Mayflash PS2/PS3/PC USB Arcade Stick

Written by End of an Era on 27/10/2009  –  Filed under: Reviews

Tags: Hardware, Joystick

Whether you’re into shmups, beat-em-ups, emulation in general (but especially competing in a fun retro tournament) or just hankering after that authentic arcade feel, only a good arcade-style stick will do.

With this in mind, I headed over to the world’s biggest flea-market to see what I could turn up. Quite a lot as it turns out, in fact you’re almost spoiled for choice if you’re looking for an arcade stick for your PC, ranging from the reputable but expensive X-Arcade sticks all the way down to some no-brand electronics from Hong Kong costing little more than £10. I decided to set myself a budget of £30 and after some um-ing and ah-ing finally plumped for the Mayflash PS2/PS3/PC USB Arcade Stick (herein MAS).

Black is the new black.

Not knowing quite what to expect, I was surprised to find that the MAS comes in a retail box. Most electronics of Far Eastern origin I’ve ever bought have come in nondescript brown cardboard, so it was nice to see the manufacturer putting some effort into the presentation of the product. In the box is the stick - obviously - a manual and also a CD containing drivers for Windows 98, ME, XP, Vista and Windows 7. Personally I never bother with driver discs and instead opt to download the latest versions from the manufacturer’s web site, but the inclusion of the disc is good if you just want to get up and running with the minimum of faff.

Oooh! A box! Shiny!

The MAS is about the length and width of an A4 sheet of paper and about 3 inches deep. It feels reassuringly heavy and robust thanks to its solid metal base and is nicely finished with a matt black tapered trim eliminating any sharp corners.  The underside of the MAS has four rubber pads for stability when positioned on a flat surface and also serve to cover four of the six screws affixing the base to the main body of the unit. Connection to PC/Console is via a fairly generous length of cable (I think about two meters, although I haven’t measured it) terminating in two plugs: USB for PC or PS3, and a PlayStation 2 connector.

For a controller in this price range you wouldn’t expect the buttons to be of the same quality as Sanwa or Happ parts, and they do feel slightly spongy in comparison; however they are perfectly adequate and are certainly better than on many sticks I’ve used in the past. The buttons are also very well laid out, being in two rows of four with plenty of room to comfortably wrest your wrist. A further four smaller buttons feature on the top edge of the MAS, two of which map to buttons with the other two being used to engage auto-fire and to clear macro assignments. I must give special praise to the control stick which has a nice, smooth and precise action and again is nicely positioned for comfort - I did find that the knob tended to unscrew itself after extended play, however I fixed this by applying nail varnish to the thread and screwing the knob back on.

I haven’t tried the stick on either the PS2 or a PS3, but the Windows driver seems to be pretty full-featured. Using the driver software, not only can you test that the thing is working, but you can also set auto-fire on a button-by-button basis, remap the buttons and assign macros to any of the buttons for those tricky-to-pull-off moves. I believe the majority of these functions can also be performed on the stick for console operation - check the manual for details.

One problem I experienced when the MAS first arrived is that pushing left on the stick didn’t produce any input. I considered sending it back for replacement, but decided to see if I could fix it first. Disassembly is achieved by first unscrewing the knob on top of the stick  and then by removing the four rubber feet and unscrewing all six screws. After that the two halves separate with ease.

Internally the unit is very neat, however it is clear that savings have been made by using incredibly cheap wire to connect the components and the barest minimum of solder. Fixing my problem was a simple twenty-second job with a soldering iron (a wire had broken free of its solder), but it struck me whilst doing so that this stick should be incredibly easy to modify: the buttons and stick seem to be standard sizes, so swapping them out for higher quality parts should be a breeze. However, that’s a project for another day.

All-in-all, I am very pleased with the Mayflash Arcade Stick. It’s robust, comfortable to use and, for the price, decent enough to provide many hours of gaming enjoyment.  Plus there’s the added option of modding it, if that’s your thing. Recommended.

A good quality stick that feels solid and reliable and should be easy to modify.