DrakeAldan
Follow the rules!
I have never been one for execution. Ever. It runs in the genes- my father could not execute 236s back in the 90s, when the word “arcade” was still commonplace.
There’s always something missing, when the inputs start to get complicated. It always feels like a monumental task, one that takes an actual physical toll, leaving my fingers cramped and forearms ragged. I steered clear away from anything involving heavy execution, because of the pain it would bring.
I’ve always been on the lookout for something better, though. When Mad Catz first came out with the Tournament Edition stick back in 2009 (all Sanwa parts! This is what the pros use! No assembly required!) I jumped on it, to see if I had been missing something all along.
What I learned was surprising. With stick, especially Sanwa JLF, there is a large deadzone to cross before actually inputting anything. The big space makes things technically more accurate, but it slows the user down (especially pushing all the way to the “throw” of the stick). Speed had to be either carefully controlled (barely pushing engage points) or slammed out with maximum force- both of which are physically draining because of the muscle tension necessary to do so.
Because of the nature of the stick, it is easy to lose your bearings, should the housing shift in your lap. It’s easy to overshoot during movements and accidentally input unintended actions; every movement has to be practiced and accounted for.
The buttons were great- sensitive and easy to use- slide inputs were wonderful- but without directional inputs it was just flailing in the wind.
On pad, there is no deadzone- the throw is literally right at your fingertips. It can be difficult to be totally accurate, but the sheer speed is unparalleled.
A Seimitsu LS-40, whose speed is comparable, still requires much more effort with the hand for inputs as compared to pad- there’s no question.
Sliding around the pad with your thumb can be uncomfortable, however (I’m sure everyone’s experienced sore thumbs at one time). That, and the buttons are unwieldy, often unsuitable for repeated presses or more advanced techniques. (The Dualshock 3’s triggers are a notable offender, a big no-no for fighters.)
The Hori Fighting Commander 3 Pro, with a nice pad and crisp buttons, seemed to be a great compromise between the two. Then, the D-pad itself started to wear out on me…
I gave up on controllers altogether and said I would just make do with what I had. Execution would just be always out of my reach.
Time passes, and it turns out I’ve only become more stubborn, searching for a better way. Lo and behold in the Christmas season, what do I find, but a Hitbox…
---
The Hitbox comes wrapped up like this, shipped Priority Mail. (The postman left it at the wrong address, but… we’ll not talk about that.)
Finally here! No deliveries on Christmas...
There are a few cards inside. Not too many instructions, but it is what it is, I guess. For what it's worth, the Hitbox team has instructional videos on their Youtube channel.
I bet the Japanese means "by opening this you are hereby dishonoring your family and the entirety of Japanese stick makers everywhere"...
The Hitbox is... actually relatively small (or "skinny", I should say), at least compared to a full-size stick. (The pictures on the website make it look huge, but it's really not so.) It fits in the lap nicely.
Pink balltop, 'cause it's like that.
A Hitbox is a simple concept. You take the buttons from a stick (the easiest part to use) and… you duplicate them for a pad. The speed of the pad is retained, without any of the accuracy issues, meaning this is an instance of “the best of both worlds”. If you've ever played GGPO on a keyboard, this is pretty much keyboard's next evolution.
It's too glistening!
Something notable about the Hitbox is its use of OBSF-24s- smaller Sanwa buttons. The smaller buttons are a little more comfortable to use; they feel a lot like typing. The bigger OBSF-30s on regular sticks tend to either stretch my hand out or lead to me “hunt and pecking” which I never really liked.
No stretch necessary.
I had played @Sora online a couple of times (now a sponsored Hitbox player)- and during that time I noticed that he could seemingly pull out Ivy’s iCS at will. It made closing the distance and working on the inside quite intimidating (well, when I wasn’t calling him a dirty cheater, anyway).
The Hitbox really is built for speed. Because there's no travel time- cardinal directions are controlled by four fingers- directions can be input with greater rapidity and ease than on stick or pad. With stick, you'd have to really jostle around to get that sort of speed, and with pad, you'll quickly give yourself a friction burn on your thumb. Not so here.
You might think, "hey, the cardinal directions are covered, but what about diagonals? What if I flub a simultaneous input?" Personally, in my experience, you won't have this problem. No worries.
