Hori Fighting Stick Mini 4 review

I managed to get ahold of a Hori Fighting Stick Mini 4; the hubby happened to be in our big giant store here that sells a wide variety of stuff, and he saw the stick on the shelf. He sent me a picture, said it was 30 bucks there and if it was good. I said I've heard good things about it, and for 30 bucks, why not?

So going to do a little writeup of it here for folks!

The General Stuff

First off it retails for about 40 bucks; again, we happened to get one on sale at our local place. 

It IS mini, for sure. Like, the stick is a bit smaller than normal(and comes with a square gate), and the buttons are more 24mm than 30mm. The parts ARE Hori, though not Hayabusa or Kuro; it's sort of expected given the price point. However, they do not feel bad. In fact in terms of budget sticks, I gotta say they feel better than about any other budget sticks I've played. Hell, I've even been hearing about the Qanba Drone on how it's an impressive stick, albeit the stick feels a bit 'mushy'; this really doesn't have that feeling. Buttons and stick felt nice and responsive; the buttons aren't the best certainly(I'd take Sanwa, Kuro or Seimitsu anyday), but they're actually pretty good; usually with budget sticks the buttons are just lousy, and these function, have some pop, and have a fairly middling resistance to them. They're decent, workable buttons. 

The stick worked fine with about all games I played. Some things worked out better than others. Going down the line I tried it on:

Guilty Gear Xrd, Street Fighter V(PC)
Tekken Tag Tournament 2(PS3)
Guilty Gear Xrd: Revelator(PS4)

As said, it works on all three platforms just fine. All I did with the PC(I run Windows 10) was plug it in. 

I can play on whatever gate(I'm more used to octogate these days and generally prefer it), but there's always things I like better on square gates(iWS moves in Tekken, for example.) I had no trouble with charge moves in SF, qcf/half circle/etc motions(of course they're better on octo, but they work fine on square, you all know how it goes), and in Tekken I had little problem doing usual maneuvers. I could hit electrics with Kaz, do Dragunov's iWR combos, his f+3 stuff, Lee's b+2/ms cancel, and Violet's Acid Rain combo(all showing me the buttons work properly.) 

Now it should note my backdash cancel and wavedash are fairly poor on a square gate; it feels off to me and I again prefer the octo there(or Korean lever), but perhaps others will find it more to their liking. The stick occasionally felt like it had some funny business, but on day 1, playing on a new stick and not my usual gate can possibly throw things for a loop. 

All in all, I was able to do what it says: play fighting games on it. 

It's a small stick-I mean easily less than half the size of my Qanba Q2 Pro, quite lightweight, but with all of that, it's solid feeling. Like it's not a 'flimsy' lightweight. So Hori made it well. It feels tough and like it can take some punishment, not like it'll fall apart in your hands if you're a heavy hitter.

With THAT said...when I say small-and remember the buttons-if you have bigger hands, you may want to try before you buy. You don't have a lot of room there.

(I still prefer my 'tank sticks'. I like resting room and everything, especially for a lap stick.) 

The best place I found to play it? On a table. When I was playing it at my PC, it felt better than the lap(where it was better with a book under it, and even then it slides a little-might want to add some stick-on rubber pads from a hardware store maybe.) If you're a 'table player', I think you'll have less issue; I'm a lap player more often than not at the console, but desk at the PC. 

It's cord is decently long, though given the size again there is nowhere to put it; need to wrap it up normally. It's probably too short to go back on your couch from your TV if the two are a bit far apart(but I play it fine from my floor to the TV.) 

Finally, there isn't much modding to be done with this stick. Best thing you COULD do is swipe the PCB from it to make yourself a custom stick if you want to customize; this isn't a stick to buy if you want to customize it. 

As a side note, there was a bit of weirdness when I tried it on my PS4; nothing to do with the actual movement, but it would only register when it was in '3' mode and not '4'. I will have to look into that. 

So to wrap things up a bit here!

Condensed List of Stuff

The Good: 
-Great price
-Solid build for said great price, doesn't feel super cheap
-Controls well, does the job it's supposed to
-Small and compact makes it easy to travel

The Neutral:
-It's small, so people with big hands be aware of this
-Better on a desk than a lap
-No modding(this isn't something everyone worries about)
-Stick feels decent, though not exceptional

The Bad:
-Kinda meh lap stick without building a base for it/using a book or something, slides around
-Buttons are pretty iffy, though they are functional

Is it worth it?

