Logic 3 Arcade Stick Manufacturer: Logic 3 Product Type: controller Connection Type: through X-Box port System Requirements: X-Box with free input port Extra: / Retail Price: 39,90 euro Date posted: 8 March 2005 Written By: Bjorn Introduction When playing games, especially fighting games on a console there is always a chance that your fighting hero will not respond to your commands or will just react to slow for performing any combo's. Reason? Your controller is not well suited to play such games. Fighting games are different then any other genre, racing, adventure, puzzling, platform ... you just need your buttons at a fast pace. While a standard controller is pretty ergonomic in size, gamers who spent much of their time into arcade halls do know what they are missing. Indeed, a decent solid arcade stick that offers quick and huge buttons with a ball-topped joystick. Look no more since U.K. hardware manufacturer "Logic 3" made such a controller for Microsoft's X-Box and named it "Logic 3 Arcade Stick". We took a look at their latest arcade (joy)stick and came up with the following thoughts. Features: The "Logic 3 Arcade Stick" is not just a normal plain (joy)stick. Here are some of its features : - 8 way directional digital control - fully analogue buttons - arcade style button layout - vibrational feedback - includes 10ft (3m) cable - in-line release cable - selectable D pad, L stick and R stick. Design and layout The Logic 3 Arcade Stick is well designed, solid and has a good button placement. The ball-topped joystick is used with your left hand while hitting the buttons with your right. The controller itself is not small but while it looks bulky, it's incredibly light. Since it's light you can put it comfortable on your lap without any hassle. All the buttons from a standard X-Box controller are here while the most used ones, A and B are placed in the middle, underneath each other. Eight are present with in the left corner, the stick. Buttons are pretty big in size and all have a different color which appears to be the same colors as on a standard X-Box controller. I was glad to see that Logic 3 also placed a rubberized handrest under the button panel. This ensures you that your hand, while pressing several buttons at once (or just one) won't slide off the controller that easily when playing. The stick itself is identical to a arcade controller. It's your standard ball-tipped stick. It reacted good to the different movements and all our on-screen characters moved to the direction we wanted. Some games might force you to use a specific thumbstick or d-pad to move your character. With arcade joysticks it may not work all the time. Logic 3 has included a simple switch that make it possible to change these functions. There are 3 choices. D-pad, left stick or right stick. Remember that you must change the switch before you power on your X-Box otherwise it may not recognize the new setting. Besides the standard stick and the eight buttons, Logic 3 also included a "Turbo" and "Clear" button. This turbo button needs to be pressed to activate and a red led will luminate. The clear button just do the opposite as it clears everything. There is also a "Start" and "Back" button present, just like on a standard controller. So how does it perform? When testing such a product, you need the right software. Exactly, we took some fighting games from our shelves @ the office and tested them fully with this Arcade Stick. We used the following games : - Soul Calibur 2 - Dead or Alive - Dead or Alive 2 Ulimate After hooking up the Arcade Stick on our X-Box which is a breeze since it is only plugging into one of the free input ports, we loaded one of our favourite fighting games. The joystick was recognised right away and acted like a normal controller. We didn't had to pre-configure it at all (only if we wanted to switch buttons or layout). When loaded one of our games, the Arcade Stick is used like a normal controller and you use its stick, which replaces the D-pad to select your commands in the game, it reacts like a decent arcade stick. The joystick also features built-in vibration and when playing one of the above fighting games, the vibration was definitely present. Conclusion The "Arcade Stick" from Logic 3 is a decent and solid piece of hardware. For fighting games, it's one of those things you just need to have. The Arcade Stick has a ball-topped stick, 8 big colorful buttons, a switch offering you a d-pad, left or right combination and vibration feedback. It's now priced at just 40 euro's and for that prize you'll get plenty of pleasure when playing your (fighting) X-Box games. 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