Hori Dead or Alive 4 Stick

If you’ve played the retro arcade games from the Xbox Live, you know that the D-pad is no joystick. Pac-man won’t turn corners, Frogger has a seizure when you try to dodge a truck, and Street Fighter looks more like interpretive dance.

Well, the answer to true arcade control is out there in the form of Hori’s Dead or Alive 4 Stick. The DOA 4 controller was released along side the game at the launch of the 360, but but received little attention from gamers in the fighting genre.

With the release of the retro games, you don’t have to own DOA4 to want the arcade stick. Luckily, the price for the controller has dropped as well. At launch, the Dead or Alive 4 Stick sold for $59.99, but more recently is can be found for a mere $39.99 at EB Games, and it's worth every penny. With it’s LARGE buttons and ball-topped stick, it feels like your are back in the arcade, (except with access to beer!) Of course it also works great for DOA 4 and other any other fighting game. My only criticism is that it is not wireless.


There are a few other options upon the horizon as well. X-Arcade makes a well-reviewed arcade stick similar to the DOA4 control. As of this article it has not yet been ported over to the Xbox360, but is expected to become available in the near future. The X-Arcade is also wired, but does come as either a single or double controller for $99.95 and $129.95 respectively. The double controller would be ideal for multi-player games like Street Fighter.

MadCatz is also working on an Arcade Stick, though not much information is currently available. Furthermore from the web picture I saw, it has smaller buttons an a small stick that screws into the controller’s D-pad so it doesn’t look as though it would have much of an arcade feel, but at least this product is proposed to be wireless. EB Games is advertising it for $69.99, and a November release.

The DOA4 Stick is a great addition to your game rig. The price is also reasonable, especially compared to the upcoming X-Arcade. Most of all, it is absolutely essential to play the Xbox Live Arcade the way they were meant to be played, with an arcade stick.