Sanwa 4-way gate vs. 8-way gate

C

Conral

[01] Neophyte
Lately I haven't been playing much Soul Calibur 4, but have been playing my share of super turbo on GGPO and HD Remix on PS3. As such, I thought it was really cool to see the new MadCatz sticks coming out. I have two SF4 TE sticks pre-ordered, and I am curious to see how these will work with Soul Calibur. These two sticks are going to be my first ever I'll ever own.

I know there's a learning curve involved with transitioning from a pad to stick, but I'm not too concerned about that. However, I am interested to see what those of you with sticks prefer with regards to 4-way or 8-way gates and what fighting games you play, if any outside of Soul Calibur 4.

As a side note, I've always played fighting games with a pad. I grew up playing Street Fighter on an SNES pad, and first played Soul Calibur on the Dreamcast and held the controller with my left hand with my right hand elevated over the buttons. Street Fighter is pretty difficult to play on a pad, but I've become relatively comfortable with the PS3 controller now for that. I found that the Dreamcast to PS3 controller transition was pretty seamless for Soul Calibur, and I don't have too many complaints.
 
I like the GT-Y octagonal (8 way) gates. In the USA, gates are 360/circular, but I like the feel of defined corners to let me know when I hit a direction. Thus I like that octagonal gates offer a mix between square and circle, with advantages of both.
 
I prefer the octagonal gates... but there is one serious issues with them, they fail the "throw test". Since there are more defined corners, the cardinal directions must be DEEPER. Because of this, if you hold the joystick in a cardinal direction (such as 6) and let the joystick go, it will bounce far and hit the opposite direction (such as 4), before it returns to neutral at 5. The square gates do not have this problem. You may have some luck in solving this problem by getting a sheath for the metal shaft of your joystick.. it worked for me, it doesnt work for most.
 
I like square gates. Most Japanese arcade cabinets have them (probably not a concern for most people, but I do still enjoy the random game on a cab on my trips to the Philippines) and it's really easy to find diagonals for SRK motions and whatnot. I also dig the shorter throw, feels more efficient.

This is for SC4, GGXX^C, SSF2THDR, and a bit of dabbling in T5/DR. I can make do with a pad in 3d games, but vastly prefer stick. Can't play 2d games on a pad for the life of me...
 
Jaxel said:
I prefer the octagonal gates... but there is one serious issues with them, they fail the "throw test". Since there are more defined corners, the cardinal directions must be DEEPER. Because of this, if you hold the joystick in a cardinal direction (such as 6) and let the joystick go, it will bounce far and hit the opposite direction (such as 4), before it returns to neutral at 5. The square gates do not have this problem. You may have some luck in solving this problem by getting a sheath for the metal shaft of your joystick.. it worked for me, it doesnt work for most.
Click to expand...

That's true of the Sanwa JLF octo gates (or so I've heard). However that's not the case for all japanese sticks. I, too, prefer octagonal gates, so when I built my custom I used a Seimitsu LS-56. The optional octagonal gate for this stick actually has LESS throw than the stock square gate. I've been quite happy with it.

-=The Jesster: Gatchaba Goose=-
 
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