11 February 2024 , 10:00
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Fightpads have fallen out of fashion a bit since the Street Fighter 4 era, as leverless solutions began to take over the scene. Despite the fall in popularity, Hori's Fighting Commander Octa doesn't cut corners in the slightest, offering a sturdy and reliable option.
Fighting pads are designed to be the middle ground between a regular gamepad, like the Dualsense, and an arcade stick, like the Hori Fighting Stick Alpha, by featuring a D-pad and analogue stick on the left side, and six buttons on the right, in a typical arcade stick lineup (three on top, three below). The result of this is a solid controller, but it's a shaky middle ground between two preferable control methods.
The Hori Fighting Commander Octa comes in at £49.99 / $59.99 / AU$119.99, which is cheaper than the likes of the Dualsense, and especially an arcade stick, but given its limited function outside of fighting games, that makes sense.
Hori Fighting Commander Octa design
The Hori Fighting Commander Octa has a no-frills black design with a similar form factor to the likes of a Dualsense, however, it's significantly lighter. The controller features all of the buttons that are standard on a Dualsense, with the exception of a right analogue stick. There's a saucer-style D-pad as opposed to the Dualsense's split pad, while the left analog stick features an octagonal gate as opposed to the circle found on standard controllers, this makes performing fighting game inputs far easier than on a regular analog stick (especially in Tekken 8, which uses a lot of diagonal inputs).
The R1 and R2 buttons use microswitches and are fast, responsive, and feel incredibly satisfying to use, thanks to the clicky feedback. Meanwhile, the bumper and trigger buttons are mapped to L1 and L2 on the right side and L3 and R3 on the left. The centre of the controller also features a share, touchpad, and options button.
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Hori Fighting Commander Octa features
Like the Hori Fighting Stick Alpha, the Fighting Commander Octa is a wired-only controller. As wired is preferred when it comes to fighting games, this isn't a huge problem. However, it runs into the same issue as the Alpha, which is that the USB cable is hardwired in, which becomes a pain with the PS5 Slim only having USB-C ports on the front of the console. It's not the fighting commander's fault, but it does make using it with the new model a bit of a pain.
The controller features switches on the back so that you change between PS4, PS5, and PC modes, as well as one to lock the pause and touchpad buttons, so that you don't accidentally push them during a tourney match. Like other Hori products, you can use the Hori Device Manager on PC to fiddle about with it, but it works perfectly out of the box.
Overall thoughts on the Hori Fighting Commander Octa
For context, I'm primarily a pad player and typically use the Dualsense for Street Fighter, and previous Tekken entries. However, with Tekken 8 I've been primarily using an arcade stick. I tested the Hori Fighting Commander Octa over the course of six months and mainly played Street Fighter 6 and Tekken 8 with it.
To tell the truth, I just don't find the Fighting Commander Octa to be a preferable option to a standard controller or an arcade stick. I primarily used it holding the left side like a regular controller while I positioned my fingers on the right like a regular arcade stick, and due to the lack of wrist support, I found it made my wrists sore after long sessions. Meanwhile, holding it like a regular controller on the right-hand side felt awkward to me, and resulted in many wrong inputs due to muscle memory.
There's no doubt that the Hori Fighting Commander Octa is a great piece of kit, the microswitch buttons are lovely to use, the d-pad and stick are solid, and it features all the buttons you'll need for a fighting game. It's a solid controller for anyone with a preference for a fight pad, but in my personal experience, you're better off with a standard controller or an arcade stick.