Remember those bad ass TRON Legacy controllers for the PS3, Wii and Xbox 360?  Well, it turns out that PDP, the company that makes them, is just getting around to selling the Xbox 360 version.  They’re making just 750, so if you want one we suggest you jump on it now, though much of the hype surrounding TRON, thank to the remake “TRON Legacy“, has now diminished.

This controller, called R3C0NF1GUR3D, is officially licensed by Microsoft and wired for gamers seeking the least amount of latency possible.  Unlike the PS3 and Wii versions we  looked at, this one is detailed in green lighting that should glow when plugged in.  PDP has added soft rubber grips with a soft-touch finish to combat sweaty palms.

PDP has an exclusive on these and sells them directly on their website for $49.99.

Are you a Mortal Kombat fan?  Excited for the next iteration of the game which releases this April 19th?  Then you should be pleased as punch to see PDP’s official Mortal Kombat Fight Stick for the Xbox 360 and PS3.

PDP and NetherRealm Studios have collaborated to produce this limited edition gaming peripheral, which is designed to reflect the look and feel of the original Mortal Kombat arcade cabinet. It’s built from high quality arcade parts from Suzo Happ and includes a storage area in the base, where upon you can view all the parts and wires, which are protected by a plastic shield emblazoned with the Mortal Kombat logo.

We should also mention that the Fight Stick plays as a nice mouth piece to an upcoming Mortal Kombat tournament hosted at Bally’s Casino in Vegas, where players will be able to face off against foes using the gaming stick.  The tournament kicks off May 14th and includes a $21,000 grand prize.

Sorry, no word on a price.

PERFORMANCE DESIGNED PRODUCTS ANNOUNCES THE MORTAL KOMBAT FIGHT STICK AND THE FIRST NORTH AMERICAN MORTAL KOMBAT TOURNAMENT

PDP Issues The Ultimate Tournament Challenge To Gamers in Las Vegas This May With $21,000 in Prizes At Stake

LOS ANGELES – March 9, 2011 – Performance Designed Products LLC (“PDP”), a worldwide leader in the video game accessory market, today announced that PDP is producing the Mortal Kombat Fight Stick, as well as sponsoring the first ever North American Mortal Kombat tournament. The Mortal Kombat Fight Stick is the ultimate arcade-style joystick controller for the upcoming Mortal Kombat video game, published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and developed by NetherRealm Studios. The Mortal Kombat Fight Stick will also be used at the tournament happening in Las Vegas, NV, on May 14 and 15, where the top contestants will battle for $21,000 in prizes.

“Mortal Kombat is one of the most recognizable video game franchises on the planet and has a huge audience of dedicated fans,” said Tom Roberts, Chief Technical Officer, Performance Designed Products. “We’ve created the ultimate joystick for these fans and now we’re bringing them all together to find the top Mortal Kombat player in North America.”

Once Mortal Kombat players have had the chance to practice and familiarize themselves with the absolute control of the PDP Mortal Kombat Fight Stick, they will be able to pit their fighting prowess against one another in the Mortal Kombat tournament. PDP will be bringing together thousands of serious combatants within Bally’s Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas, NV where hundreds of matches will be played using the fight stick in front of members of the Mortal Kombat design team. (Participants must be 18 years or older.)

PDP and NetherRealm Studios have collaborated to produce the Mortal Kombat Fight Stick, which features exclusive custom artwork. The Mortal Kombat Fight Stick will only be available as part of the Mortal Kombat Tournament Edition or for sale in extremely limited numbers on PDP.com. The Mortal Kombat Fight Stick has been designed to reflect the look and feel of the classic Mortal Kombat arcade cabinet and its ergonomic button layout has been updated with additional design and technological touches to create the ideal joystick for serious console players.

The inner workings of the Mortal Kombat Fight Stick are composed of high quality arcade parts from Suzo Happ and are easily accessed without the need of any tools. Inside the joystick base, all parts and wires are protected by a unique plastic shield emblazoned with the Mortal Kombat logo, and there is room to store cables and a copy of the game. The underside of the Mortal Kombat Fight Stick is lined with velvet-wrapped memory foam for the comfort of players who hold the stick on their lap, while rubberized feet at the bottom corners will prevent the stick from sliding when placed on a table or similar surface.

Mortal Kombat, the newest chapter of the award-winning videogame franchise, will be on store shelves starting April 19th, 2011 for the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft. It marks a triumphant return to the series’ mature presentation and a reinvention of its classic 2D fighting mechanic. Mortal Kombat will introduce a number of new gameplay features including tag team, a deeper story mode, and nostalgic online and offline arcade battles. Players will be able to choose from an extensive lineup of iconic warriors and challenge their friends in traditional 1 vs. 1 matches as well as several new game modes.

