Yeahhhh, so I got it in a, like, 12PM on the dot. It's not TOO bad, but it's faaaaaaaar from spectacular.
I only got to play on the damn thing for like 20 minutes, but this is what I have to say about it thus far.
Upon receiving the thing, I noticed that the box was REALLY beat up from the ride here. At least, that's what I hope it's from, because if my pad was this beat up before they even sent the damn thing out, that's sad. The black outline has a nice dent in it around where the up-right button is. My buttons are also nice and scuffed up, with a nice scrape on the lower left corner of the middle button. So that's hot.
Upon actually using the thing, I got the feeling that it isn't arcade quality by far. In fact, it doesn't even FEEL like an arcade pad. It feels big and sturdy, but the buttons don't feel as good. It's not the same thick material that arcade pads use. On the contrary, they feel weak, and they'll probably get beat up relatively easily. So I'm not looking too forward to that. So, just know that, if you get this thing, the weight isn't a symbol of quality; it just stops the damn thing from moving when you play on it.
The website talks about how the buttons are more sensitive than ever, thus resulting in higher scores. BULLSHIT. In fact, the thing is SO sensitive that it picks up minor presses that wouldn't normally pick up on an arcade pad. The result is a reception of Greats and Goods. I actually got some random Bads, too, so that's always hot. It also makes picking songs and setting speed mods a chore, which is really unfortunate.
I was using this thing in Stepmania. When I went to set the button configurations for this thing, the pad registered perfectly fine, but the control box didn't work at all. So I need to find out why that's doing that.
The good news is that it comes AS USB, so you don't need a converter for PC. You just plug it up, and, assuming you have XP or Vista, it installs by itself. It took all of about 30 seconds, which was right as my computer was loading up from a fresh restart. lol So that's really good.
Above all, from the bit of time I had with it, it's serviceable. It's REALLY hard to recommend considering it costs an arm and a leg. It looks of a higher quality than it is, so it could start to degrade with more use. But it does serve its purpose. From here on out, I don't have to go to the arcade to practice. This helps heaps, and I can assume that my scores at the arcade WILL be better because of how inaccurate this thing can be.
My opinion could actually change; it might just take some getting used to/breaking in, but for now, my expectations are really, REALLY low.
6 out of 10
If anyone has any questions, I'm more than willing to answer them. I'll be giving more and more run downs of this thing as time goes by.
In the meantime, I'm gonna try to find out how I can get this thing to work with Pump PC, since I have a bunch of NX stuff on here that I never got to play at an arcade since nobody unlocked them. XD
WISH ME LUCK! |