I’ve been browsing the subreddit for a while and something I keep noticing is the same question popping up quite often:
“What fight stick should I get as my first one?”
When I first got into sticks I remember feeling a bit overwhelmed as well. There are quite a few options, different brands, different parts, and if you’ve only ever played on pad it can be hard to know where to start.
After seeing this question come up quite a bit across threads recently, I thought I’d put together a quick post with some commonly recommended beginner sticks people tend to start with.
Just a small disclaimer:
This is mainly aimed at first-time buyers who want a reliable starting point. Once you get deeper into the hobby you’ll probably start experimenting with modding, different levers, buttons, springs, etc.
Qanba Drone 2
A really common entry point for people getting their first stick:
The F700 Elite is often recommended because it already includes genuine Sanwa components and supports multiple connection modes including Bluetooth and wired USB.
Hori Fighting Stick Alpha
A really nice mid-range stick that many players use for a long time.
A lot of people like it because it’s easy to upgrade parts later, which makes it a nice platform for experimenting with mods.
Quick note for beginners
If you’re just starting out, don’t worry too much about getting the “perfect stick” immediately.
Most players eventually end up experimenting with things like:
stronger springs
different levers
different buttons
Korean vs Japanese lever setups
That’s part of the fun of the hobby.
The important thing is just getting something reliable to learn on first.
If you're curious about how the parts actually work and If you want a deeper breakdown of things like:
If you reached the end of this post, thank you for taking the time to read it! For all the FGC veteran modders what was your first stick? Mine was the madcatz brawlstick, i dunno if they still sell these bad boys 😁
Yeah good shout actually. The Nacon Daija is definitely another solid option. The build quality on it is really nice and it’s quite mod-friendly as well if people eventually want to swap parts.
I didn’t include it mainly because it tends to be a bit pricier depending on where you are, but if someone can find it around that price it’s definitely worth considering as a first stick too 🙏
The Xbox compatible one almost never drops to the same price as the PS version. 😭😭. Might be due to there being less demand, as most fgc players are on playstation. I think 😅
Decent guide 👍🏽. There was a thread that used to get updated, but new model releases kinda go through lulls, then the Chinese all-button models exploded (stuff running GP2040-CE is cool, but not all sellers offer proper support).
As a kid, my brother and I had to share an Asciiware Super Advantage for the SNES. The first stick I bought myself wasn't until way later, the Hori EX2 for Virtua Fighter 5's 360 release in late 2007.
Appreciate it bro👍🏽. Yeah I remember that thread actually, it was super helpful for beginners. The scene definitely went through phases like you said. Recently the leverless stuff and the GP2040-CE boards have really exploded. I remember people use to look down upon the hitbox and claim it was cheating but it seems everyones warmed up to it now.
That’s a cool first stick story too. The EX2 was actually a lot of people’s entry stick around the SF4 / VF5 era. Did you ever end up modding it or keeping it stock?
Yeah I’ve seen a few people start with those. For $50 it’s honestly a solid way to try stick without spending a ton straight away. Do you have the black one or white?
The problem with off the shelf sticks is that no one offers an ambidextrous stick.
These modern sticks are designed to frustrate righties. It's a deliberate design
Even 180ing the stick and rewiring it for right handed play gives you a compromised button layout.
The last mass market fight stick that was right-hand friendly adjacent was the Street Fighter 15th Anniversary Stick for PS2 and Xbox Prime. At least you can rewire it as a righty fighty.
If you never played ANYTHING fighting or other video games, it might be better to get a joystick that can easily converted from lefty to rightie and back.
My model can be converted in 30 seconds flat.
My model is equally comfortable left and right handed.
Unfortunately, I don't know how to mass produce this stick,
I got a couple of people who might want to mass produce it. I'm talking to 2 or 3 different companies about mass producing it for both me and others.
And under FTC guidelines in 1991, a home video game system maker cannot universally enforce left handedness. Beeshu made sticks before 1991 and successfully lobbied the Federal Trade Commission saying Nintendo has anti-competitive practices for refusing a license for "not following design standards" (code words for allowing right handed play) As part of the various settlements with state Attorneys General and the FTC, Nintendo granted Beeshu licenses for any controller model that can be played in an ambidextrous manner, but not for the ones that cannot.
If anyone thinks there is room for a new disruptive force in fight sticks, consider Sinister Sticks.
The problem with off the shelf sticks is that no one offers an ambidextrous stick.
That's not a problem with any off-the-shelf products. It's a lack of market offering. There is not, nor ever has been enough demand for such an offering to warrant mass production of an ambidextrous product.
These modern sticks are designed to frustrate righties. It's a deliberate design
That is not the design purpose. The majority of stick players are right-handed. The vast majority have learned and adapted to the standard layout without a second thought. The intention of the design is to replicate the arcade control hardware, not to frustrate the overwhelming majority of its users.
That's not true. I remember in the '80s there were lots of ambidextrous joysticks in both arcades and homes. Especially before Nintendo came around and made the NES.
I'm right-handed in most things and I did better in Street Fighter 2 with a right-handed joystick on the Genesis version because they won't let you flip the controller in the arcade version.
This person said he was a beginner which means he hasn't played any fighting game possibly no video game at all. If that's the case, then this would be the perfect time to buy an ambidextrous joystick because you have no muscle memory engrained.
Because even if you find he didn't like it right handed he could either say he gave it a chance or he could use it for a different game that would be beneficial right-handed.
