Qanba Q3-PS4-01E Q3 Obsidian Arcade Pearl Joystick

There are a few reasons to buy a fightstick in this day and age, but the Qanba Pearl, not only is it beautiful to look at, it is also a very great fightstick for people who want to invest in one to play fighting games or arcade games. It is also a very good stick to experiment with customizing. It is very easy to open up and to replace with parts that you want to add, whether it is a new universal fight board, or new buttons or joysticks.My favorite aspect of the Pearl that is not very common in many other commercial fight sticks is that it uses the less-common Noir variant set-up. (Qanba Obsidian uses the Vewlix layout, if you prefer that) What this means is that the layout of the buttons and the location of the joystick is different from the more common Vewlix layout. Noir set-up has the joysticks further away from the buttons, and the button placement, I feel, is more ergonomic and conforms to the natural location of your fingers. But unless you have played around with many fightsticks before, you won't be able to really tell if one layout is better than the other.I've been using this stick for a little over a year now, and over time, I easily replaced the buttons and the joysticks with Sanwa parts. The only negative would be the little buttons that are on the front for the mode switching, L3+R3 buttons, and the share/option buttons are all the same, tiny little nubs. I do wish they did more with those buttons, but I won't accidently press it during a match or anything like that. so it is not a detriment that I deserve having a star taken away.

The weight is hefty and it feels indestructible. And the feel of the stick and buttons are INCREDIBLE, definitely worth the price for how sleek and quiet it is! BUT!!! it comes with a 4 gate. If you prefer an 8 gate, it’s better to purchase it with the Pearl so you don’t have to wait longer to make it perfect!

I've been looking for a qanba pearl forever pretty much a whole year super glad it just happens to pop up on Amazon every now and then. The buttons feel beautiful the button placement feels beautiful everything about the Pearl feels like a premium fightstick and honestly you can leave it stock you don't really need to change anything on here I would recommend it to anybody in the fighting game community and just because of the button placement is better than the obsidian.

This is my first Fight stick and wow what an experience! Aside from how great it looks. I couldn't believe how responsive it is. I would recommend it to anyone who's into fighting games like SFV.

Pros and ConsPros+ Quality parts and materials+ No loss of controller functions (Has trackpad and buttons for r3 and l3)+ Works seamlessly on PC+ Solid build quality without feeling to heavy or too lightCons- Not enough grip on the bottom of the stick (the stick tended to slide off my pants)- Screw hole covers on the top of the plex look cheap and may fall off eventually- Door for wire compartment feels too stiff and may break easily if the wire is put back in wrongOverall I think that the stick is worth it for the money. I fixed the grip issue by gluing some cheap foam pads from an art store underneath where there was no padding.The stick does not come with clear parts like in my picture. Those were modded on cause I think they look cool :). (this does void the warranty though).The other picture shows the foam I put on the bottom to improve the grip.

Qanba makes great sticks, I personally prefer the nior layout over Vewlix. But its not that hard to mod of you want to swap put the buttons and lever. But personal preference does go a long away.

Avoid at all costs - discussed with others who have purchased this stick and everyone replaces parts to "get it working right". Stick with the HORI stick and you won't have to replace the joystick.

Nice sleek design with good parts and a nice mid-level stick to try Noir button layout.