Just last month Mad Catz released the limited edition Super Street Fighter IV Chun-Li Arcade FightStick Tournament Edition ‘S’ during PAX Prime! SDTEKKEN guest reviewer Slash5150 got his hands on one and put the new stick to the test! Click below for his full review!
Review by Michael ‘Slash5150’ Yu
Click to view a 360 degree view of the Chun-Li TE
For those of you who were in attendance at PAX, or Penny Arcade Expo, this year, Mad Catz had the Limited Edition Chun-Li Tournament Edition-S (TE-S) Sticks on sale. The Chun-Li TE-S made its debut at the Mad Catz booth during EVO2010 in Las Vegas, but was there for display only. At PAX10, attendees were able to purchase the new Mad Catz stick for $159.99 (USD) at the Mad Catz/Tritton booth, and with their purchase, they also received a TE Keychain, with a hex key that can be used to open the top of the Tournament Edition line of sticks. For those who weren’t able to attend PAX, they were able to purchase the Chun-Li TE online at the Gameshark store.
The Chun-Li TE-S Available at PAX2010 above the larger, Femme Fatale TE that was available at PAX2009
The Chun-Li TE-S takes on the form factor of the new Mad Catz line of TE-S Sticks. While the faceplate design is the same as the original TE stick, the side bezels are decreased in length and they only extend about ¼” where the original TE stick’s sides were about an inch each. This makes the TE-S 14 ¼” wide, where the original TE is 16” wide.
The Chun-Li TE features a very unique holographic art style
Unlike the full panel art that extended to all sides of the main body of the Black and the White versions of the TE-S sticks, the Chun-Li TE-S’s art is like the original TE stick art and stays inside a white bezel however, instead of a smooth vinyl art piece, the Chun-Li TE-S features a holographic type of art featuring an image of Chun-Li, along with the sumi-e ink style of art that is featured in Street Fighter 4. This art gives this version of the TE-S a different look and feel than the vinyl art.
A close up view displaying the semi-transparent casing
The casing on the Chun-Li TE-S is possibly one of the most notable things about this arcade stick. The Chun-Li TE-S is enclosed in a semi-transparent Aura Blue casing; it’s not solid black, or solid white, or a transparent piece of plexiglass. While the semi-transparent casing has a smooth finish, it won’t attract fingerprints.
Much like the other TE sticks, the Chun-Li TE-S uses the Taito Vewlix style 8-button layout and 30mm Sanwa Snap-In Buttons. On the PS3 version, the 6 ‘main’ (X, O, Square, Triangle, R1, and R2) buttons are blue and the L1 and L2 buttons are white. On the 360 version, the A,B,X, and Y buttons correspond to the colors found on the XBOX360 controller, and the other 4 buttons (RB, RT, LB, and LT) are white. On both sticks, the Start and Select, or Back for XBOX360, buttons are located on the rear of the TE-S. The joystick is a Sanwa-JLF and uses the mounting plate. Because of these features, owners of the TE series of sticks are able to easily swap parts and sticks to their liking, due to the easy access through the top of the TE Stick.
Both TE-S sticks feature a control panel with the Home, or XBOX 360 Guide button, and it is located on the upper left part of the stick, along with the turbo button and two different switches. One allows owners to switch between the left analog stick, right analog stick and directional pad, as if you were looking at a PS3 or XBOX360 controller, as well as the lock switch. On previous incarnations of the TE (all sticks before the TE-S line) the lock switch only locked the Home/Guide button and Turbo button from activating. The new lock switch will disable the two mentioned buttons, as well as the Start and Select buttons. This is a very big plus, especially for tournament players because, if you push the start button, you will lose the round. The XBOX360 version of the stick also has the microphone port located on the left front of the stick letting gamers use their headsets, and also comes with an adapter for the older XBOX360 headsets.
Don’t let the name fool you though even though the TE-S is smaller in width, it is still durable and has a good amount of weight to it and still fits comfortably in your lap and is easy to play on.
Despite HORI releasing the VLX Premium, and soon the RAP “V”, the TE line of arcade sticks by Mad Catz are the choice arcade sticks by consumers, and professionals alike, including Daigo “The Beast” Umehara, Justin “E.G.JWong” Wong, Ryan “Gootecks” Gutierrez, and many more players around the world.
