Fightsticks have a retro appeal to them and are still one of the best ways to experience fighting games. This player made his own fightstick and went a little too retro. He lost the tournament but was definitely the center of attention nonetheless.
Fighting games have always had a unique feel when playing them. Every input needs to be precise and planned out, which can be hard to achieve on a standard controller. The layout of buttons and the functionality of the sticks don't feel as intuitive as in the old arcade times. This is why people often resort to using fightsticks.
Fighsticks are controllers that mimic the button layout of old arcade machines that these games were originally played on. They are especially popular in the pro competetive scene. But since they can be very expensive, many have resorted to making their own fightsticks.
The Stick Fightstick
in 2024, Jack Wen posted on his Reddit account "Spheroman" that he built what he calls the Stick Fightstick. Instead of going with the retro look and layout of the old arcade times, he went a little more oldschool than that. His controller consists of mainly sticks and Pokémon cards. The craziest part about it is that it actually works.
Not only does it work, but since it seems to be using a Brook Universal Fighting Board to connect to the console, it is also compatible with Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, and PC. Recently, Wen even competed at a local tournament with this controller. He lost 0-3 but it was still entertaining to see this caveman-edition of a controller be put to use.
Here is part of my round 1 bracket match (I'm anji) Lost 0-3 lol
— Jack Wen (@jacklucksack.com) 2025-06-29T19:38:32.943Z
And this is by far not the only weird custom controller that players have come up with over the years. One player on the same subreddit built a controller inside of a Tupperware box, with the buttons on the lid. Another person posted a video of them playing Dark Souls using potatoes as input. Those examples and the Stick Fightstick show us again that there are many ways to add fun experiences to games, even though they aren't optimized in the best ways – but that's not the point anyway.
I present to you: the worst leverless ever made by u/GeraItTheMan in fightsticks