When Tekken 5 first hit the arcades, it tore a rift through the arcade-going community because of its inclusion of ports for Sony’s DualShock 2 controllers. However, while the purists claimed that the traditional arcade stick was the only way to play, the Tekken 5 arcade community blossomed with a flood of PlayStation 2 gamers, myself included. Unable to fathom playing a precise fighting game like Tekken on anything other than a DualShock, I was delighted for the opportunity to finally compete with the big boys in the arcades. It was a very humbling experience, but it eventually led to me tying for eighth place in one of Canada’s premier Tekken 5 tournaments. Not great, but better than I ever thought I was capable of.
Unfortunately, for the aforementioned arcade purists, bringing that arcade feel to a home console can often mean importing a rather expensive arcade stick from Japan. Attempting to uppercut two birds with one stone for the release of Tekken 6, Namco Bandai have announced the Tekken 6 Arcade Stick Edition. Including the console version of Tekken 6, a wireless arcade stick produced by Japanese arcade stick specialists Hori, and a one-hundred page art book, the Tekken 6 Arcade Stick Edition will save arcade gamers the trouble of importing a Hori stick for the latest King of the Iron Fist Tournament.
The bundle will retail for $149.99 USD ($172 CAD at time of posting) and will be available alongside the standalone release of Tekken 6 on October 27, 2009. Check out the arcade stick design for both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game below.
Richard Mitchell is a video game addict living in Toronto. He has been gaming for more than two decades, and despite multiple interventions, continues to game today. He has an Xbox 360, a PS3, a Wii, a Nintendo DS, a gaming PC, and a life, and does his best to juggle them all. 