In addition, Mortal Kombat and Mortal Kombat: Annihilation will make their Blu-ray debuts on April 19th from Warner Home Video. Mortal Kombat and Mortal Kombat: Annihilation are also available for download through Sony PlayStation Network, Xbox Live, iTunes, Amazon and other online retailers. The films are also available On Demand from cable and satellite providers.

5 out of 5 stars

When playing racing games, use a wheel. For flight sims, get a flight stick. And for fighting games, I use a fight stick, the classic joystick plus six buttons layout seen in arcades. For fighting games like Street Fighter IV, that’s the most authentic experience. The problem is fightsticks – good ones anyways – are big, bulky, heavy and expensive. Using a standard gamepad sucks for fighters, so what is a price-wary gamer to do?

Then two weeks ago we got a glimpse at PDP’s Xbox 360 Versus Fighting Pad: Marvel Edition, and I was taken aback. So the good people at Performance Designed Products sent one over and I must confess, I’m enjoying the heck out of it. Almost as much as the classic arcade-style fightstick.

The Xbox 360 Versus Fighting Pad: Marvel Edition (Versus forthwith) is a smartly built, intelligently designed and exceptionally lightweight fightpad that is so stunning, I’m almost at a loss for words. As we showed originally, the decal design is daring and jam-packed characters from the recently released Marvel VS Capcom 3 (review coming soon) like Captain America, Spider-Man, Wolverine and others. There are no Street Fighter characters to be found. This is solely Marvel, thus ‘Marvel Edition’.

What’s really impressive about the Versus is how the controller feels. The buttons aren’t mushy like most controllers, but have the same clicky feel of a mouse. Each button press reverberates back into your hand and your ear, with that satisfying click acknowledging that yes, a button was pressed. This may sound useless, but for a fighting game, the difference between one pressed and one missed button is the difference between victory and defeat.

As you can see, there aren’t four, but six face buttons, identical to arcades to give the most genuine feel on an Xbox 360 controller. What’s best about these face buttons isn’t that they feel so great, but that players can press on them with either a thumb or fingers, like they would on an actual arcade stick and buttons layout. That’s thanks to the brilliant shape of the entire controller, which is made to fit firmly in the right and left hand in a standard grip, but also with the right thumb clinging to the inside of the grip and three fingers pressing the face buttons. Such a design is unexpected, but it works wonders for more classically-inclined gamers. I’ve played both ways, with thumbs and fingers, and the fact that it works excellently both ways is a testament to PDP’s brilliant design of the fightpad.

The left side is smaller but has a more defined grip to hold comfortably two ways

Then there’s the D-pad. Firstly, no analog sticks. The Versus controller eliminates both for a finely-tuned D-pad built in a large, rotund shape vastly different from most. It’s more akin to an analog stick, but clicks at each press just like the face buttons. It’s one of, if not the best D-pads I’ve ever used. The concave top is mushy and offers solid grip for the thumb. Not once has my thumb slipped atop the D-pad.

Even the triggers have the clicky feel, though I’m not fond of using them in-game. MvC3 requires a lot of buttons, and if you plan on using fingers for the face buttons, then you’ll have to forgo using the right trigger entirely. The start and back buttons sit to the left of the right trigger, which is good positioning for those buttons so they don’t get in the way or accidentally pressed. The Xbox button is also far enough to not be accidentally pressed by anyone but the most careless of gamers.

But what I’m perhaps most fond of is the lightness of the Versus. It’s so light that even after losing six rounds straight and throwing the controller in anger, it just bounced off the carpet unscathed. That light weight is surprisingly handy for a game where tensions can run very high, though the front decal can’t take too much abuse. Signs of wear appeared after just a few days. The buttons are unscathed and work just fine. The rubberized back is also tremendously smart, especially for gamers who cling to their controllers for dear life. It doesn’t get loose in the hand, doesn’t get sweaty, and still offers excellent grip.

Will a fightpad ever replace a fightstick? Problably not. But after playing Marvel VS Capcom 3 for the past week and a half with a full-blown fightstick and the Xbox 360 Versus Fight Pad Marvel Edition, this writer’s household enjoys the lighter, smaller controller for its ease of use, relative safety from harm, and excellent feel. The only downside is that it isn’t available for the Playstation 3, meaning Sony gamers have to miss out on this great controller. Great looks, excellent feel, and a top-notch design makes the Versus fightpad something to both decorate your  room and deliver an excellent gaming experience.

