This year, Mortal Kombat returns to its violent, 2D fighting game roots with the ninth installment in its nearly 20-year history, aptly dubbed Mortal Kombat. To celebrate the game's rich lineage and its new beginnings, developer NetherRealm Studios enlisted the help of PDP to craft the first official Mortal Kombat fighting stick, which recalls the franchise's original arcade cabinets with its wood framework, competition-grade components, and officially licensed art.

Priced at $129.99 individually and $149.99 when bundled with the game, the Mortal Kombat Fight Stick is competitively priced and geared toward collectors, fans of the franchise, and fighting game purists, but casual players may have a hard time wrapping their heads around the cost and the added living room clutter.

For those with the appropriate level of interest and expendable income, however, the Mortal Kombat Fight Stick is just about as good as it gets.

In terms of build materials, the Mortal Kombat Fight Stick strays away from the plastic casing used by most competing arcade sticks, and instead uses wooden framework. Though this certainly adds more weight to design, PDP did a great job of offsetting the impact on the user through balanced distribution and soft padding on the bottom panel. It is also considerably taller than other fighting sticks, which makes storage a little more difficult, but gives players the benefit of having large, angled gaming surface and some extra storage capacity via the flip-up panel.

Take a Closer Look at the Mortal Kombat Fight Stick

Though the storage compartment is good for storing two or three games or a USB memory stick with your profile on it, it isn't large enough to accommodate a full-sized controller, due primarily to the clear plastic casing that shows off and protects the wiring and components of the joystick and buttons. Of course, adding more storage capacity would have also added more weight and bulk.

The only other issue I found with the flip-up compartment was the latching mechanism, which can be unnecessarily difficult to open. Though you slide it to the open position, it's sometimes tricky to know when it's finally released the lid. It's hardly enough to call a critical issue, but definitely worth noting.

Instead of using a hardwired USB cable, PDP was wise to use a USB to mini USB cable, which allows you to easily remove and store the cable.

After I published my initial hands-on, many IGN users complained about the device's lack of wireless support, but since fighting sticks are inherently geared toward the competitive community, wired solutions are preferred to avoid latency issues.

To that end, the Mortal Kombat Fight Stick's control configuration, performance, and components should please the passionate fighting game community. The design utilizes genuine Suzo-Happ arcade cabinet components, including the traditional Mortal Kombat control layout with concave buttons.

Both the buttons and the joystick have a distinct springiness to them, which feels just like the old school Mortal Kombat arcade cabinets. The buttons are all labeled, but the functions of each can be manually reconfigured within the game. While the ability to personalize the controls is handy, by default the game is already pre-loaded with the NetherRealm-sanctioned configuration for use with the Fight Stick.

Since this is the first official arcade stick for Mortal Kombat and a significant deviation from traditional fighting game button configurations, there is definitely a lengthy learning period before most players will become proficient with it. Moreover, there are new aspects of the gameplay, such as the X-Ray Mode combos, which require users to tap two buttons simultaneously.

Still, if you give yourself time to settle in with the Fight Stick, it starts to feel natural.

Once you get comfortable, the Fight Stick really starts to shine. The joystick and the action buttons are extremely responsive, detecting depressions and directional commands with 1:1 accuracy. Throughout my testing, I never noticed a single missed button press or character movement, though admittedly the joystick's fluid motion as compared to more rigid fight sticks requires a greater degree of control.

In the end, the Mortal Kombat Fight Stick is up there with Mad Catz's Tournament Edition FightSticks in terms of quality and performance, and is certainly a worthy investment for fans of the series and passionate fighting game players.

IGN Ratings for Mortal Kombat Fight Stick

Rating	Description
out of 10	Click here for ratings guide
9.5	Performance The joystick and buttons are springy and responsive, detecting depressions and directional commands with 1:1 accuracy. The joystick is a little loose, but easy to adapt to.
9.0	Build Quality The arcade-style wood casing is top-notch, but adds extra bulk and weight.
8.5	Value At $129.99 or $149.99 bundled with the game, it is a competively priced fighting stick, but it may still be too pricey for casual players.
9.0 OVERALL	Amazing (out of 10)