Concerning 2D games, I know personally that I have a tendency to overshoot, both on stick and pad, during complicated motions. This leads to accidental jumps, which can really ruin your day- on the Hitbox, the jump button is way down at the bottom. If you jump, it's because you mean to.
The fact that your directions are controlled by buttons also makes things easier because of the inherent tactile feedback; they are buttons, so if you are pushing something down you know exactly what is being inputted. On pad, diagonals are not well defined, and a stick can "disappear" in the heat of the moment, which is really disorienting...
On stick, with 236/623 motions (QCF, SRK/EWGF), personally I find them to be easier on 2P side, as you're just curling your fingers inward, which is a natural, fast action- as compared to pushing forward with the palm, which is slow and takes a lot of strength to speed up. You may or may not have heard of Mishima players who refuse to play on 1P side because of this. Well, with the Hitbox, again, motions are all button presses, so you don't have 1P/2P problems- at least not severely.
There are some quirks to the Hitbox, specifically concerning the term “SOCD” - Simultaneous Opposing Cardinal Directions. Basically, to prevent cheating in 2D games (i.e. blocking crossups), when 4 and 6 are pressed simultaneously, it results in a 5 (neutral) input. Being able to strategically place a neutral input instead of actually having to manually rest in neutral makes for some strange occurrences. Concerning SC, the biggest application would be inputting 66/44 moves at theoretical maximum speed.
That being said, just regular double-tapping works fine, too.
If you already play stick and you are good with button techniques (double-tapping, pianoing, plinking, slides, etc.) you will probably be right at home with the Hitbox. Aris went so far as to basically say it disgusted him- take that as you will.
---
Right. So, I shouldn't spend all this time gushing, right? In the name of fairness I have to cover both sides, don't I?
I'll note a few observations I've had.
1) The Hitbox is made to help you with heavy/complicated directional inputs. If you don't use any of this type of input while you are playing, the Hitbox won't confer any benefit to you.
Makin' it look easy! (After some editing...)
2) The Hitbox is... totally unintuitive.
Down (2) is on top, Up (8) is on the bottom. You'll have to completely relearn various motions and inputs, and practice them slowly to build the muscle memory. You can't just jump in and wreck shop.
In menus (when my hands have wandered from "Home Row") I am tapping Up with my thumb right now and expecting "X" because that's what it feels like on my TE; basically, if you don't spend the time to erase your instincts, you will pay for it.
There are some things you have to learn from experience that isn't immediately apparent with the Hitbox;
you shouldn't smack the buttons, as using lighter presses will make you faster and save energy;
you shouldn't rest your wrists on the case (the edge of the plexiglass tends to bite);
you may have to strengthen your ring finger with practice (if you mash out motions before you've practiced them slowly, your ring finger probably won't agree with you).
I would have liked if the Hitbox came with a "common mistakes" manual of some sort, but it is what it is.
Live and learn.
3) The Hitbox won't give you a brain.
Your fundamentals still have to be good when playing- just because your execution goes up, it just means that you can perform when you intend to. There's a danger that you can get distracted by your newfound execution and not focus on the match! If you haven't learned it already- "just because you can, doesn't mean you should"- it'll be a painful lesson.
---
Is the Hitbox necessary for Soul Calibur? Probably not- some characters will benefit from it more than others. If you play any other fighting game, though- the execution barrier tends to be ramped up, and the Hitbox will probably help with that.
I might as well reiterate- a Hitbox is not a shortcut. You still have to practice. What it does is it lessens the work on your left hand; once your muscle memory is in place you can input directions with less effort, meaning you don't have to shy away from complicated motions due to lack of speed or energy. I know I've damn well had enough of burning forearm from slamming around the stick (or hamburger thumb from mashing around the pad).
A Hitbox costs $225 for the dual-mod version (PS3/360/PC, using the Akishop PS360+ board) and $160 for the PS3/PC standalone (using the Toodles Cthulhu board), plus shipping and handling (within the US it was $20). Pricey, but for me, I've noticed pads don't really have good multi-console capability (what with tournaments starting to switch over to 360) and I wasn't about to switch to stick unless I had to. A Hitbox costs a little more than, say, something from Eightarc, so I figured it was a good compromise.
You could also find the button template floating around somewhere on the internet and make your own for cheap... I would probably hurt myself on a ghetto Tupperware version though...