I'd say yeah, for certain things. For it's price point, IMO, you aren't going to find much better right now for a bottom-price budget stick that works on PS3, PS4 and PC(and I'm talking going cheaper than stuff like the Drone or Carbon, but the latter isn't for PS4.) I'd say go for it, assuming your hands aren't too big, though I would not suggest this as a 'Main' stick. 

Things I would suggest it for:

-A lightweight travel stick(it will travel very easily)
-A 'first stick' for someone making the transition over(this can take a bit, and it's not even guaranteed someone will want to at the end; better to go with a well-made budget stick at first before you go all in with a 200 dollar model, and 'well made budget sticks' usually are hard to find)
-A PC desk stick if you play PC fighting games less than your console fighting games(note: this is what I use it for currently) 
-A multi-console stick to hold you over a few months before you get the one you have your eye on(for 40 bucks, it's no problem)
-Kids(hey, don't laugh, start 'em young! It's a good size and you won't cry as hard if they spill juice in it.) 

Quite a few things, really! I just, again, wouldn't suggest it to someone for their Main Fightstick. It's a bit too budget for that, IMO. 

Anyway, hope this helps you out if you come across this cute lil' guy! You can find them on Amazon fairly easily. 

Demos, betas, and why they don't always work

Demos nowadays tend to be shunned a bit more often, by any developer. There's a pretty excellent video that breaks down the cost of doing a demo(it's not as 'Remove part of game, slap on disc, release' as it sounds), and the results of doing it. Some companies still do it(T-K with Ni-Oh for example), but it's less and less common. 

Out of all the situations(which were like nine or so), only three or so were positive outcomes. Even having a great demo for a great game is only a marginal increase(since people were already likely buying anyway.) Putting out a bad demo can absolutely cripple sales. A meh demo can end up losing you sales, too. Simply put, it just ends up as too much of a risk to developers now to do demos. So go watch this video here , courtesy of the Extra Credits guys, and then come back. (Or just like...keep going and you'll probably still get it. It's up to you.) 

Now we'll see why a Tekken 7 demo likely wouldn't be great(and why a beta would likely be iffy as well.) 

Say hypothetically they released a T7 demo next month. They'd first have to limit characters. Let's face it; they couldn't put them all in. So right there you get irritated people that don't have their character to play. At best I imagine they'd have...4-5? Let's say for this example they have five. My money would be on two new-like Claudio and Katarina or something-and then probably grabbing some of the more widely-played returning ones...say, looking at the Japanese list-King, Kazuya and Asuka.(who are all fairly well known characters who are played often.)

 I mean I'm sure some would play it to enjoy the mechanics, but let's face it; it would feel bare bones as fuck. You'd be facing the same characters all the time, no ranking system, gods know what the netcode would be like for a demo(and remember: casuals-a big portion of the audience-will remember this and it'll stick.) No story mode, 'arcade mode' would basically be you fighting these five characters. It MIGHT have a practice mode but it would be utterly bare bones, making TR's look like VF4 EVO's. 

And they would have to devote people to maintain this thing. It NEEDS to keep adequate netcode or else. They'll need to keep smoothing over the fact that the demo would be more for casuals(since a lot of returning players would probably not have their characters.) 

They would end up with basically a shell of the game that really wouldn't benefit anyone at the end of the day. People would get some entertainment out of it, but also remember in that video: sometimes, after a demo, people *no longer feel the need to play the full game.* Some of the casual audience? May well fall here. The people who just want to bash buttons with friends who otherwise would have bought the game. Like it or not, a Tekken 7 demo would just not have been financially feasable in this day and age(I feel back in the day, demos served a better purpose, but markets, and fanbases, change over time), and I think it probably would have done either more harm than good or really just resulted in...nothing. People without the full game still would be unhappy. Again, in the video they describe how only a couple of the options will result in more sales, and it's probably just not worth it. 

"But what about a beta?"

Okay, a beta might be a better idea. But it's not without it's problems either. As a disclaimer, about a year ago, I actually thought a beta was a great idea. I said as much, too. I had since changed my mind after thinking things over and listening to other opinions(as well as taking part in SFV's.) I don't think it would much help anymore. 

