To everyone that has yet to play a Sega Saturn, I would encourage you to find one or someone who owns one and get ahold of one of these. This is the “Ascii Saturn Stick,” far and away one of the finest arcade joysticks I’ve ever played with. It’s one of my favorite pieces in my collection and gets the most use of any peripheral I own. I thought it appropriate to christen this blog with a shining example of how things should be done.

Most home “arcade sticks” utilize a great, big awkward ball on top with an often spring-loaded base. Not this monster. What you get here is an arcade-style steel stick with micro switches in the base to register your motion, 8 heavy-duty buttons, a steel base, and an overall solid frame. This is the same stick I’ve had since 1996 and I’ve yet to replace it. It is nearly indestructible! Every now and again I’ll have to remove the base and clean dust from the contacts on the board, but other than that I haven’t experienced any problems with it. It also makes this delightful click every time you nudge the stick.
Despite being a third-party peripheral, this thing dominates Sega’s own “Virtua Stick.” Sure there’s no Turbo switches, but the stick’s not only more accurate and comfortable to hold and use, it also still works. The “Virtua Stick” stopped working ages ago. If you like any kind of fighting game (especially the 2D Capcom variety that rocked the Playstation versions back in the day), then this is the stick for you!

Games the “Ascii Saturn Stick” rocks the shit out of!

-Any Capcom 2D fighter
-SHMUPS such as Radiant Silver Gun, Galactic Attack, Darius Gaiden, etc…
-Arcade style puzzlers like Tetris Plus, Super Puzzle Fighter 2, Bust a Move 2, etc…
-It’s also surprisingly good for a lot of platformers like Astal and Sonic Jam

See if you can find one of these things on ebay. Your smug friend will shit his pants when you roll up for some X-Men: Children of the Atom with this baby tucked under your arm.

UPDATE 12/30/2011: Not that you care, but my Virtua Stick just decided to start working again… Not a huge update, but I didn’t want misinformation floating around going into the new year.