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Hit Box stickless fight stick makes for malicious Mortal Kombat mayhem

by Jordan Mallory on Sep 11th 2011 11:30AM

Run of the mill controllers work just fine for hanging out with a group of ~~scrubs~~ friends and frantically beating the hell out of each other, but serious, tournament-ready fighters have to either invest the coin in a well constructed stick, or build one themselves. If your fighter of choice is Mortal Kombat, however, Hit Box says you're better off with no stick at all.

As we discovered last year, Hit Box manufactures custom controllers for fighting game enthusiasts which eschew traditional joysticks for more buttons. Thanks to Mortal Kombat's relatively simplistic input philosophy (all directions, no circle movements), the Hit Box is capable of some blindingly fast and accurate maneuvers. Be sure to teleport past the break for a second video showcasing the Hit Box's capabilities as a destroyer of worlds.

Source: HitBoxes

Tags: arcade-stick, fight-stick, Hit-Box, hit-boxes, microsoft, mortal-kombat-2011, Netherrealm-Studios, pc, playstation, ps3, xbox

Reader Comments (40)

That's pretty neat! :D

@DeanCutty

MK should switch their cabinets to this method. It's a unique way of playing and would make them stand out from the rest of the fighting games.

@DeanCutty

Sure if you define neat as when I (the opponent) in a fit of rage throw my controller through the most convenient solid object at 5 yards and then tremble as I wait for my head to explode into a fine cloud of red mist.

Never mind, I'm going back to Third Strike. What?

That almost seems unfair lol. That's awesome though. Anyone own one of these?

None of those combos would be harder with a stick. Or should I say, made easier with buttons instead of a stick. They all look fairly impossible for mere mortals to perform.

@Dick Socrates
It's not really making the combos easier, it's instead removing the easy-to-make errors. You'll have to of course still get the timing down.

@DeadpooI

Yea.. I mean no matter how much your used to a D pad a slight mispress of a direction will throw another direction in the mix. I would be happy if they just made a controller with a d pad of 4 individual buttons. (that didnt feel like a cheap knockoff)

Who wants a fight stick that can only be used with one game? Virtually every other fighting game on the market makes use of hadouken or shoryuken type maneuvers which are pretty much impossible to pull off when the directions are mapped to buttons.

@Kado

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xZ7YF16td8&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJcBC_mzr8c&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1qngjVB_ks&feature=related

facepalm.jpeg

@(Unverified)

It hurts my brain to even think about using that type of control system for a fighter, but I think once you're used to it, it probably would be way easier to use.

@Kado
would be no different from using a dpad, really.

Jesus, I can see how the Hit Box could pull off some seemingly impossible feats.

The very first move demoed is a circle move.

@spin cycle

You're a circle move !!!

2:33 is the best part. :D

Wow, that is really cool. Almost seems unfair. I wonder if this contoller will be allowed in tourneys?

@Shredator
I don't think its banned in any game. I know some people discussed it to be banned in MvC3, as there are a few weird properties, like never losing charge on charge moves and block both directions. Don't know the outcome of that though.

@Alexisonfire
Some of the local tourneys in my area have them banned.

@Alexisonfire I don't believe these are banned at any sort of major tournament. The HitBox guys changed them up once blocking both ways was found out in MvC3(on official hitboxes it'll count as neutral if you hit both left and right)

and the entire time I thought people were cheating...

Not sure if this is awesome, or modded figgotry.

The guy in this video sounds like he's from Red Bar Radio.

MK has circle motions, but yeah, they're not predominant.

Nobody thought of the obvious, cheaper solution to this?

Use a mother ****ing keyboard?

@Rain I believe they did. Then made a controller that wasn't awkwardly shaped and hard to handle while playing, one with buttons big enough to plink comfortably, one without about 20 extra buttons, and one that guarantees that allows you multiple simultaneous inputs.

@Rain
Keyboard has a max of four buttons that can be pressed and used at a time.

He should've had the buttons done MK style.

The hit box has been around for a long, long time now, i'm curious as to why it's now getting reported on

My friend brought one of these over about a week ago.

It was cool on Third Strike, but MK was a little harder to grasp.

This proves that keyboard is a better controller than a joystiq/gamepad.

