Wireless Profighting Stick Review

We take a look at the affordable "Wireless Profighting Stick". Compatible with PC, PS2, PS3 and Xbox 360. This one has King of Fighters XII artwork.

Arcade sticks are pretty niche and pretty expensive products. Generally the people who take fighting games seriously enough to want a stick, are willing to pay good money to get the best that they can buy. For around $150 to $200, you can get a professional, sturdy stick with quality (usually Sanwa) arcade parts. Everything will work well without needing to do any mods.

It's also tempting to buy a decent, slightly cheaper stick and then mod it with higher quality buttons and a new joystick. The risk there is that the price of the parts quickly pushes the total cost to around $150 or more, making it tempting to just buy a better stick to begin with. This was something which many people did with the standard Mad Catz SFIV Fightstick. 

Even cheaper sticks are also available, Hori make very respectable arcade sticks for the PS3 and Xbox 360 which cost around $70. Then you can get cheap (and usually nasty) arcade sticks from China that are poorly assembled and use low quality parts. The upside is, these sticks are compatible with different consoles - something licensed peripheral manufacturers are not allowed to do. Today we're taking a look at one such stick: The Wireless Profighting Stick.

This particular version features (almost certainly unlicensed) KOF XII artwork which looks rather nice. It's wireless and compatible with PC, PS2, PS3 and Xbox 360. It uses 4 AA batteries for power. The wireless connectivity dongle is a large and ungainly looking thing but this is expected for a wireless, multi adapter.

To connect to a PS2 only the white bit is used and the dongle is connected using the PS2 connector. The same is true for the Xbox 360 via USB but a wired Xbox 360 controller needs to be connected to the dongle as well. This is a similar solution to what the X-Arcade used a few years back with their sticks. For connectivity to PS3 or PC, the black bit needs to connect to the white bit and the black USB connector must be used. Like I said, ungainly.

The arcade stick itself is very light weight and feels a little flimsy. It shouldn't be a problem for most gamers because the weight exerted by both hands should be enough to keep things stable. I generally keep the stick on my lap when I play but I noticed that it wobbles when used on a solid surface like a table. The stick does have friction pads and I assume that they were applied unevenly. Overall then, the build quality is disappointing.

The joystick itself is a lollipop type with a square gate. It's about the same size as a Sanwa JLF joystick. Appearances are where similarities end. This is NOT a good joystick. It is very stiff and uneven in its motions and it creaks and groans when moved. It is hard and unpleasant to input movement of any kind. If it was uniformly stiff then it might be okay with a bit of practice but the unevenness of it makes it nasty. The only way I could consistently input motions was to use an inordinate amount of force, which lead to slow and unhappy gaming sessions. 

Things don't get better when looking at the buttons. Layout is subjective but I'm not a fan of the four 'face' buttons being angled the way they are. The biggest problem though, is in the way they feel - mushy and unresponsive. It's like something you'd find on a kid's toy. It's easy to tap the button and not register any input. This together with the joystick make for a horrendous combination. 

So speaking of combos, what's the Profighting Stick like in games? On PC, the included drivers identify the device as a MotioninJoy controller. This driver is commonly used to connect PS3 controllers to PC. The nice thing is, I didn't have to use that horrible new MotioninJoy interface which requires internet connectivity. It also includes a disc with a bunch of ROMs and a front end loader. Unfortunately, my disc was not burned correctly so I was unable to play any of the games.

With the catastrophic looking wireless dongle, one might expect a good chance of input lag. I'm no pro but I did check the responsiveness in the device manager, while this is hardly a scientific test, I'm pleased to report that I did not notice any lag. However, the aforementioned quality of the buttons and joystick mean that a lot of force is required for the switches to engage. This could actually be masking lag but I have know way of determining with certainty.

I tried some arcade games on PC and the stick performed okay. Nothing spectacular but I was always aware of the device and it sometimes felt like I was fighting the stick instead of the opponent. I still preferred the stick in KOF 2002, especially with some of the more complex motions but I did feel a little less confident in my playing style compared to when I use a proper stick. 

I don't have many fighting games on PS3 but I did try a bit of Dead or Alive 5 and it works but once

again, the joystick and buttons hindered me. The Xbox 360 performance remains untested as I didn't have a wired controller available.

On PS2 I tried the excellent Fate Unlimited Codes. I love this game because it doesn't just rely on its license to sell, it's genuinely superb. I remember getting a massive blister on my left thumb, thanks to Saber's QCF moves and an abrasive (but accurate) PS2 d-pad. This kind of game will benefit from a good stick but it's the same story here too - the joystick and buttons. At least I didn't get any blisters.

So in most cases the Wireless Profighting Stick is barely better than a standard gamepad. I will concede, that games requiring complex directional input might still benefit from it but only slightly. It's hard to argue with it's price though (about $50) and with a new joystick and buttons, it may

be a workable solution. Stay tuned*.

*Unfortunately while attempting to mod it, I broke the stick. Probably static on the PCB. For what it's worth, it looked like a fair bit of work and soldering was needed.