Mad Catz has a strong design with their Tournament Edition line of arcade sticks, combining a good joystick and button layout with quality parts and lots of smart additions that had previously only been common in custom sticks. Not content to simply sit on their success, they’ve been releasing variant designs that take a proven product and make tweaks to fit certain users’ needs, with the Pro model as the latest result. Building upon the smaller dimensions and improved lock switch from the ’S’ model, the Pro keeps the basic design intact while making some incremental improvements. This is more of a gradual evolution of the Tournament Edition line than a massive overhaul, and thus will be of most interest to those who don’t already own a TE stick but should appeal to those looking for their first competition-grade controller.
Like previous models, the Pro features eight face buttons (with Start and Back on the rear panel), a Sanwa Japanese ’ball top’ style stick, and a control panel in a corner for managing turbo settings, the system Guide button, and a few other features. The headset port, adapters, cord cabinet on the rear panel, and 13 foot long cord are also pretty much identical to earlier TE designs, going with features that have been proven to work. Those expecting a complete remake won’t get it here, and the result is a stick that remains good for fighting games, classic arcade titles, and any other game that works well with a joystick acting as the directional pad. While the control panel lets the stick behave as the left or right analog stick, it’s more of a nice option for certain menus than anything; you won’t be playing first person shooters or the like on a Fightstick.
Most of the real changes are to the chassis itself, starting with dimensions close to the ’S’ model while being slightly wider on the sides. The top panel is notably different, with the rear (the part furthest away from the player) now sloping upward and requiring you to reach up and around to press the Back or Start buttons; presumably it’s one more feature to prevent accidental pauses. The center area around the joystick and buttons is still flat, though the front area slopes down toward you. This slope looks strange, but it still provides decent wrist support for grip styles that use that part of the panel. Note that unlike the ’S’ model it takes inspiration from, the Pro’s top panel has no rough edges; there will be no need to do any filing or any other adjustments and it should be immediately comfortable to use.
While the sloped top panel is interesting, the Pro’s biggest change is its weight. It is much lighter than the ’S’, feeling about 1/4th easier to lift. While that isn’t a big deal for at-home play, this reduced heft makes the Pro much easier to carry during tournaments and travel. This does make it a little easier to slide around, it’s not a huge problem since the Pro is still as large as the Xbox 360 itself and has enough bulk to keep it in place so long as you’re careful. As its dimensions are similar to other TE sticks, the Pro should fit in most stick bags design to accept those earlier designs. I was able to try one with Mad Catz’ Carrier and discovered it fits similarly to the ’S’ type; the worst you have to do is wriggle the side a little since it’s slightly wider than an ’S’, but it goes in fine afterward.