So-
tl;dr, bought a hitbox, soul is now eternally damned. #darkside
And just FYI- I wasn't paid for this review! (speaking of which, team Hitbox/Huffer bros., if you are listening, send me a PS4/XB1 model when it comes out kthx)
There’s always something missing, when the inputs start to get complicated. It always feels like a monumental task, one that takes an actual physical toll, leaving my fingers cramped and forearms ragged. I steered clear away from anything involving heavy execution, because of the pain it would bring.
I’ve always been on the lookout for something better, though. When Mad Catz first came out with the Tournament Edition stick back in 2009 (all Sanwa parts! This is what the pros use! No assembly required!) I jumped on it, to see if I had been missing something all along.
What I learned was surprising. With stick, especially Sanwa JLF, there is a large deadzone to cross before actually inputting anything. The big space makes things technically more accurate, but it slows the user down (especially pushing all the way to the “throw” of the stick). Speed had to be either carefully controlled (barely pushing engage points) or slammed out with maximum force- both of which are physically draining because of the muscle tension necessary to do so.
Because of the nature of the stick, it is easy to lose your bearings, should the housing shift in your lap. It’s easy to overshoot during movements and accidentally input unintended actions; every movement has to be practiced and accounted for.
The buttons were great- sensitive and easy to use- slide inputs were wonderful- but without directional inputs it was just flailing in the wind.
On pad, there is no deadzone- the throw is literally right at your fingertips. It can be difficult to be totally accurate, but the sheer speed is unparalleled.
A Seimitsu LS-40, whose speed is comparable, still requires much more effort with the hand for inputs as compared to pad- there’s no question.
Sliding around the pad with your thumb can be uncomfortable, however (I’m sure everyone’s experienced sore thumbs at one time). That, and the buttons are unwieldy, often unsuitable for repeated presses or more advanced techniques. (The Dualshock 3’s triggers are a notable offender, a big no-no for fighters.)
The Hori Fighting Commander 3 Pro, with a nice pad and crisp buttons, seemed to be a great compromise between the two. Then, the D-pad itself started to wear out on me…
I gave up on controllers altogether and said I would just make do with what I had. Execution would just be always out of my reach.
Time passes, and it turns out I’ve only become more stubborn, searching for a better way. Lo and behold in the Christmas season, what do I find, but a Hitbox…
---
The Hitbox comes wrapped up like this, shipped Priority Mail. (The postman left it at the wrong address, but… we’ll not talk about that.)
Finally here! No deliveries on Christmas...
There are a few cards inside. Not too many instructions, but it is what it is, I guess. For what it's worth, the Hitbox team has instructional videos on their Youtube channel.
The Hitbox is... actually relatively small (or "skinny", I should say), at least compared to a full-size stick. (The pictures on the website make it look huge, but it's really not so.) It fits in the lap nicely.
Pink balltop, 'cause it's like that.
A Hitbox is a simple concept. You take the buttons from a stick (the easiest part to use) and… you duplicate them for a pad. The speed of the pad is retained, without any of the accuracy issues, meaning this is an instance of “the best of both worlds”. If you've ever played GGPO on a keyboard, this is pretty much keyboard's next evolution.
It's too glistening!
Something notable about the Hitbox is its use of OBSF-24s- smaller Sanwa buttons. The smaller buttons are a little more comfortable to use; they feel a lot like typing. The bigger OBSF-30s on regular sticks tend to either stretch my hand out or lead to me “hunt and pecking” which I never really liked.
No stretch necessary.
I had played @Sora online a couple of times (now a sponsored Hitbox player)- and during that time I noticed that he could seemingly pull out Ivy’s iCS at will. It made closing the distance and working on the inside quite intimidating (well, when I wasn’t calling him a dirty cheater, anyway).
The Hitbox really is built for speed. Because there's no travel time- cardinal directions are controlled by four fingers- directions can be input with greater rapidity and ease than on stick or pad. With stick, you'd have to really jostle around to get that sort of speed, and with pad, you'll quickly give yourself a friction burn on your thumb. Not so here.
You might think, "hey, the cardinal directions are covered, but what about diagonals? What if I flub a simultaneous input?" Personally, in my experience, you won't have this problem. No worries.
Concerning 2D games, I know personally that I have a tendency to overshoot, both on stick and pad, during complicated motions. This leads to accidental jumps, which can really ruin your day- on the Hitbox, the jump button is way down at the bottom. If you jump, it's because you mean to.
