Capcom Fighting pads, a look back....and towards Street Figter IV

With the recent news of Madcatz announcing that they will be making the controller to this years sequel to the classic Street fighter series, Street Fighter IV, I thought its time to look back at all the official capcom fighting pads and sticks that have come out through the ages, with most quite rare and have become collectors items in their own right....

With the lauch of Street fighter 2 on the Super Ninendo, Capcom decided to create dedicated controllers for it, and were probably the first of the many fighting pads to come out.

The Soldier Pad from Capcom, though quite an odd shape, was designed specifically for fighting games, this particualar one also came out on the 3DO with the release of Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo several years later!

Although not that popular, this was a japan only release (like most of the branded controllers) and currently the last time capcom released a controller they designed themselves!

A few years had passed and with the range of pads and sticks increasing capcom started to licence out its brand names to top pad makers,

with nubytech bringing out a range for the street fighters 15Th anniversary
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But capcom didn't just licence it out for Street Fighter, with capcom vs snk and darkstalkers both having fighting pads made for them. With darkstalkers licenced pad being probably the best fighting pads, the Sega Saturn pad for Playstation 2! This highly limited addition again was only released in japan (as usual and plays just like the saturn original, which of course was home to many 2d fighters).Finally the Dreamcast had its own licenced pad from Ascii, for the game Capcom vs Snk, with two versions, plus the standard, black, blue and grey, these pads again trying to match the classic saturn pad feel, and where pretty decent pads for fighting games, and had the advantage over the bulky Dreamcast pad.

So what can Madcatz do for Street Fighter IV? Well theres a bigger market for fighting pads then there use to be, with soul calibur sticks and other fighting pads, they need something that a hardcore fighting fan can use for long periods without it failing on them, or causing nasty aches and pains like some pads and sticks do!

Madcatz themselves know this, and are aiming to supprise, "You have never, ever seen accessories like these from Mad Catz. They will BLOW YOU AWAY and certain to make any and every Street Fighter fan very happy indeed. trust me, you'll be impressed..."

We'll see more news in a couple of months!