HORI Xbox 360 Gem Pad EX - Ruby Red

First a little about myself:>I'm a 32 year old family man.>Don't want to play online or in tournaments.>ONLY BOUGHT THIS TO USE FOR FIGHTING GAMES - I haven't tried it on any other genre2D Fighters I used to play back in the day - Street Fighter II (SNES); Street Fighter II Special Champion Edition (Sega Genesis); Super Street Fighter II (Sega Genesis); Mortal Kombat (Sega Genesis); Eternal Champions (Sega Genesis); Mortal Kombat II (SNES); Street Fighter Alpha (PSOne)....in that order.With that kind of history it's obvious that most of those games I played with a d-pad controller. So now here I am almost 20 years later finding myself returning to the 2D fighter realm and was in desperate need of a GOOD d-pad.For those old school, D-pad 2D fighting game players who want to return to this genre, rejoice! This is the controller for you!WHY?Now please note that I've done some research, reading reviews and articles about some other third party Xbox 360 D-pads on the market and for the most part they were not favorable. I found a review of this controller on Kotaku and it seemed perfect for a gamer like myself.I've been playing with the HORI Xbox 360 Gem Pad EX for over a month now and I can honestly say that it is perfect for 2D-fighters and arguably the best D-pad you can get for a Xbox 360 controller for the price! The size is slightly bigger than a PS3 controller and slightly smaller than a 360 controller. The buttons are responsive. The build quality is good.So far I've played and finished:Mortal Kombat KompeteUltimate Marvel vs Capcom 3Marvel vs Capcom 2I'm waiting for Ultra Super Street Fighter IV...or maybe I'll purchase Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition for cheap then purchase the DLC when it's available. I'll keep this updated!Here are some pros and cons:PROS (so far):Excellent D-Pad - accurate; definitely plays like an old school d-pad in every wayButtons are responsiveNice glow light when plugged inPriceCONS (so far)Not wireless - the cord is a decent length but I would have preferred it to either be a little longer or no cord at allOverall, as I mentioned earlier I have not, nor do I intend to use this game pad for anything else other than 2D fighting games. For this purpose the HORI Gem Pad is excellent. As for anything else, well, obviously I cannot say.UPDATE!So since Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition is free for Xbox Live Gold members, I've decided to give it a go instead of waiting until August for a disc copy of the "Ultra" version. I tried out the Gem pad with Ryu, Guile, and Zangief. With Ryu I had no problem executing any of his special moves i.e. fireball, dragon uppercut, etc. I was able to execute Guile's charge attacks with ease as well. Zangief special moves were not a difficult as I expected however one of Zangief's ultra movies requires two 360 clock-wise motions with the d-pad which I could not do at all. This is not surprising because back in the day Zangief's moves were always near impossible to execute using a d-pad...at least for me.All in all playing Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Ediiton with the Hori Gem Pad worked about how I expected it to. The d-pad is actually slightly more responsive than I expected and for the most part doesn't require a lot of pressure to pull off a special move.

Worked well at first, but quickly went south from there. The Rock Candy wired controller was leaps and bounds better than this one. Never had any problems with that one until the kids wrapped the cord way too tight one too many times causing a bad connection in the cable. Move on if your looking for a cheap quality controller, This is not it.

The cord is a standard 9 ft long. It is also white, which helps differentiate it from the majority of black corded devices I own (headset, external HDD USB cable).Lighting effect is nice and always on. Actually brighter on the rear of the controller rather than the front.All four trigger buttons are of high quality, although there is no pressure sensitive analog on the triggers. They click instead.The analog sticks click twice when pressed, the second click being the one that registers. A bit strange, but doesn't negatively effect game play for me.Both analog sticks are completely plastic instead of the rubber nubs you get with the standard controller, but are still highly tactile. The amount of resistance on both analog sticks can be adjusted with the switch in the middle. Push the switch all the way up and you get a response of a controller that is "broken in" with loose resistance. Push it all the way down, and the tension on the springs in the sticks is increased leading to a stiffer experience.Best thing about this controller is the genuine + d-pad. And it is a large Super Nintendo-sized d-pad. I hate hate hate the standard 360 d-pad, and is the reason I am buying a controller in the first place. I can't stand how easy it is to accidentally press the diagonal when you mean to press a cardinal direction.Controller is a nice weight, being that it has no batteries. It's a bit smaller than the stock controller, all with the exception of the enlarged and improved d-pad.Rumble works great.I enjoy the lighting, and you can't turn it off.This controller is not for someone who relies on the analog trigger buttons, like in racing games.Not good for someone who wants to sit farther than 7 feet or so from their system, due to the cord length.If you think the light would annoy you, you may be right.I wish the A, B, X, Y buttons were illuminated.I had purchased a Nyko wired controller before I got this one. The right trigger button stopped working on that one after a week. The HORI trigger buttons on this one are of higher quality and will not likely break.

My child requested this controller. It broke very easily and they didn't get much use from it.Not worth the money.

Al mes de usarlo de descompuso de uno de los joysticks.Los materiales de construcción son buenos.

Después de un problema al haber recibido el control equivocado, puedo decir que el control se siente de buenos materiales aunque no lo recomiendo para juegos de peleas, ni para aquellos que jueguen con la cruz o que jueguen con el stick, ya que el primero el input hacia abajo es muy duro y no marca los movimientos.A pesar de lo anterior es un control bastante recomendable por el precio debido a la escasez de controles de 360.También funciona en PC.

1週間ほどで使用できなくなった代替品をメーカーから送ってもらったがそちらもすぐに使えなくなった

Way better than any pad Microsoft has ever made, and works flawlessly on both 360 and PC.

He loved this controller he got for xmas! It was well worth the wait and at a great price too.