Make your fighting games on the Sega Genesis be a new experience

Capcom released this funky controller for its Street Fighter 2 titles, and while gamers salivated at the thought of a pad made by the company itself, most were caught off guard and left puzzled by its unique design. Don’t let your eyes fool you, the pad is quite ergonomic.

 The Capcom Pad Soldier MD is a third-party controller for the Sega Megadrive (its American Genesis counterpart is known as Capcom Pad Soldier GS and alternately the Super Capcom Pad GS), designed by ASCII for Capcom.

 The Capcom Pad Soldier is a controller designed with arcade fighting games in mind. While Capcom may get the top billing, ASCII is responsible for the concept and construction of the hardware, something of which they have plenty more experience than Capcom. The GS model is specific to the Genesis with the only notable difference between this and the SNES and 3DO models being the button’s colors.

 Capcom wanted to fuse the arcade experience with the growing home experience thus the reason for its odd shape and function. It’s very obvious how and where to place your left hand when holding this badboy, with your left thumb perfectly positioned on the d-pad while the rest of your fingers wrap around the back all nice n’ snug like.

 The idea behind the design was that you could use three fingers for the 6 action buttons, much like an arcade stick, but the convenience of a gamepad. The left side is contoured so your hand can maintain a sturdy grip, and the buttons are off-set to reduce strain on your right wrist. You can still use your right thumb, and it feels very natural in your hands.

  The designers were very thoughtful with everything when they crafted this controller,have you experienced it?