Whether you play a number of Street Fighter-style combating video games, or continuous arcade classics, purists argue {that a} good struggle stick will be the distinction between victory and defeat. Crafted in collaboration with famend skilled eSports participant Kayane – who specialises in combating video games like Soulcalibur and Street Fighter – Nacon’s Daija Arcade Stick makes an attempt to offer gamers the sting within the aggressive combating scene, utilising premium-quality supplies and providing full customisability to fulfill the calls for {of professional} players. If you are struggling to climb the ranks in video games like Street Fighter 6 and suppose that an arcade stick is likely to be the reply to your woes, then take a look at our Daija Arcade Stick evaluation under…

On paper, Nacon’s formally licensed PlayStation arcade stick manages to tick all the bins.

The buttons and sticks are crafted by SANWA, whose merchandise are synonymous with premium high quality and supreme sturdiness amongst members of the combating recreation group.

Having spent the previous few weeks executing fireballs, uppercuts and spinning piledrivers in Street Fighter 6, I’m blissful to report that the Daija joystick and all of its buttons proceed to work flawlessly, and with none noticeable enter lag.

You might possibly argue that the motion buttons are a bit of too large and much aside for gamers with smaller arms, though the spacing does at the least scale back the chance of by chance urgent the improper button throughout a combo sequence.

There are completely no points with the positioning of the joystick, which is much sufficient away from the buttons for gamers to wrap their fingers round and actually hammer these directional inputs.

Likewise, there’s area sufficient on each side of the arcade persist with comfortably relaxation your forearms, one thing which is additional supported by the textured arm relaxation.

Of course, the truth that there’s a lot room both aspect of the buttons ought to inform you all you want to know concerning the measurement of the system. This an enormous, cumbersome arcade stick to an actual sense of weight and sturdiness. When you set it down on the desk or relaxation it in your lap, you recognize it isn’t going wherever.

The solely downside is that you will want Zangief-sized biceps and again muscle tissue if you wish to cart it round with you. 

With eight motion buttons and the joystick taking centre stage, the pause button, L3/R3 and seize buttons are relegated to the aspect of the system.

While it is smart to place these away out of your most important button inputs, the flipside is that it isn’t at all times completely clear which button you are urgent when attempting to pause the sport or seize a picture. It’s not a serious difficulty, however it can take a bit of getting used to.

Speaking of buttons, the PlayStation Home button will be discovered on the prime of the system, alongside a separate button used to change between customized profiles (extra on that later), and a lock swap to cease you by chance altering configurations or visiting the PlayStation dashboard throughout a match.

The lock swap is not one thing I’ve wanted to make use of, however should you’re an animated participant or a bit on the clumsy aspect, then it would simply turn out to be useful.

Customisation is one other key spotlight of the Daija Arcade Stick. Users can absolutely configure the buttons utilizing the NACON Daija Arcade Stick software program, which is suitable with each PC and Mac.

The intuitive and user-friendly software program permits players to create profiles tailor-made to their particular wants, whether or not you need to create button shortcuts in video games like Street Fighter 6, or immediately swap to a extra useful format in a special combating recreation.

Even higher is that customisation is not simply restricted to the software program. At the press of a button (effectively, two buttons to be precise), customers can flip open the struggle stick and make extra adjustments to the system itself.

Under the hood you may discover a Bat Top joystick to switch the extra common Ball Top variant usually used as default, in addition to a screwdriver for altering the art work to your faceplate.

While the flexibility to examine underneath the hood and make adjustments to your struggle stick is not precisely revolutionary, Nacon has made the method as easy as attainable.

Clearly, the Daija Arcade Stick is about as much as give gamers the flexibility to carry out at a excessive degree in video games like Street Fighter.

Whether or not it could make you a greater participant is up for debate, though it has labored for me.

I’ve an actual drawback performing fireballs and different particular strikes when dealing with left to proper utilizing a d-pad. According to the SF6 tutorials, I’m lacking out the center a part of the movement, leading to my character usually performing a standing punch.

Not solely do I discover it simpler to carry out rolling inputs with a joystick, however having all six punch and kick buttons subsequent to one another is healthier for chaining collectively combos.

If you are already a fairly competent Street Fighter participant with a controller, then spending round £240 on the Daija Arcade Stick may not make monetary sense.

However, should you’re searching for methods to enhance your expertise, or desire a extra genuine arcade expertise, then the Daija Arcade Stick is among the many finest struggle sticks cash should buy.

VERDICT – 4.5/5