I'll admit it up front.  I am a stick whore.  I own a Taito Egret II (a Japanese sit down arcade cabinet) that I have lovingly restored and modded to hell and back.  I have two Hori Real Arcade Pros running around my house.  Suffice it to say, I prefer joysticks to gamepads.  So when Mad Catz said they would be releasing an arcade accurate stick for Street Fighter IV, I had to see what they were bringing to the table.

Up until now, the gold standard has been set by the Hori Real Arcade Pro.  This stick is generally regarded as the cream of the crop if you want arcade perfect controls at home.  I can exchange the parts between my Egret and my HRAP without any modification and they will fit and work perfectly.  It comes with a Sanwa joystick (the kind of joystick found in commercial arcade machines) and it is big and heavy, so you can mash to get every last ounce of damage from that yoga noogie without pushing it off your lap.  It has adjustable turbo options for each button, and a nice, wide body so you can comfortably position your hands however you like as you play.

All this adulation for the HRAP is so that you will fully understand what I mean when I say the new Mad Catz Tournament stick is the absolute best console arcade stick that has ever been manufactured.  This stick was said to be the culmination of a massive collaborative effort with fans, game developers, and engineers to create the best stick possible for the home console.  And that is exactly what they have done. 

The length and width of the stick are 16" x 10" (give or take half an inch) and it stands 2.75" tall, not including the height of the joystick.  The cable measures just shy of 12 feet, which is good considering that the generally larger size of today's TVs necessitate sitting further back from the display than the short cord of the HRAP would allow you.  I didn't have a scale on hand to measure the weight, but I would say it weighs a little more than a fat PS2 and a good deal less than an Xbox 1.

The outside has a very polished appearance.  The buttons arc slightly to match the arrangement of your fingers, allowing you to keep your hand more parallel with your forearm as you play.  After long periods of play on a straight 6 arrangement (like the old US SFII standup machines), you will definitely notice the difference it makes.  Also adding to the stress reduction are the Sanwa buttons, which have a much lighter press than most arcade buttons.  The joystick yoke is also accurately placed about 60mm away from the buttons (i.e. 2 button widths).

But as many stick modders know, beauty is only skin deep.  It is the insides that makes the difference between a good LOOKING stick and a good QUALITY stick.  And it is here that Mad Catz really starts to shine.

I must first stop for a disclaimer.  Mad Catz does not endorse or encourage opening up the tournament stick in any way, shape or form.  OPENING YOUR STICK WILL VOID YOUR WARRANTY......... 

That being said, this stick was designed from the ground up for customization enthusiasts.  (b^-^)b 

You can access all the internals by removing six screws from the top panel and pulling the panel off.  This is a VAST improvement from the HRAP which requires you to remove the bottom panel (8 screws), then use a socket head to remove 6 recessed fastening nuts, and only then can you pull off the top panel.  The screws themselves are an example of the level of thought that has gone into this stick.  They opted for hex screw heads which have the advantage of not being as easily stripped out as Phillips heads. 

Opening up the top, you can see that the buttons are all using solderless quick disconnects, making button replacement a toolless task (no burning hot molten lead required).  You'll also see that each button has a separate ground line (as opposed to the ground being daisy chained between all the buttons as is common).  This means that if one ground wire goes out, only that button will stop functioning instead of hosing all the buttons.  You'll also notice the two toroidal ferrite donuts on the left side.  These reduce RF interference, which helps when you have a lot of RF sources (i.e. wireless controllers) and an absence of good grounding posts (i.e. inside of a small box).  They probably aren't even needed, but again, the eye for small details is what this stick is all about.

A close up shot of the connectors show all the button wires color coordinated and clearly labeled on the board side.  This makes tracking down and replacing an errant button WAY easier than if it were unlabeled (as they tragically are with the HRAPs).

A close up of the buttons.  The holes are cut perfectly for the 30mm Sanwas.  If the holes are cut too big, the buttons will spin around in their seating too much and not feel fastened.  If the holes are cut too small, putting in and taking out buttons is like trying to push playdoh through a mold.  Except the playdoh is hardened plastic.  And the mold is solid 1/8" steel.   t(-_-t)

This is another great example of the detail that has gone into this stick.  The mounting bracket for the joystick is spot welded in what looks to be more than 6 places, meaning that the joystick itself will probably break before its mounting comes loose.  Also you'll notice there are alternate threads cut on the left and right sides of the brackets, allowing any number of other joysticks (Seimitsu, Happ, ect) to be mounted.  The model of Sanwa joystick that they use (JLF) is the newer one that uses the 5 pin connector standard, thus reducing the number of cables running around.

As a nice added bonus, the top face artwork comes off!  That means replacing the top art is a cinch (anyone who got the Tekken 5 Aniversary Hori stick will understand what a boon that is).

Here's a shot of the back side.  There's a nice slot for your 360 headset, allowing one to trash talk unhindered.  This picture was taken on a mirrored surface, so you can kind of see at the bottom of the feet of the stick there are threads (!) so if you really wanted to, you could bolt them down to a surface.

A shot of the front side.  Notice the placement of the start and back buttons in a pretty out of the way place.  Why here?  Because in tournament play, accidentally pausing during a match automatically forfeits that round for you (or forces a do over, at your opponent's discretion).  Keeping these away from the general playing surface all but eliminates such accidents.

Here's the joystick and turbo module.  There is a switch to lock the Xbox button (thus eliminating accidental game pausing) as well as a switch which will allow the joystick to send input as either the left stick, d-pad, or right stick.  Also each one of the buttons has an independent led indicating it's turbo status.

And as a final surprise, remember that panel on the front side of the stick, to the right of the Start and Back buttons?  That opens up into a handy compartment to stow your cable in after you're done, so you don't have yet another cable running around. 

After having played and dissected this stick, I can say that this is everything you could ask for in a stick.  All the controls are top quality, the layout is arcade perfect, and the overall design and construction make not only using the stick nice, but also make maintenance and modding a lot nicer as well.  Every bit and piece of this stick has been carefully thought out.  It either matches or one ups the features the HRAP has to offer.  This has set the new high water mark.

UPDATE:

I have added a few shots of my Egret II cabinet, so you can see what they're trying to mimic (roughly).  Here's what it looks like in general.  The height of the controls is perfect for those cheap little $2 Ikea stools.

Here's the control panel.  You'll notice the joystick and buttons are spaced a little far from each other on this one.  On the Viewlix (the SFIV arcade cab), they're much closer together.

Here's a shot of the underside of the control panel.  You can see the toll that years in tobacco filled arcades has taken on the wiring.

Here's a slightly closer shot of the controls underneath.  I only have 4 buttons wired currently for my Neo Geo board.

My friend playing a "friendly" game of Puzzle Bobble.