@pika2000 No it proves that a specialized controller is better for situations it's specialized for vs a generic controller in the same situation.

looks like it would Suck the fun out for your casual multiplayer, imo

Ugh...buttons for directions? In THAT configuration?

It seems very counter-intuitive. I'm sorry, but...the joystick custom-made for the MK9 game is the best way to play it. This just seems...yeah. Unless you really want super-precision, but again, seems counter-intuitive with the layout of the directional buttons.

@Red Runner

most people say the new mk is terrible to play on stick ... watch any mk tournament stream and an overwhelming majority of them use pads.

damn near every one missed the purpose of this ... this is playing with a keyboard... just the keyboard has removed all of the unnecessary buttons.

the problems come into play if a game wasn't developed with a keyboard as a potential input device you can do things like block both directions at the same time but that is basic development stuff ... if you allow people to play on regular controllers this should be fine (the same can be done with the d-pad and stick)

the introduction of the hitbox is a great thing ... its just an alternative that has its positives and negatives and has a learning curve like everything else. use what works for you

I don't know...something about this just feels wrong. Like in my gut.

Maybe this is how John Henry felt when they invented the steam hammer.

no wonder when i played MK on pc using a keyboard, i managed to pul all those moves easily. now i know..

That's why I prefer keyboard (!) over gamepad in fighting games, but I got a stickless arcade joystick myself so I don't need either anymore.

Might as well just play with a keyboard, rather have a stick.

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Mortal Kombat (2011)

Hit Box stickless fight stick makes for malicious Mortal Kombat mayhem

Reader Comments (40)

Posted: Sep 11th 2011 11:39AM DeanCutty said

Posted: Sep 11th 2011 12:32PM Morisato13 said

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 8:58AM Spookimitsu said

Posted: Sep 11th 2011 11:40AM Thiscuddlybear said

Posted: Sep 11th 2011 12:07PM Dick Socrates said

Posted: Sep 11th 2011 1:02PM DeadpooI said

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 8:28AM Daverator said

Posted: Sep 11th 2011 12:11PM Kado said

Posted: Sep 11th 2011 12:22PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Sep 11th 2011 2:50PM jtrjuwrue5iiejie5ijeie3i5 said

Posted: Sep 11th 2011 4:36PM DaDiddles said

Posted: Sep 11th 2011 7:05PM mrantimatter said

Posted: Sep 11th 2011 12:13PM Exu said

Posted: Sep 11th 2011 12:30PM spin cycle said

Posted: Sep 11th 2011 3:30PM oOWallaceOo said

Posted: Sep 11th 2011 12:30PM Dao Jones said

Posted: Sep 11th 2011 1:00PM Shredator said

Posted: Sep 11th 2011 2:03PM Alexisonfire said

Posted: Sep 11th 2011 2:11PM The Aquacharger said

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 2:34AM SoupSaladNBread said

Posted: Sep 11th 2011 1:12PM Schwiizzz said

Posted: Sep 11th 2011 1:18PM Shinobi13 said

Posted: Sep 11th 2011 1:24PM LittleMofreaky said

Posted: Sep 11th 2011 1:24PM Cafecito said

Posted: Sep 11th 2011 1:59PM Rain said

Posted: Sep 11th 2011 2:09PM Alexisonfire said

Posted: Sep 11th 2011 2:10PM The Aquacharger said

Posted: Sep 11th 2011 2:12PM The Aquacharger said

Posted: Sep 11th 2011 2:49PM jtrjuwrue5iiejie5ijeie3i5 said

Posted: Sep 11th 2011 2:58PM Captaindrek1 said

Posted: Sep 11th 2011 4:13PM pika2000 said

Posted: Sep 11th 2011 4:34PM JamesKilton said

Posted: Sep 11th 2011 4:32PM styleznma said

Posted: Sep 11th 2011 4:37PM Red Runner said

Posted: Sep 11th 2011 6:07PM marinirvana said

Posted: Sep 11th 2011 6:05PM marinirvana said

Posted: Sep 11th 2011 11:52PM ToastyBiggins said

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 6:18AM noodless said

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 11:32AM derdaim said

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 2:54PM mikemyerz666 said

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