8BitDo Arcade Stick for Xbox / PC (Hardware)
Official GBAtemp Review
Product Information:
- Official Store: https://www.8bitdo.com/arcade-stick-for-xbox/
The 8BitDo Arcade Stick for Xbox gives you 2.4ghz wireless freedom, USB-C wired lag-free play for the competitive, Ultimate Software for tinkerers and all for the princely sum of just £99 on Amazon!
Arcade sticks are a fickle bunch, some have too much going on or cost the Earth whereas others use sub-standard quality components to deliver a mediocre experience that somewhat puts you off buying another. 8BitDo however seems to have struck an incredible balance of quality and affordability that you would have thought impossible.
With the upcoming release of Tekken 8 and the recent release of Street Fighter 6, now is the time for fighting game fans to invest in an arcade stick!
Packing 30hr battery life, the Arcade Stick for Xbox is the first fully licenced Xbox arcade stick on the market that is compatible with Windows as well as the current lineup of X and S Series Consoles, and their predecessor the aged but never-forgotten Xbox One!
As many of you know I'm quite the fighter fan, often drifting back to Street Fighter 2 or 3 every week for "just one more go". So when I had the opportunity to review this stick for 8BitDo: I was immediately of the mindset that I really wanted to try this out for emulation rather than just console-based gaming.
Minimalist, Clean, & Good Looking, Feels Fantastic Too!
Starting off with the main attraction, on the front of it you have the 6 main face buttons on the right, a reasonable-sized wrist rest, the 8-way gated ball-top stick on the right and a selection of knobs and buttons on the top left. These buttons control controller mode (stick or controller), stick orientation (Left Stick/D-Pad/Right Stick), headphone/microphone muting, the profile button, and the star button for on-the-fly remapping or turbo functions. There are also the obligatory four buttons from the Xbox controller: the Xbox button, View, Share and Menu!
On the rear side is the USB-C socket for lag-less wired play, which is useful if you're playing a super competitive game such as Street Fighter or Tekken. This edge also houses the secretly stored 2.4ghz USB dongle so that you can punch this into a PC without any issue.
The front edge of the controller has the profile/power/mute status LEDs and a single 3.5mm headphone jack which, if used in wireless mode drinks up 33.3% of the 30hr battery down to just 20hrs. I have to say that even with only 20 hours of battery life, this stick rocks!
Testing out SF6 on the Xbox Series X I have to say that I was incredibly impressed with the feel of this stick. Because licensed it connects directly to the console via the Xbox button and the preset stick layout is pretty much bang on for beginners to pick up and play right out of the box. Hurling fireballs the stick feels smooth, clean, and tactile, and the weight of the device is relatively minimal at around 2.4kg in total when sitting it on your lap.
Playing for extended lengths of time practising combos and learning characters' moves: I found the stick to be very comfortable and the buttons were suitably grippy under each finger, meaning I never slipped off or miss hit the buttons.
Fantastic For Retro Gaming Too
Moving on to my Recall Box, I simply plugged the USB-C cable in, connected it to the USB-A socket and configured the buttons to my liking. Being recognised as an Xbox controller definitely helped with the default mapping and setting up the stick, though if I had any issues I could have converted the stick into D-Pad mode with the little slider and mapped the four main directions as is.
Playing my faves SF2 and SF3 felt sublime, and games like the Streets of Rage series, Alien Vs. Predator and the Metal Slug games were extremely enjoyable on this controller. I also tested a few other games on my laptop, such as Dolphin Blue, and some retro classics on my Steam Deck and again I experienced stellar results across the board!
It should be noted that I still have my Magic-NS stick too, so connecting this stick to Nintendo Switch, for example, is a sinch, and using an OTG cable, or through my Steam Deck dock, I could also connect this to a gaming phone!
This stick doesn't technically support Switch or Android out of the box natively, nor does it support Sony consoles, though where there is a will (read: an adaptor) there is a way!
Moddable Versatility & Feature Packed
For the tweakers out there, this device is an absolute dream. Not only can you swap out 30mm/24mm arcade buttons as you wish, but the joystick mounting plate also supports almost every stick ever made including Sanwa JLF / Sanwa JLW Seimitsu / L3 33, 55, 56, 58!
The supplied software "Ultimate Software" not only allows you to update the firmware (1.28 at the time of writing) but you can also remap every button and the joystick with ease. Storing several custom profiles to the controller also means you can just hit the profile button and cycle through your favourite bespoke configurations.
The 8BitDo Arcade Stick for Xbox is a triumph in balancing features and quality with pricing and availability. The sheer versatility of the controller to be used across almost any other device is fantastic and the feel whilst playing really evokes that nostalgic feeling of pumping coins into your favourite games at the arcades and never wanting to stop playing!
Some people may find £99 a little steep for an additional controller, and while this is primarily developed for the fighting or platforming fanatics and is by no means an essential device for all players, the 8BitDo goes a long way to deliver almost every feature that sticks costing over twice its price accomplishes!
If you're into fight sticks then this is a definite feature-rich head-turner of an input device, and you definitely won't be disappointed if you happen to purchase one, regardless of which retro or modern devices you want to use it on!
Verdict
- 30hr battery life (20 with headphones plugged in)
- 3m cable or wireless via dongle
- Fast Mapping and Profiles
- Joystick and gamepad modes
- Not too heavy on the old knees
- £99 is pretty reasonably priced IMHO
- 4hr charge time