The fact that your directions are controlled by buttons also makes things easier because of the inherent tactile feedback; they are buttons, so if you are pushing something down you know exactly what is being inputted. On pad, diagonals are not well defined, and a stick can "disappear" in the heat of the moment, which is really disorienting...
On stick, with 236/623 motions (QCF, SRK/EWGF), personally I find them to be easier on 2P side, as you're just curling your fingers inward, which is a natural, fast action- as compared to pushing forward with the palm, which is slow and takes a lot of strength to speed up. You may or may not have heard of Mishima players who refuse to play on 1P side because of this. Well, with the Hitbox, again, motions are all button presses, so you don't have 1P/2P problems- at least not severely.
There are some quirks to the Hitbox, specifically concerning the term “SOCD” - Simultaneous Opposing Cardinal Directions. Basically, to prevent cheating in 2D games (i.e. blocking crossups), when 4 and 6 are pressed simultaneously, it results in a 5 (neutral) input. Being able to strategically place a neutral input instead of actually having to manually rest in neutral makes for some strange occurrences. Concerning SC, the biggest application would be inputting 66/44 moves at theoretical maximum speed.
That being said, just regular double-tapping works fine, too.
If you already play stick and you are good with button techniques (double-tapping, pianoing, plinking, slides, etc.) you will probably be right at home with the Hitbox. Aris went so far as to basically say it disgusted him- take that as you will.
---
Right. So, I shouldn't spend all this time gushing, right? In the name of fairness I have to cover both sides, don't I?
I'll note a few observations I've had.
1) The Hitbox is made to help you with heavy/complicated directional inputs. If you don't use any of this type of input while you are playing, the Hitbox won't confer any benefit to you.
2) The Hitbox is... totally unintuitive.
Down (2) is on top, Up (8) is on the bottom. You'll have to completely relearn various motions and inputs, and practice them slowly to build the muscle memory. You can't just jump in and wreck shop.
In menus (when my hands have wandered from "Home Row") I am tapping Up with my thumb right now and expecting "X" because that's what it feels like on my TE; basically, if you don't spend the time to erase your instincts, you will pay for it.
There are some things you have to learn from experience that isn't immediately apparent with the Hitbox;
you shouldn't smack the buttons, as using lighter presses will make you faster and save energy;
you shouldn't rest your wrists on the case (the edge of the plexiglass tends to bite);
you may have to strengthen your ring finger with practice (if you mash out motions before you've practiced them slowly, your ring finger probably won't agree with you).
I would have liked if the Hitbox came with a "common mistakes" manual of some sort, but it is what it is.
Live and learn.
3) The Hitbox won't give you a brain.
Your fundamentals still have to be good when playing- just because your execution goes up, it just means that you can perform when you intend to. There's a danger that you can get distracted by your newfound execution and not focus on the match! If you haven't learned it already- "just because you can, doesn't mean you should"- it'll be a painful lesson.
---
Is the Hitbox necessary for Soul Calibur? Probably not- some characters will benefit from it more than others. If you play any other fighting game, though- the execution barrier tends to be ramped up, and the Hitbox will probably help with that.
I might as well reiterate- a Hitbox is not a shortcut. You still have to practice. What it does is it lessens the work on your left hand; once your muscle memory is in place you can input directions with less effort, meaning you don't have to shy away from complicated motions due to lack of speed or energy. I know I've damn well had enough of burning forearm from slamming around the stick (or hamburger thumb from mashing around the pad).
A Hitbox costs $225 for the dual-mod version (PS3/360/PC, using the Akishop PS360+ board) and $160 for the PS3/PC standalone (using the Toodles Cthulhu board), plus shipping and handling (within the US it was $20). Pricey, but for me, I've noticed pads don't really have good multi-console capability (what with tournaments starting to switch over to 360) and I wasn't about to switch to stick unless I had to. A Hitbox costs a little more than, say, something from Eightarc, so I figured it was a good compromise.
You could also find the button template floating around somewhere on the internet and make your own for cheap... I would probably hurt myself on a ghetto Tupperware version though...
So-
tl;dr, bought a hitbox, soul is now eternally damned. #darkside
And just FYI- I wasn't paid for this review! (speaking of which, team Hitbox/Huffer bros., if you are listening, send me a PS4/XB1 model when it comes out kthx)
