Noticed a tweet this morning and had another look over this monster stick.

This is perhaps Hori’s biggest risk in trying to regain their foothold in the joystick market, as they are bypassing the almost standard practice of using Sanwa parts, undoubtedly world reknowned for their buttons and sticks. Instead, Hori have developed new premium parts, identified as Hayabusa and Kuro.

The stick technology is certainly nothing to be sniffed at, promising a 15% cut in load.

The buttons can’t promise something similar but hint at having looked at competitors and brought the parts up to bar. They also talked to top players, hopefully that means they understand lag issues, because those touch panel sensors are really a cause for concern.

Funnily enough, I’ve just made the switch to Seimitsu, after being sick and tired of Sanwa sensitivity. But more about that later.

They are now accepting pre-orders in Japan and USA. No word yet on a European release.

You can see Alex Valle chatting to Kaz from Hori about the stick here on WNF.