, have you ever checked out James Chen’s Flickr Account? It’s a treasure-trove of fighting game history. As the Evolution Tournament Series’ first real photographer, he’s documented the event’s transformation into a supergiant for competitive fighting games. If you’ve been around for a minute, you’ll see lots of familiar faces in these pictures. For an FGC geek, every photo is like a small piece of a very complicated puzzle.

Before EVO became a cornerstone in the global Fighting Game Community, its early years were very American. The first EVO (Before it was EVO) was a 64-Man tournament held at a Mini Golf course. Barring three unidentified players from Kuwait, international attendance was unheard of. You played on what you had with whomever showed up. All this is to say the standard of Sanwa Levers and Buttons we see today was a pipe dream twenty years ago. Regardless of the entrenched American preference, I like to think EVO 2002 was the “beginning of the end.”

So begins the time-honored tradition of Americans losing terribly on their own soil- In fighting games at least. Once EVO was big enough to attract overseas talent, Japanese “Killers” swamped brackets for Capcom VS SNK 2, Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, and Virtua Fighter. Especially Virtua Fighter.

Americans still owned Marvel VS Capcom 2, but it didn’t matter. In most titles, Japanese execution was always two steps ahead. If you’ve ever played on an American Joystick and Buttons, you can probably guess why. HAPP/IL Levers are heavy, imprecise, and deflect a ton. American Buttons don’t fare much better. Marvel players often wore fingerless gloves to avoid cutting themselves on the tougher plastic of HAPP Competition Buttons. A long session could leave you exhausted or injured, which is the last thing you want under tournament pressure.

Through years of blisters and losing, Americans slowly came around to Japanese Parts. Some people stopped playing their matches on the floor, too! When MadCatz put their Fightstick into development around 2008, most American tournament players were already importing Japanese HORI Controllers. Times were changing. Of all the finalists in EVO’s Super Street Fighter II Turbo Tournament that year, only two used MAS Sticks. (Justin Wong and John Choi)

Street Fighter IV was a big deal. It put the brand back on the map and arguably reinvigorated the whole fighting genre. The arcade release turned thirteen this year! But most players outside of Japan and South Korea hadn’t experienced SFIV in a Game Center, they got their first taste on the couch. MadCatz wasn’t only concerned with catering to the FGC, they were thinking laterally.

The TE is so good because it goes further than anyone else to please absolutely everyone, and it succeeds! By 2008, competitor HORI had finished expanding Westward: Americans could buy a Japanese Arcade Stick and have it on their doormat in a week. HORI Real Arcade Pro Joysticks were often mod friendly, used authentic parts, and weren’t overly expensive. For Americans who hadn’t been traveling to EVO every year, however, the button layout and lever was abhorrent. HORI had specialized their product for a small scene that never stopped playing fighters, most of whom were Japanese. Street Fighter IV’s audience was the exact opposite.

At last, we come to the actual controller. It’s so good. I can’t understate how much this little box did for fighting games, and for a first attempt- The TE is a miracle: Balanced weight, a tournament “lockout” switch, accident proof Start and Select Buttons, it’s got it all. The decision to use arcade quality parts paid off, and made Sanwa Denshi diehards out of thousands of people. I’ve seen battle-worn TE Sticks with their original levers and buttons still working. You can’t ignore over a decade of reliability.

And if something breaks? The MadCatz TE was one of the easiest Arcade Sticks to repair. It can be opened up faster than the Razer Panthera EVO, HORI RAP-N, and the Qanba Obsidian, controllers released a decade later. On the TE, Six Allen Screws hold the faceplate to the body. Pop those off and you’ve got access to all the guts. The wiring is common ground, and you don’t actually remove the warranty sticker when you take off the top faceplate. (This obviously voids your warranty, but who’re MadCatz to know? *Wink*)

Eight Buttons. The layout of the inner six is identical to the Japanese Arcade Machines that Street Fighter IV launched on. For the FGC, this is great! You could practice at home and didn’t need to adjust if you ever traveled to Japan. For returning players that hadn’t touched Street Fighter since the mid-1990s, however, the outer six go far enough to mimic American Street Fighter machines. In fact, every popular arcade layout is contained in these eight buttons, and its ludicrously easy to pop out and plug whatever ones you don’t plan to use.

For Americans that still play on the floor, or anyone who’s upgraded to a Coffee Table, the TE has four rubber feet that keep it from sliding during play. Compared to HORI Sticks, the rubber parts are huge, and give the stick an extra half inch or so of height. Unlike HORI, however, they’re removable! This is a bit of a theme with the TE: It’s practically begging to be customized, and loads of people tuned them to their preference. The lever can be adapted to Seimitsu, HAPP-Adjacent, or even Korean with some effort.

The case is actually so roomy that rather than trash a spare TE, arcade stick builders will just bring them back to life with a third party controller board. The controller has lasted so long, Focusattack.com still sells replacement panels for the TE, and will likely keep selling them forever.

In a world where things always seem to be in flux, the MadCatz TE is a fucking hammer. You see, a hammer doesn’t change. You can’t reinvent the hammer- It’s just a hammer!

A hammer’s a hammer. The MadCatz TE is like a hammer.

Hammers.