Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube Twitch
    Game on Aus
    • News

      We look at the new Sony PlayStation Plus premium service

      June 28, 2022

      GAMES subscription services have been pretty well established for a few years now in Australia, but Sony PlayStation were notably…

      ANZPL Season 4 Champions

      World Of Tanks ANZPL Season 4 Grand Final: Champions Decided In Sydney Derby

      June 27, 2022

      The ANZPL Season 4 Grand Final is here. The Sentinels take on the Skorpions to find out who will be the Season 4 champions!

      Best Console Digital Deals of the Week 24/6/2022

      June 23, 2022

      PlayStation has released it’s Mid-Year Sale offerings along with a few great choices for deals to be picked up on…

      Sentinels vs Skorpions to clash in World of Tanks ANZ Premier League Finals

      June 23, 2022

      [This press release has been provided by Wargaming PR and is presented by the GOA team for your information] The…

      Fall Guys is finally available on all platforms…and it’s free!

      June 22, 2022

      The wildly chaotic, battle royale-like party game, Fall Guys, has finally launched on all platforms. Up until today, Fall Guys…

      View All
    • Reviews

      We look at the new Sony PlayStation Plus premium service

      June 28, 2022

      GAMES subscription services have been pretty well established for a few years now in Australia, but Sony PlayStation were notably…

      The Quarry – The Review

      June 24, 2022

      OK readers, I have a secret to tell. And I might lose some of your respect after I tell you.…

      Necesse screenshot

      Necesse – the perfect blend of two iconic indie games

      June 23, 2022

      I really don’t know how to open this other than: more people need to be playing Necesse ASAP, it’s my…

      More D&D Monsters! A review of Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters Of The Multiverse

      June 22, 2022

      THERE are a lot of sourcebooks for Dungeons & Dragons out there. D&D 5e (the current edition) has something like…

      SteelSeries Aerox 9 Wireless Gaming Mouse Review

      June 19, 2022

      DESPITE never being the hugest fan of MMO/MOBA games, largely due to my lack of patience and willingness to invest…

      View All
    • Podcasts
      game on aus logo

      Predators Beware!

      June 23, 2022

      Stormie’s not well this week so Pete and Jim carry on! The lads chat how many lootboxes you need in…

      Episode 245 Hero Card

      Episode 245: Summer Games Fest!

      June 17, 2022

      Catch up with all the news from a weekend of announcement at Summer Games Fest! Pete, Stormie and Jim talk highlights and lowlights along with games that are just too big!

      Episode 244: Diablows?

      June 9, 2022

      Pete has some things to get off his chest about Diablo Immortal and new Pokemon while Stormie and Jim nod…

      GOA Pod 243

      Episode 243: Happy Birthday Solitaire!

      June 2, 2022

      The gang talk about their cozy Bloody Good Game Of The Week thanks to Aussie Broadband, licensing music for games…

      GOA Pod 242

      Episode 242: The Richie Benaud Episode Number

      May 26, 2022

      Two… two four two. Yes, episode 242 is here and like the late, great Richie, it’s marvellous. Pete and Jim…

      View All
    • Categories
      • BY PLATFORM
        • Playstation
        • Xbox
        • Nintendo
        • PC
        • Mobile
        • VR
        • Retro
      • BY GENRE
        • Action
        • Action-Adventure
        • Adventure
        • Battle Royale
        • Fighting
        • FPS
        • Horror Games
        • RPG
        • Simulation
        • Sports
        • MMORPG
        • MOBA
        • Party Game
        • Platformer
        • Puzzle
        • Strategy
        • Survival
        • Indie
      • GOA ESSENTIALS
        • Esports
        • Conventions
        • Tabletop
        • Hardware
        • Furniture
        • Funny
        • Streaming
        • Win
        • Podcast
        • Video
    • More
      • About Us
      • Contact Us
    Game on Aus
    Home » Mad Catz Ego Arcade Fight Stick: A Review
    REVIEW

    Mad Catz Ego Arcade Fight Stick: A Review

    Royce WilsonBy Royce WilsonOctober 11, 2020
    Share
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email

    EGO is not a dirty word, regardless of whether you’re a mid-1970s Australian pop-rock band or a gamer looking for a new way to unleash digital pummelling in fighting games.

    The Mad Catz Ego Arcade Fight Stick is an arcade-style joystick controller of the type you’d find attached to an old school arcade cabinet.

    This is intentional, as it’s designed for competitive fighting games which are – according to the purists – best experienced with an arcade-style control setup as opposed to the standard console controller.

    The Mad Catz Ego arcade fight stick brings old-school arcade style to your computer or console.

    The Mad Catz Ego features a joystick on the left-hand side, as well as eight main buttons, along with a row of supplementary buttons along the top of the unit. The main USB cable is a handy 3m long – more than ample to reach from a console to the sofa in most living rooms.

    Mad Catz have said this is their first multi-platform fight stick and that it will work with PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Since I already had some fighting games on the Xbox One, I started with that.

    Connecting the Ego to my Xbox One X was a slightly involved process – I first had to connect the attached USB cable to the front of the console, then get an included micro USB cable ready, connect that to an Xbox controller, push a button on the Fight Stick to connect them, then I could use it; the same process is required to use the Ego with the PlayStation 4.

    For some inexplicable reason, the Mad Catz Ego has to be connected to a console controller as well as the console itself to function. It works as a straight plug-and-play device on PC, however.

    Why I couldn’t just plug-and-play via USB is a complete mystery and the setup was, frankly, a pain in the neck. Interestingly, the Ego was plug-and-play on my PC. Just plug it in, PC detected it like any other controller, away I went – just as it should be.

    The Ego is designed for fighting games so I put it through its paces with Mortal Kombat 11 and Soul Calibur VI – and it was great.