The Versus Fighting Pad: Marvel Edition is currently available exclusively from Gamestop for $39.99.

You know how you can sometimes just take one quick look at something and go “DAMN SON!” Yeah, when I saw these pictures of the new gamepads from PDP for Marvel vs Capcom 3, that’s exactly what I thought. They put the original Street Fighter 4 Fightpads to shame. I mean, holy hell, look at this thing!

To take a look at the box (art), hit the jump.Here’s a quick look at the box it’ll come in.

Open

And closed

They are available right now for pre-order, for $39.99, from PDP direct.

Update

Official word from Mad Catz is that these are not licensed by Capcom, and that technically no permissions are required for PDP to make the gamepads. What that means is two things: one, they may not be around very long (so if you want one you may want to pre-order it right away), and that Mad Catz may reveal their own licensed gamepads for MvC3 very shortly.

Things are a bit slow today, so we’ve relegated ourselves to sifting through unusual blogs and emails.  So yeah, we’re a bit surprised when we talk about controllers, but that’s exactly what we’ve got.  The Disney Epic Mickey controller mimics Mickey’s paintbrush in the game, a game in which you must paint your way through levels.  Okay, makes sense…sort of.  The TRON controllers on the other hand are designed to compliment the movie/game’s glowing theme.  There’s a Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3 version.  The latter will be available for $50, while there is no word on the Mickey paint brush thingee.

PERFORMANCE DESIGNED PRODUCTS (PDP) CREATES COLLECTIBLE CONTROLLERS FOR DISNEY EPIC MICKEY AND TRON: EVOLUTION, THE VIDEO GAME

Special Branded Multiplatform Controllers and Collectible Charging System Coming From PDP For Two Great Disney Interactive Studios’ Games

LOS ANGELES, CA – JUNE 15, 2010 – Performance Designed Products LLC (PDP), an industry leader in designing and manufacturing products for all major video game platforms, announced today that it has collaborated with Disney Consumer Products (DCP) to create unique game controllers for Disney Epic Mickey and TRON: Evolution, two amazing video games coming from Disney Interactive Studios. PDP is releasing TRONcontrollers for the Nintendo WiiÒ, PlayStationÒ3 (PS3Ò) system and the Microsoft XboxÒ computer entertainment system, as well as a special secondary Wii controller and charging system for the Wii remote forDisney Epic Mickey. The controllers and Wii charging system will be available to consumers at the launch of the respective games.

Disney Epic Mickey is an action-adventure platforming game for the Wii™ console that sends Mickey Mouse on an epic journey of creativity and discovery.  As Mickey, the player is propelled into Wasteland, an alternate world with lands inspired by Disney’s animated films and theme parks, and is given the power to wield paint and paint thinner to dynamically change the world and determine Mickey’s path to becoming an epic hero. To commemorate Mickey’s debut on Wii^TM console, PDP and DCP are bringing to market two very special items to complement the game: a Paintbrush controller and a Wii remote charging system. The Disney Epic Mickey Wii secondary controller is designed to resemble the magical paintbrush that Mickey wields in the game world, complete with wood-grained texture and soft, safe foam tip. The Disney Epic Mickey Wii remote charging system is something no Disney collector should be without. The charging system features a removable, light-up Mickey Mouse battling his nemesis, the Phantom Blot, and comes with rechargeable batteries for a Wii remote.

The official TRON controllers from PDP are multiplatform, bringing the look and feel of the TRON universe directly to the hands of gamers. Based on the designs of both the film and game, the TRON controllers will feature unique, performance-enhancing contours and design, rubber grips with a soft-touch finish and perforated details and light-up accents reminiscent of the TRON universe to illuminate late-night gaming sessions. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 controllers are corded controllers with precision parts and vibration support, while the Wii controller is wireless. All three controllers carry and MSRP of $49.99 and will be available this fall in time for the release of TRON: Evolution -The Video Game.

Revenge of the Fallen, the new Transformers movie hits theaters this week and will surely be a powderkeg of CGI explosiveness. To commemorate such a film, PDP is releasing two DS skins in the styles of BumbleBee and Megatron.  From the picture, the skins look like that nice type of plastic that begs for your stroking touch.  The Megatron stylus looks as if Jigsaw from Saw 12 designed it. Each skin and stylus will cost $20 for both, or $13 each.  In stores this week.  Till there gone!!

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