You might remember that I was dissatisfied, to say the least, with my recent purchase of dual Classic Controller Pro’s. Well, I have gone in an entirely new direction and ordered a Mad Catz TvC fightstick. This represents a gigantic investment for me. Not the purchase cost of the controller, but the time investment needed to become proficient (or even basically competent) with arcade-style controls.

I have well over 1000x more experience with dpads and classic console controllers than with a joystick and arcade controls. A console controller feels second nature to me, while arcade controls feel anything but. I am basically taking a huge leap of faith here based on the fact that the fighting community swears by these types of controls. There is no question that my game will take a HUGE hit in the short-term. Estimates I’ve read project ~4 months of frequent gaming before you start to become accustomed to the new controls. 4 months… Damn that’s a long time. By the way, this works for any wii game, it’s not limited to TvC.

In meta-video game news: All this arcade talk inspired me to take another look at my (currently nonfunctional, but it used to be) Double Dragon arcade machine. The issue was it was completely dead (meaning, no power of any kind). I don’t know anything about electronics really, but I tried rearranging some power wires around haphazardly (let this be a lesson to you, kids). I was able to change its status from no power at all, to a clear “on” sound followed by a low humming noise, but no video or sound. I’m not sure if that means the change was a success and there is a secondary problem as well or if that low humming noise is the sound of improperly wired electronics frying. In either case, I made no further progress and gave up at that point. Perhaps I should try reading up a bit on the issue.