    I grew up playing games like Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter II: Champion Edition in actual arcades, feeding 50c and $1 coins into the slot so I could keep harpooning people as Scorpion or pile-driving them as M Bison, and arcade games

    Fighting games are absolutely playable with console controllers, have been since their earliest days – but for that authentic arcade experience, a fight stick is the way to go.

    The Mad Catz Ego Arcade Fight Stick make a big difference to my experience in Mortal Kombat 11, making it much easier for me to pull off combos and fight effectively.

    I found the Mad Catz Ego made a massive difference to my playing in Mortal Kombat 11. I’d really struggled to make effective use of the standard Xbox controller, but with the fight stick I was able to pull of combos and fight a lot more effectively, without having to twist my hand into contortions to do it. The same was true of Soul Calibur VI, too.

    The stick and controls responded very effectively and the “clicky” nature of the switches appealed too.

    The Ego Fight Stick sat nicely and solidly on my lap while I was using it – I had no issues with it moving around, sliding out of position or getting uncomfortable after a solid session.

    Given the Mad Catz Ego’s obvious lineage from arcade controller, I tested it with a side-scrolling beat ‘em up – Streets of Rage 4 – and it worked superbly, even better than the standard controller in some respects.

    The Mad Catz Ego was fantastic to use in Streets Of Rage 4 as well, giving it an old-school arcade experience and making it easier for me to beat the stuffing out of the game’s many foes.

    It’s an awesome game anyway, but playing it with the Ego was like travelling in time back to the golden age of arcade gaming and added noticeably to the experience.

    Having said all this, it’s worth noting I’m not a competitive fighting game player, so I’m coming at this from the perspective of someone looking at a different controller input rather than someone who treats their fighting games as Serious Business.

    While I got the impression (which Reddit comment seem to back up) that this isn’t a top-shelf premium fight stick for pro e-fighters, for a casual or mid-level user wanting something different I was very pleased with it and thought it did what it was supposed to do very well.

    You can set whether the joystick replicates the controller D-Pad, left thumbstick or right thumbstick, and there’s also a key lock function to disable the pause button too.

    You can change the backdrop underneath the Ego’s perspex to anything you like – including this Tiger-inspired design offered by Mad Catz themselves.

    The unit is also highly moddable – you can remove the Perspex cover to change the artwork to anything you like, and the Ego even comes with a screwdriver and easy access to access the unit’s internals to swap out switches.  

    Because the different buttons on the Ego replicate a controller, you can remap the controls in games which allow that, allowing you to get the arcade experience you want too.

    The unit also features a Turbo function, which basically allows you to assign 10 consecutive single actions to a single button – basically letting you punch or kick 10 times in a row with only a single button press.

    With a retail price of around AUD$279 this isn’t a cheap, but it’s effective, user-friendly and will work on multiple platforms – so for someone looking to bring their fighting or old-school style arcade games to the next level, this might be just the Ego boost they need.

    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
    Previous ArticleUnrailed Review
    Next Article Final Fantasy XIV Online Patch 5.4 Details Announced

    Related Posts

    NEWS June 28, 2022

    We look at the new Sony PlayStation Plus premium service

    GAMES subscription services have been pretty well established for a few years now in Australia, but Sony PlayStation were notably…

    HORROR GAMES June 24, 2022

    The Quarry – The Review

    OK readers, I have a secret to tell. And I might lose some of your respect after I tell you.…

    Subscribe

    Get the latest creative news from FooBar about art, design and business.

    Ads
    Advertisement
    Categories
    • ACTION
    • ACTION-ADVENTURE
    • ADVENTURE
    • BATTLE ROYALE
    • CLOUD GAMING
    • CONVENTIONS
    • ESPORTS
    • FEATURE
    • FIGHTING
    • FPS
    • FUNNY
    • FURNITURE
    • GOA
    • HARDWARE
    • HORROR GAMES
    • INDIE
    • MMORPG
    • MOBA
    • MOBILE
    • NEWS
    • NINTENDO
    • Open-World
    • OPINION
    • PARTY GAME
    • PC
    • PLATFORMER
    • PLAYSTATION
    • PODCAST
    • PREVIEW
    • PUZZLE
    • RACING
    • RETRO
    • REVIEW
    • RPG
    • SIMULATION
    • SPORTS
    • STRATEGY
    • STREAMING
    • SURVIVAL
    • TABLETOP GAMING
    • TECH
    • VIDEO
    • VR
    • XBOX
    Related Article
    NEWS

    We look at the new Sony PlayStation Plus premium service

    June 28, 2022Royce WilsonBy Royce Wilson

    GAMES subscription services have been pretty well established for a few years now in Australia, but Sony PlayStation were notably absent from the party.…

    Minsc & Boo
    TABLETOP GAMING

    My favourite cards from Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate

    June 27, 2022ArlentricBy Arlentric

    Dungeons & Dragons lore and storytelling meets the world’s most popular collectable card game: Magic: the Gathering in the recently released card set Commander Legends: Battle…

    ANZPL Season 4 Champions
    ESPORTS

    World Of Tanks ANZPL Season 4 Grand Final: Champions Decided In Sydney Derby

    June 27, 2022Darren 'Str8JaktJim' MacneallBy Darren 'Str8JaktJim' Macneall

    The ANZPL Season 4 Grand Final is here. The Sentinels take on the Skorpions to find out who will be the Season 4 champions!

    Game on Australia Logo

    Game On Aus is an Australian games publication working across written, video and podcast, and supported by an ever-growing community of content creators and fans!

    Copyright GameOnAus 2022. Privacy Policy

    CONTENT
    • News
    • Gaming Reviews
    • Podcast
    • Tech
    • Indie
    ABOUT GOA
    • About Us
    • Contact

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.