In anticipation of the release of Mortal Kombat this April 19th, PDP has designed the new officially licensed Mortal Kombat Fight Stick, bringing the old-school arcade experience home, and from what I've seen, they've done an amazing job.
Although it has been years since I've played Mortal Kombat in an arcade, the Mortal Kombat Fight Stick immediately felt familiar. From the bulky wooden casing and large angled surface to the springy joystick and concave buttons, the design feels just like the old cabinets, and it looks great too.
The surface is spacious, giving players plenty of space to rest their arms on as they play, and the officially licensed graphics are true to the franchise's art style – complete with the iconic dragon logo and blood spatter.
Despite having wood casing, it isn't nearly as heavy as you might think, and PDP uses memory foam padding on the bottom panel to make lap use more comfortable. As a benefit of the bulky design, you can also pop open the top panel and use the inside compartment as storage space for cables and games. The cover is locked into place by a gold MK-branded latching mechanism, and an arm props up the cover to display a clear plastic enclosure that shows off the complex button and joystick components, as well as Microsoft controller chip driving the device. Not only does it uniquely display the innards of the device, it gives modders easy access to the components.
But how does it feel in action?
Due to the fact that the Mortal Kombat demo is still exclusive to the PlayStation 3 and the fight stick I received is for Xbox 360, I was unable to test it with the intended software, but when I tried it with existing 2D fighters, it performed exceptionally well. The buttons are clicky and responsive, but also have a considerable amount of springiness to them, and the joystick is loose but resilient. The button configuration is true to the Mortal Kombat arcade style, with X, Y, A, and B placed to the left and right of a centered RT button, and the LB button on the lower left. New controls like RB and LT have been relocated to the left and right of the Back, Xbox, and Start module toward the top.
Again, I was unable to see what roles the button configurations will serve in the new game, but on the original cabinets the upper left button (X) was for high punches, while the upper right (Y) was for high kicks, the center button (RT) was for blocking, the lower right (B) was for low kicks, the lower left (A) was for low punches, and the button just below the joystick (LB) was for running when applicable.
Finally, PDP has built a USB port and an Xbox 360 microphone jack into the top and bottom edges of the front panel. While the microphone jack is fairly standard, the USB port is unique. Instead of making the USB connection permanently attached to the base, PDP has used a USB to mini-USB cable to make it easy to detach, eliminating wire clutter.
Credits: http://gear.ign.com
No comments:
Post a Comment