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.
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