HORI’s Fighting Stick series targets fighting game lovers with the Fighting Stick Alpha, it’s the first officially supported PS5 arcade stick to hit the market, but will it lead you to victory?
HORI is certainly no stranger to making arcade sticks and has made countless numbers of them since their debut on the market over 20 years ago. Their latest effort, the HORI Fighting Stick Alpha, is the first commercially sold Arcade Stick to support the PS5, bypassing the need for a Brook Converter, and getting you right into the game with no fuss.
The HORI Fighting Stick Alpha doesn’t seem to knock the build quality of, say, Victrix or Nacon’s upcoming Daija V2. Instead, it appears to be an accessible, mid-tier option that offers quality, reliability, and customization options for anyone looking to take their game more seriously.
Key specs
- Weight: 3.3kg
- Connectivity: USB-A
- Compatibility: PS5, PS4, PC
- Price: $199.99
- Features: Hayabusa lever, Hayabusa buttons, tournament lock functions, interchangeable artwork, chassis opening functions, 3.5mm headphone jack
- Where to buy: Amazon
Included in the box: HORI Fighting Stick Alpha
Design
Almost immediately after you unpack the HORI Fighting Stick Alpha, you’ll notice a smart matte black plastic finish, all over the arcade stick, next to the buttons. Made by HORI, the lever and knobs are proven components that won’t let you down. There is a blue design on top as standard but this can be swapped out but the process of getting the artwork in or out is quite long and involves unscrewing 7 screws to get in.
Externally, you have all the PS5 features you’d expect, in addition to a touchpad and a 3.5mm jack for audio. This is the first commercially available arcade stick to support the PS5, so no converters are needed, which is incredibly useful. It feels solid most of the time, although the plastic can bend when opening the rigid hinge.
You have handy non-slip pads around the bottom and a rounded edge at the bottom for ergonomics. There are also several cutouts on the side of the arcade stick for easy transport, which is one of our favorite features of the HORI Fighting Stick Alpha.
You can easily open the arcade stick from the back where you are greeted with the non-detachable USB-A cable, in addition to the wiring for the functions inside.
When you open the stick it is incredibly top heavy, causing it to fall over if you were to open it to make repairs or modify the stick in any capacity. This isn’t a problem for other arcade sticks like the Nacon Daija, which has a bottom-heavy design and hinges to allow for this.
The lack of a detachable USB-A cable is also somewhat disappointing.
In addition, the cable nest system makes us somewhat nervous. The USB cable of the HORI Fighting Stick Alpha wraps around the inside, with a small hole for cable management during use. The problem with the USB’s internal winding is that it’s incredibly close to the button’s wiring, which can cause problems if knocked out of place.
However, since the buttons are relatively standard in size, you can easily replace them, as we did on the stick with a generic Sanwa. The supplied Hayabusa knobs are push buttons, rather than bolt on, so make sure you grab the right type if you plan on adjusting.
The HORI Fighting Stick Alpha has plenty of room in it, although you might struggle to fit Korean edge-cased handles in it should you want to swap it out. That said, the Hayabusa knobs and levers are more than good enough for most people, and the ability to easily customize your experience is incredibly welcome. We wish the cable management was more thought through, or if there was a detachable cable, as it can be prone to interference, especially if you plan on traveling with the stick to tournaments or for local casual play.
Functions
The HORI Fighting Stick Alpha has a wealth of features, from cross-platform play to using HORI Device Manager, which we covered in the HORI Fighting Commander review. However, the biggest advantage of this stick is that you can customize it to your heart’s content, and it also manages to deliver a high-end arcade stick experience in a high-build chassis.
You won’t find a better native arcade stick for PS5 right now, other than this.
Tournament lock functions disable the side and top buttons to ensure you don’t accidentally put DQ yourself in a tournament, which is a fantastic and considerate option.
The lever feels great and is incredibly comparable in quality to the arcade standard Sanwa, which is the highest praise we can give. Plus, the matte black buttons work nicely and have a slightly higher pitch in play than the Sanwas, which is something to note if you’re prone to hitting your buttons recklessly. Our only concern about the finish of the buttons is that they can wear out over time, especially if it uses ABS plastic, much like keyboard keys after use.
Game achievements
The Hori Fighting Stick Alpha can be easily connected to a wide range of devices, simply by pressing a switch. We launched Street Fighter V on PC and went into the game’s training mode and tests to see if the arcade stick could keep up with our plethora of combos and inputs.
We start with G and we manage to perform quarter circle combo sequences, a semi circle command grab in addition to various forward and downward shoryuken moves without any problems. The stick and buttons felt incredibly responsive, with no real issues with performance or any latency.
The Fighting Stick Alpha doesn’t come with an extra port for the lever itself, meaning you’re limited to just a square port. This can cause problems for those who play grapplers and are used to an octagonal port, which comes as an extra on some arcade sticks, but this is a niche use case and you can still input 360-degree movements on the included lever, it’s just a little harder to execute.
This traditional arcade layout is sure to please anyone looking for a new arcade stick ready for Street Fighter 6 and other games. We also put a spin on the arcade stick in Gundam Extreme VS, where we were able to input complex strings with ease and with very few problems.
Make no mistake, the tournament-quality controls on the top allowed us to play without fear of accidentally pressing other buttons, and the touchpad is a great touch for those looking to navigate the Playstation 5’s UI between games.
However, what was most impressive during our weeks of testing was the ergonomics of the stick, not only was it easy to carry around but the angle at which your hands rest on the stick whether it’s on your lap or on the table did. not that. cause is some tension in our hands or wrists, even after hours of gaming sessions.
Should you buy it?
The Hori Fighting Stick Alpha ticks just about any box a modern fighting game player could want in an arcade stick, packed with quality buttons and a lever, with further options for customization on the latest generation of Sony consoles. There’s little to complain about here, although we wish more attention was paid to cable management as it can get messy if you’re moving around with your locals and have to open the whole stick to store your cables.
8/10
Hori could have done a little more to offer a more cohesive package here, and while the Hori Fighting Stick Alpha is a great arcade stick for most people, it could have included a little more design for those looking to customize their sticks further. It takes too long to replace the artwork, and we don’t like how the stick opens and how you clear the cables inside. For the asking price, though, it’s hard to beat.
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