Pelican Real Arcade Stick

Added August 25th, 2004 by sallizar

Ask any fan of fighting games and they’ll tell you that it’s great to have a plethora of fighting games for home consoles, but you just don’t quite get the authentic arcade experience on a standard controller. Using a d-pad to move your character on screen and trying to put your thumb on three different buttons to perform your favorite attack move is just not as fulfilling as playing in the arcade. So when I ran across the Pelican Real Arcade Stick I figured I’d give it a couple rounds in the arena to see how well it compares to it’s arcade machine counterparts.

Knock, knock. No, it’s not a lame knock-knock joke. It’s me knocking on wood. “Real” wood. The Real Arcade stick is made entirely out of wood covered with a smooth black finish. It redefines the meaning of a solidly built controller. The control stick fits well even in my large hands and is incredibly responsive. The buttons are evenly spaced in two rows of eight and make a satisfying click when pressed. The middle four buttons map to the four Xbox face buttons while the surrounding buttons map to the triggers and the black and white buttons. The great thing is the buttons are the correct Xbox colors, so it’s incredibly easy to get use too. Keep your fighting games save on an Xbox memory card? Unlike some 3rd party peripherals that leave the memory slot off, the Real Arcade Stick has one built in to the base. Lastly, Pelican included a nifty compartment on the back of the base that lets you pack away the cable when you’re not pummeling your opponents.

The performance of the Real Arcade stick is nothing short of incredible. You’ll be performing half circle, quarter circle and double jump moves flawlessly after just a few moments of play. The ability to hover your fingers over multiple buttons lets you perform multiple button presses in a flash and adapt to whatever your opponent throws at you without having a double-jointed right thumb. After just a few rounds with Dead or Alive 3 and Soul Calibur 2, I was pulling off multi-hit combos I had only dreamed of attempting.

On top of the remarkable performance and rugged craftsmanship, the Real Arcade stick boasts a five-year manufacturer warranty. As with other Pelican products this also includes replacement of your console if the Arcade Stick somehow causes an issue with your system. For those of you who also happen to have a PS2 or a Gamecube just lying around, the Real Arcade supports both of those systems too right out of the box. I’ve also used a PS2 to USB converter and played with the Real Arcade on my PC. If you’re planning on playing Dead or Alive Ultimate, Mortal Kombat: Deception or Guilty Gear X2 #Reload on Xbox Live in the next few months, I highly recommend getting a Pelican Real Arcade Stick. I’ll be using mine.