For one, they of course need people to maintain this thing, as well. So that's less people on the development team. Next up, they likely would not have this beta running all the time; they'd need to devote too many resources to it. So what we'd end up with from now until early 2017(whichever month it drops in), are probably like...two weekends a month.

And we all know how beta weekends can go. Messed up connections, a billion people trying to cram in at once, netcode that even if it's good live might be iffy there because it's, well, a beta with a billion people trying to cram in, and about two million people who don't understand the meaning of the word 'beta', that means 'not complete yet' and get turned off from the game because they somehow believe it's the finished product. (Having taken part in many betas over several genres, I see this every single time.) 

As an aside, I feel that some games benefit from betas; MMOs, MOBAs and the like. I also think that if Tekken 7 had not been in arcades first, it may have then benefit, but I feel fighting games are a different beast than the other types. (I'd probably need a whole other blog to explain why the other games seem to work out better than fighting game betas. Keep in mind the latter is something that is also not done as often in general.) 

Also: They likely can't invite everyone, so they'll need to 'gate' the beta somehow. This usually happens through choosing people that sign up(starting slower, adding more), which gates your community; in an MMORPG that's one thing(more people, etc), but for a fighting game? Not so good. You need to make sure lots of skill levels get a chance. You can gate through preorders, but some people get very hesitant of the pre-order culture these days. 

And again, at the end of the day, you get a few months of sporadic weekends-one, maybe two per month-when you then have to put the game down again. And if something goes wrong in a beta, it can fuck things up horribly. Canceled pre-orders(since, remember, a lot of people don't understand 'Beta Means Stuff Can Go Wrong'), and disgruntled fans. 

At least in the current scenario, you basically just get 'disgruntled fans.' 

Finally! Lest I forget...betas are for testing the game, not messing about. Far too often in MMO betas that I've been in, people just...play, give no feedback, and then wonder why shit is broken. I hate to be the one to break this to folks, but while yes, by all means have fun with them, betas are basically a sort of work. Like, fun work. That you may or may not pay for to get beta access. But they're not just 'to play the game.' They're called 'Beta tests' for a reason. 

The Tekken Tour is probably one of the better bets they could have done(though I'd have loved Bandai-Namco EU to be better here, I feel they've been dropping the ball). I digress a little there though.(The discussion of the arcade first method is probably a topic for another blog, since IMO, there is no right or wrong answer there. It's just another method of releasing games, and Bandai-Namco are not the only ones that do it.) 

At the end of the day, demos are risky, and betas are I feel better for other things(and also; risky still.) Companies need to sort of look at the entire situation here, and sometimes players miss the things that companies are looking for. 

But yeah, that about explains it. I wanted to scribble this blog out since I know some tweets go by IRT Tekken 7: Why no demo, why no beta. I figured I'd explain a few of the issues. 

Quick Note

You'll see me posting a few posts that look like they've been around a few days, I'm trying to slowly bring over some of the other posts that I've had over there to put here as well(given I'd like this to be my new blog I focus on.) Since the Lee video is only about a month old(actually it's a month old this weekend!), I figured I'd carry this post over.

I won't be doing this with all posts, but some of the more big, important ones. (the Tekken Retrospective, the recent Lee Video analysis I did, a couple others.)

Just giving a heads up!

Also I'm not sure what the hell is up with the font size of this blog thing. I'm finding myself having to go in manually to change it. @.@

Testing!

Yep, I'll be moving my fighting game blog here. I will still be keeping the tumblr blog; I won't delete it, and I'll be maintaining both(same posts) for awhile, until I slowly start to but the other one on 'Maintenance Mode' so to speak(occasionally feeding it some pictures or something.)

Truth be told, I'm looking to move away from Tumblr. It's great for I think a simple blog to get things going, and I have a lot of material there I'm actually going to copy over I think, and it's a fun place to post cool pictures and things. But it's...well, it's Tumblr. It's a bit flaky at times, and when I'm trying to get myself out there as a somewhat legitimate FGC blogger and competitor again later(gods be willing), it feels like I'd rather have a good old classic website/blog. Like, oldschool. Except it doesn't have a crappy Geocities counter at the bottom. 

I'll probably put it into maintenance mode after this one gains some fanbase(and probably after T7 FR comes out.) 

Anyway, expect to see more stuff coming!