XBOX360 STICK DETAILS
• Chun-Li Themed Holographic Artwork with Semi-Transparent Aura Blue casing
• Exact same layout and spacing as the official Street Fighter IV arcade cabinet (Vewlix)
• Sanwa JLF-TP-8Y-SK-W arcade stick
• Sanwa OBSF-30-W buttons
• Sanwa OBSF-24-W buttons (Start & Select)
• Control module panel enables turbo functionality and a lock/unlock switch to prevent accidental use of turbo settings, push of home button and start and select/back buttons
• Stick lever can be set as digital, left analog, or right analog
• Cable storage for 4M (13 feet) cable
• Quick disconnects on wiring for buttons
• USB wired for PC* and Xbox 360 compatibility
• Xenon/Xbox 360 Guide button for menu navigation
• Button layout:
X Y RB LB
A B RT LT
* Official Microsoft Software required
PLAYSTATION 3 STICK DETAILS
• Chun-Li Themed Holographic Artwork with Semi-Transparent Aura Blue casing
• Exact same layout and spacing as the official Street Fighter IV arcade cabinet (Vewlix)
• Sanwa JLF-TP-8Y-SK-W arcade stick
• Sanwa OBSF-30-W buttons
• Sanwa OBSF-24-W buttons (Start & Select)
• Control module panel enables turbo functionality and a lock/unlock switch to prevent accidental use of turbo settings, push of home button and start and select/back buttons
• Stick lever can be set as digital, left analog, or right analog
• Cable storage for 4M (13 feet) cable
• Quick disconnects on wiring for buttons
• USB wired for PC and PS3 compatibility
• PS3 Home button for menu navigation
• Button layout:
[ ] /\ R1 L1
X O R2 L2
ADDITIONAL PHOTOS
The Chun-Li TE-S Box
A closer view of the Chun-Li TE-S
A Close up view of the inside of the TE-S showing off the casing
Quick Disconnects make it easy to swap parts
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Haven’t seen a stick review from SDTekken, in a long time. Thx SDTekken, and good job Slash5150.
Btw, I hope there’ll be more reviews like this(I’d like to see HRAP V3, and Qanba sticks getting reviewed). :)
LMFAO! Damn it Slash. Good job sir!
Yeah this stick is dope, believe the hype. It might even get you laid!!
I can confirm this second point. ;)
why dont someone makes a stick for tekken that kickz ass :(
Why aren’t the ps3 buttons color coordinate?
Because it is not a requirement by Sony to have the buttons color coordinated.
OH
So sick of these crappy Neo-Geo style sticks with the ball tops. When is Madcatz going to get their act together and start making North American/Korean style sticks? :(
Well, having four of these TE sticks plus HORI Real Arcade Pro 3 SA, I can say I have more experience than most of the people commenting on sticks. I will tell you what the practical differences are between these high-end sticks.
First I want to point out that it is only the artwork that is mainly different. And to some extent the cabinet. The insides of all the sticks are Sanwa parts, both the joystick and the buttons. Therefore, in the matter of quality they are exactly equal.
But there are small differences in the button layouts for the Hori vs MadCatz, nothing that actaully matters. There are also small differences in the width and how the edges are on the sticks.
Whilst MadCatz StreetFighter IV FightStick Tournament Edition (the first one) is the broadest as well as the same stick called “Round 2”. These two are the best ones in all manner.
The MadCatz TE stick that was released for Super StreetFighter IV was a bit smaller and they cut the edges. Very bad mistake! This is the worst of all the sticks I have. Reason? Because the edges are freakingly sharp!! They will cut hole in your underarms. Playing Tekken for hours and hours like I do I can feel the sharp edge from the SSFIV TE stick all the time, while I feel nothing when I play with SFIV TE or SFIV TE Round 2 stick.
This is something nobody can tell you if you don’t own the stick and have played on it for a couple of months at least.
Why MadCatz is releasing this Chun Li TE -S edition with the same short cabinet with the sharp corners I dont understand. This is the worst property a stick can have -that it is uncomfortable to use and hurts you.
I have tried all positions and tried to put my hands in different manner. But it still hurts your underarms where they rest on the corners of the Super StreetFighter IV TE stick.
Having other sticks where this problem doesn’t exist I am not playing with that newer sticks anymore.
MadCatz are doing them selves a disfavour if they keep producing these hurtful sticks and not addressing the sharp corners. They should go back to the previous cabinet, even if it slightly bigger or more expencive to produce.
The HORI stick doesn’t have this problem at all.
Also, like somebody else already have mentioned it, stop making exactly the same sticks with new artwork. We are not stupid! This is “same shit, new wrapping”.
Why can’t you make sticks with bat-top or octogonal restrictor gate or other property??? Make a stick with a different sort og spring lever. Why the same thing over and over again??? Make different things so we can have diversity and choices and buy what we feel is best for our playing style!! These are good advises for people in the stick-business!
Come on, Markman, I have given you gold here. Listen to what people want and you willmake more money! If you make a stick with a tighter bat-top and an octogonal restrictor-gate, I promise it will blow everything away!
u heard da Man Markman….stop doin da “CAPCOM” and get 2 work…
eferfe
shibbity doooo how dare you comment on my line of shotty sticks. im doing what no one else can so what if my sticks easily break or hurt people. shobbity doo. im the fat vaugley asian nerd who makes it happen. comment on my failures ehhh???? never!!!! just see how i do people on shoryuken. just buy my stuff and pretend like im a gaming icon in streetfighter though i mostly play tekken
I need to get me a Chun Li TE stick, this shit is too sick. Probably get one and change the graphic on it with Lars + Yun or some shit, and… BoOOoOOoOMMMmM!
Perfect :3
I got a chun-li stick and its courners are not sharp… Im not having any trouble at all with it.
Sweet blog! I found it while searching on Yahoo News.
Do you have any tips on how to get listed in Yahoo News?
I’ve been trying for a while but I never seem
to get there! Thank you