Review By

Chi Kong Lui 2.0 RATING

When Capcoms two-player competitive fighting game, Street Fighter II, was ported from the arcades to the SNES home console, most gamers were ecstatic at the near pixel-perfect conversion. Though the graphics were astonishing, there was still one aspect of the game that gamers werent so thrilled about and that was the controls. The SNES directional pad and its four face buttons (with two shoulder buttons) was a poor substitute for the joystick and six-button layout that fans had grown so accustom to in the arcades. Luckily, third party hardware companies were quick to notice this discrepancy and quickly produced specialty controllers designed for the needs of those fighting games. The continued popularity of the genre over the years meant a continual production of these controllers on an almost yearly basis. InterActs Quantum FighterPad is one of the more recent entries of these specialty controllers and is made specifically for the Sega Dreamcast, with its already bountiful lineup of two-player fighting games.

Physically, the FighterPad is shaped like a boomerang and notably bulkier than the original Sega control pad. The extended wing tips of the controller pushed themselves conformably into my palms. The result is a far snugger feel than the original. Yet, strangely enough, a snugger fit proved to be less desirable than I would have imagined. The tighter grip on my palms restricted my fingers from moving freely about the various buttons and directional inputs. It wasnt terribly constrictive, but it was noticeably different and less comfortable if you prefer mobile handling in your controllers like I do.

As for the inputs themselves, the feel of the surface buttons were fine, but all the other remaining controls, including the analog stick, directional pad (D-pad), and two shoulder buttons did not fare as well. The analog stick was the least problematic, but it proved to be too tight on at least one of the games I tested, Crazy Taxi. The D-pad was even less favorable due to its overly mushy feel that was less responsive then what I'm use to. But, by far the worse of the inputs were the L and R analog shoulder buttons. Unlike the trigger-like feel of the original, the FighterPad employs a sliding button mechanism that feels linear and uncomfortable.

Even as a specialty controller designed for fighting games popularized by Capcom, the FighterPad is severely flawed. Though the FighterPad is not a full-fledged arcade-style joystick, its visibly six-button layout on the face of the control pad would appear to make it an ideal candidate for fighting games. Unfortunately, in this case, looks can be deceiving. Most Capcom-style fighting games require six individual buttons to facilitate all the various punches and kicks. Whats shocking is that only four of the six face buttons are actually individual buttons (that can also be remapped) and the remaining two are only programmable extras that, for some reason, cant replicate the remaining L and R analog shoulder buttons (unlike the Mad Catz Dream Pad!). In other words, players are still forced to uncomfortably use the L and R shoulder buttons in fighting games! This is a travesty when you consider that the very idea behind having six face buttons was to so that players wouldnt have to use the shoulder buttons, which have always felt inappropriate even back in the SNES days of Street Fighter II.

While the two programmable buttons are useless in trying to represent the L and R buttons, they do have another function. They can mimic a string of D-pad motions and button presses. While this sounds like a great idea on paper, its actual implementation is, again, horrible beyond belief. First of all, I couldnt get the FighterPad to replicate simple motions like quarter-circles and left-right charging motions consistently. I was baffled as to why it would work on some maneuvers, but not for others. Aside from short motions, I tried to program in long combo attacks from Soul Calibur. While the instruction manual brags that the controller can store up to 50 inputs, this, like so many other features about the FighterPad, proves to be a fallacy. While 50 inputs are recordable, many of the inputs are used for micro-second delays and charging positions, any of which could register as multiple inputs depending on length of delay or hold. Throughout a character's string of attacks many of these delays and holds are necessary and quickly drain the memory. Not only did trying to input and adjust all the delays and holds prove to be too troublesome (actually learning the moves probably would have been easier), but I kept running out of memory before I could even come close to completing a full combo.

As if all of these faults were bad enough, theres yet another! Trying to remove a memory card while a Jump Pack was inserted at the same time prove to be quite frustrating. Its amazing that even in its most basic functionality, the FighterPad is a monumental failure.

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