Hori Real Arcade Pro Premium VLX (PS3) Impressions

[legendnthamaking]

First, off I wanna say rarely do I make big expensive purchases unless its essential. I'm good with my money for the most part and some can even consider me "cheap". Hell, I don't even own a iPhone, a iPad or any of the big hot gadgets cause they will be obsolete in a few months. However, when I ran into some extra cash and saw the Hori VLX on sale for short time on Amazon, I knew I had to have one. I'm big on the so called "arcade feel" There are no arcades in my area and this for me is the closest thing to bringing the arcade into my home. The term arcade feel is thrown around a lot but this truly looks like it was ripped out of a Taito Viewlix cab. My first thought before I made the purchase was are there enough games for me to justify the price? I then saw the amazing amount of games on the Japanese PSN store plus my fighting collection and saw the price was worth it plus the stick may no longer be in production.

Short but simple thoughts from a casual perspective:

-The stick feels higher quality than most Hori joysticks such as my old HRAP. The stick feels less resistant when I'm doing stuff like Hadokens and charge moves.

-The stick is HUGE. You have to see it in person to appreciate the size.

-Use a table because your legs will fall asleep from leaving it on your lap.

I tested the VLX with the following games

Sega Genesis Collection (particularly Streets Of Rage 1/2, Golden Axe, Fantasy Zone, Space Harrier and Alien Syndrome)
Super Street Fighter 4
Dark Awake
Raystorm
Bubble Bobble
Smash TV
Blazblue: CS
Space Invaders
G-Darius
Ghouls N Ghosts
DoDonPachi
Raiden Project
Shienryu
X-Men: The Arcade Game
Final Fight
Magic Sword
Turtles In Time: Reshelled
Puzzle Bobble 2x
Namco Museum (Pacman/Galaga)

Pure arcade feel.

So is the stick worth the cash? Yes and No. For the price I would have liked maybe a dual mod or at least, compatibility with PS2 games which I have not been able to test but heard is not in possible with the stick. However, you get what you pay for and if you can find the stick at a good price, it is the best on the market besides the Mad Catz TE. Its pure high quality and deserves to be called "The Rolls Royce of Arcade Sticks"

[syn13]

Being that my area only has 2 arcades and none of them have Taito Vewlix cabs, I can't really judge how much of a replicate Hori has done but from what I've seen, the VLX is very very similar.
From my perspective, the only problem I think the VLX has is that it is slightly smaller than the real thing so you can't go out and go buy a CP replacement for it or even a dual CP whereas the legendary Sega HSS-0130 was pretty much 95% replicate of a Sega City CP.

Aside from that, I think the VLX is an awesome collector's item and Hori has done a great job with implementing the console controls into it as well(guide, back and turbo buttons).

Price would probably be cheaper if they didn't include the wooden lap rest attachment which almost no one uses. I take mine out when I goto SSFIV/MvC3 casuals and I don't see a problem with this stick being on the lap. That being said, I prefer to play with bigger form factor sticks(EX2, SE and FS sticks don't fit on the lap very well).

Weight is awesome, next to my ripped out Sega City CP, they weigh nearly the same(15 lbs) but this is possibly because my Sega CP is equipped with dual sticks and 12 buttons(6 buttons on each side).

Maybe a couple of years later when the VLX is truly out of production, it will be as sought after as the Sega HSS-0130 but at the moment now, the only special feature is has is that it's a collector's item to me. Plays no different than any other Vewlix button layout stick like the HRAP V series and TE sticks.