Released as an alternative to standard controllers and a cheaper alternative to joysticks, the Madcatz Street Fighter IV FightPad in conjunction with the release of the most anticipated fighting games this year was available to buy on Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 formats, Consoles.net had a play-test of it.
The main feature of the pad is its Directional-Pad (d-pad). It's a floating d-pad, which feels closer to a joystick than a traditional Nintendo d-pad. The d-pad is modeled on the very usable floating d-pad of the Sega Saturn controllers. The input, overall, is accurate. Inaccurate input is rare, but, at times, can input 'up' instead of 'diagonal-right' or 'diagonal-left'. The d-pad was very stiff when I first received the controller and it did require breaking in the controller with a lot of sessions to make the d-pad as fluid and loose as possible for input.