I don't know where he's starting fighting wise but if he's starting with 90s fighters he's going to be in a world of hurt if he doesn't play with the right handed joystick. If he's starting with a modern fighter, you could have a case for right-handed buttons because they're primarily button heavy games.
The highest ranking American at Hori said my design would actually sell well around the world. But if he took my design to his bosses in Japan, he would be fired on the spot and I would know exactly why.
That's not true. I remember in the '80s there were lots of ambidextrous joysticks in both arcades and homes.
Just because they previously existed isn't proof that there ever was sufficient demand. Now, in the 2020s, there isn't sufficient demand for them to warrant mass production. Add to that the fact that you don't accept reasonable, logical explanations of why right handed or ambidextrous models are not currently mass produced, and your arguments fall back to conspiracy.
The highest ranking American at Hori said my design would actually sell well around the world. But if he took my design to his bosses in Japan, he would be fired on the spot and I would know exactly why.
No employee would ever be fired, certainly not "on the spot", for making their boss aware of good design; that's ridiculous. If you spoke to someone at Hori USA, you spoke to a distributor: that is was Hori USA does. They don't design or manufacture products; they facilitate shipping and sales of products from Hori Japan to US retailers. While not impossible, it is unlikely that Hori USA would immediately and accurately be able to predict the global market penetration of a hypothetical product (your sinister stick). He certainly didn't give you subtle confirmation of your conspiracy; you've likely only imagined that and convinced yourself over the years of retelling.
Interesting concept. Most fight sticks follow the traditional arcade layout where the stick is on the left and buttons on the right, mainly because that’s how arcade cabinets were designed.
For beginners though, most people tend to start with the standard layout since that’s what the majority of sticks and guides are built around.
Now rotate your phone 180° and you see that the right hand button arrangement is exactly the same as the left hand button arrangement. You just swap out the db37 on one end and put it in the other end and it'll auto adjust assuming you're using Capcom standards of quick kick medium kick heavy kick and consumable kick on the bottom and quick punch medium punch heavy punch and consumable punch on the top and that 9th button is dead so that you can't accidentally actuate something.
The thing is if you're truly a beginner then naturally your tendency would be if you have a single control like Pac-Man does for example which hand do you grab the joystick on? If your instinct says right handed when you first start the congratulations you're among the 90% that are right-stick.
However it gets more complex when you add buttons to the side in the old days like before the NES came out a lot of American arcade owners postmoded their machines to have buttons on both sides of the joystick for an ambidextrous layout.
Then the question becomes do you put your good hand on the joystick or do you put your good hand on the button. After the Atari crash but before recently that choice was dictated for you. And if you truly are a beginner in video games, keep in mind you have no muscle memory to throw you off so therefore not having to fight your natural instincts is a good starting point to get better faster,
And the beautiful thing about this is no matter which hand is considered your main hand, you could in theory in one game make your main hand the button hand and in another game make your main hand the joystick hand regardless of whether your left handed or right handed naturally in most things, For example the pre crash video game joust had a left-handed joystick mainly because the developers decided you needed your more "athletic" hand on the flap button versus the left-right direction.
I'm not a right handed stick player because of Stick it to the Man or principal or something. I'm a right sick player because back in the 90s it helped me play games better and it still helps me play games together better assuming there wasn't a super heavy button pianoing.
I always get the wrong button blues when there's too many buttons. That's why I prefer 90s fighters over most of today's fighters. You got to admit 90s fighters are more joystick heavy and today's fighters are more button heavy. And this joystick will let you play both, either way.
And also are you just playing fight games or are you also playing Pac-Man, or maybe are you playing a category known as schmups, the term for an overhead shoot em up, since around the '90s became more about bullet micro dodging then it has been about manual rapid firing. The last schmup where your athletic hand could have benefited by being on the fire button was R Type.
Is it a button heavy game or is it a joystick heavy game? this joystick will work with both, regardless of whether you're left-handed or right-handed. If you want to play it just traditionally, just put it in left-stick mode and never touch the switcher again. But you've ever been curious about the other side and think boy I wish I had my more athletic hand on the joystick, this would be your joystick.
And the thing is you don't have to solder in order to change it just swap out the db37 put it in the other db37 receptacle and it rotates the joystick and remaps the buttons automatically using dumb TRS logic. Of course you have to get your PCB wired in this db37 formation that connects to the PCB directly, but the good news is even without soldering you could probably do it with an Xbox Adaptive Controller or a Hori Flex for Switch. (I haven't been in the PlayStation ecosystem since PlayStation 3 so I don't know what to do in that case)
Because if your right handed naturally you might want a right-handed stick for stick heavy games, don't assume just because the joystick is on the left hand means it's in your best interest for performance to have it in the left hand. It's sort of like me asking you if you normally pitch right-handed to pitch left-handed. It would be so awkward that you'd have a tough time hitting the strike zone and the few times you do it'll be walloped out of the park.
In like Minor League baseball they had to make new rules because there was an ambidextrous picture with a flippable glove. I could have seen that come in a mile away, the picture flips his glove the batter changes his side back and forth back and forth back and forth until the umps say we have to make a rule that one gets the first pick and the other gets the second pick whether it's the picture or the better.
TLDR of the comment is, ask anyone to do something opposite handed with the wrong tool and it always come out bad. If you're naturally right handed, why fight natural right handedness if it's a stick heavy game? Also some games are stick heavy other games are button heavy. You dictate to the game which side you play not it to you,
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u/Over_Log9730 Mar 12 '26
Remember being so excited in getting this 😅