Much hash has been made over the past few years about the short shrift that fighting games receive from the analog pads that have overrun game consoles. Sure, I love two analog sticks for playing games like Resident Evil 5 and Bionic Commando, but there's no way in hell those are gonna work for Street Fighter. The SF players (in the hundreds of thousands) are already searching for a solution for HD Remix, and with SFIV coming up fast like a rocket, even more people are going to be hurling controllers across rooms in frustration. Pad-play dragon punching? Never been able to get the hang of it.

Last week, I had the singular pleasure to spend four days in a room filled with the best home console joysticks (and pads, too, if you're crazy) I have ever had the luck to put my sweaty mitts on. Alex and the Mad Catz crew HOOKED US UP for CES, delivering a huge Santa-sized pile of Official SFIV controllers (not to mention a pile of Rock Band 2 gear for our quickly shut-down secret afterparty). The high-end Tournament Edition controller drew the most oohs and ahhs from all comers, but I personally am drawn to the standard Arcade Fightstick, which is perfect for my space requirements at home. The bad news is that I will no longer be able to blame my craptacular Street Fighter performance on my 360's d-pad, dammit.

You put together two of the Tournament Edition sticks (above), a nice HDTV and a copy of Street Fighter IV for your console of choice and you have a Street Fighter IV arcade machine. This is god's honest truth. Even better, you'll have a bunch of new characters and extras that are not in the Japanese arcade game, plus online matches. We do everything but come to your house and spill soda on your floor and put cigarette burns on your countertops.

Seth is going to be writing about the two sticks and the pad soon (I know I keep promising this) in a way that will blow your mind, but in the meantime Mike from Kotaku has taken a first stab at breaking down the differences for you. Read all about it in Kotaku's two posts here (Tournament edition) and here (Standard and FightPad).

You play Street Fighter? You buying SFIV? ORDER THESE STICKS NOW BEFORE THEY SELL OUT! srsly...

The IGN d00dz received an early preview version of Street Fighter IV, and they immediately began dragon punching their collective brains out. Whadda they think?

"We don't have all the answers, but know this; in the weeks since receiving playable code of Street Fighter IV for both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, there's been a countless number of nights spent in the office well beyond clocking-off time getting to grips with the nuances of the spiritual retread of what's arguably the beat-'em-up genre's finest hour, and inarguably its most fondly recalled."

Wow. Read their preview here!

Seth and I were down in LA a few weeks back for a combination Spike TV Video Game Awards attendence/G4 appearance trip. While we were hanging with the fun crew at G4, I noticed a group of cool robots shoved in a corner. Abbie told me that they had originally been created for Attack of the Show, but had been languishing alone and lonely for some time. In an effort to make the most furious looking of the robots feel better about himself, I added a jaunty Street Fighter IV headband to his dome. While this isn't as cool as giving Bungie's own Master Chief statue some SFIV color, you have to admit that it does set off his chasis nicely.

Long-time Unity buddy Raymond Padilla has just joined the swelling ranks of G4 geniuses, which has entailed (yet another) move for him. Ray is clearly sad and lonely and needs to make some new online pals -- why don't you be one of them? Ray's gonna be hanging on LIVE today from 4 to 6 PM PST, playing some delicious Street Fighter II Uno. Head over to Rey's blog on G4 and drop yer Gamertag to get in on the card battling madness.