Berserker Barrage: the Marvel Vs. Capcom Stick Saga - Prologue

Ah MadCatz. I must give credit where credit is due. While there have been other arcade sticks before you from other companies (respect to the Sega Virtua Stick High Grade, the classic Namco Arcade Stick, and Hori’s countless Real Arcade Pro Sticks, etc), when you ‘came in the door (© Rakim)’ with the release of your Tournament Edition SFIV fightsticks, you set the bar quite high. Not only did you give the public genuine Sanwa arcade parts (not knockoff buttons), arcade layouts and a relatively easy way to buy them (a lot of earlier sticks were imports or you needed the hookup from your out of the way gaming store), but you also restored some much needed goodwill in your name (and you did pump out some craptacular accessories over the years, don’t lie). The Street Fighter tie in was pretty much a home run, since Capcom was out to jump start the fighting genre, which had been languishing for some time for a variety of reasons. Seeing how the original batch of TE fightsticks sold out, the many months you couldn’t find a decent fightstick ANYWHERE, custom, import or otherwise, and the ridiculous markup these sticks saw on eBay once the first run dried up, it’s safe to say job well done. Throughout the year, we’ve seen a few different ‘Collector’s Edition’ sticks come out: The Femme Fatal stick  stick, the Comic-Con special,  and recently the 'Round 2' SFIV sticks.  But one in particular stood out for plenty of other fighting fans.


Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (MvC2, for those that are lazy) had a huge following during its arcade and console run. In fact, it’s one of the games that’s played at many official Street Fighter tournaments worldwide (along with SFIII: Third Strike and some form of Street Fighter II, most recently the HD Remix version). With the re-release of MvC2 on consoles, Madcatz decided to celebrate with a new special edition stick:

Looks like a comic book, doesn't it...

Available exclusively through GameStop or Madcatz online, it’s a very impressive looking stick, even if the mechanicals and electronics are the same as all the other TE sticks. However, some were slightly disappointed. While it definitely looks killer, it’s not anything an original TE owner couldn’t do with 6 yellow Sanwa buttons, a yellow balltop and some custom art. Plus, more than a few people were used to playing MvC2 on a Happ/iL setup because of the heavy button mashing done in game (well, heavy as opposed to the more skilled or nuanced movements from Street Fighter, anyway). Realistically, Madcatz wouldn’t have been able to make a Happ based stick without some serious development time and money, as Happ parts wouldn’t fit in the TE cases they already had. That, friendly readers, is where I come in…



Over the next few weeks (or months, seeing how I procrastinate and how COLD it is out here…) I’ll document the trials and tribulations in making my own custom Happ based MvC stick. Hopefully I would have learned a thing or two from my first custom build. Then again, I never once said I was smart. Let’s get to it!