As a card-carrying Fighting Game Enjoyer for my entire 30-plus years playing video games, I've tested a lot of different controllers. Standard gamepads, six-button pads, arcade-quality fight sticks; you name it, I've tried it…except for one type that has come into vogue in the last few years: Leverless fight sticks. Honestly, I did not see the appeal in turning the directional inputs into buttons; if I wanted that, I would use the d-pad on a standard controller.
Enter the Razer Kitsune, which marks my first true foray into the format. Would this be the one to turn me into a believer? After testing it with multiple fighting game franchises and directly comparing it to a traditional stick I own, the answer is clear: To paraphrase The Monkees, now I've seen its interface, and I'm a believer.
Specifications:
- Dimensions
- 11.66 in x 8.27 in x 0.75 in
- 1.8 lbs
- Connectivity
- USB Type-C to USB Type-A cable
- Cable lock and lock switch
- Compatible With
- PC
- PlayStation 5
- Mechanical Action Buttons
- Precise quad movement button layout
- Razer Low-Profile Linear Optical Switches
- Razer Chroma Lighting compatible
- Warranty: 1-Year limited
- Package Contents (US Version): Kitsune controller, USB-C to USB-A cable, Important Product Information guide
- Price: $299 on Razer website
Slim Clickings
The first and easily most noticeable element of the Kitsune is its size: It is a thin little boy. Even compared to other leverless-style sticks, this thing barely registers any room on my desk. I sometimes feel like I'm playing fighting games while tapping the top of my laptop, which is weird, but honestly, I'm all for it. The difference in deck space between this and the Victrix Pro FS stick alone is a win for the Kitsune, as I barely have to move anything to fire it up.
Despite its size, one area where I thought the Victrix might fare better than the Kitsune was staying stationary during a play session; I anticipated the smaller, lighter form of the Kitsune might make me push it around my desk and have to keep recentering it. This turned out to be an unfounded worry, as the rubber mesh covering the bottom of the stick keeps it locked into place no matter how much force I put into it.
While this is all great, none of it matters if my hands don't feel comfortable while in position, and once again, the Kitsune comes through. While I may have difficulty executing moves I can do on other controllers – and we'll get to that – it's not because my hands are cramping or tired. The buttons are placed with any player's hands in mind, which includes my massive meat paws, and that makes for a comfortable experience even in play sessions of multiple hours. Each button gives satisfying feedback to each click, which helps in the middle of a match.
In order to truly feel the impact of the stick, I put it through its paces with multiple fighting games and found that it performs well in more than just the game it was designed for. The rest of this review, then, will be me breaking down its performance in each individual game.
Street Fighter 6
The Razer Kitsune was developed in tandem with Capcom and optimized for Street Fighter 6, according to Razer themselves. As such, the stick works beautifully with Capcom's newest classic, both in Modern and Classic formats. It took me a bit to adjust to the leverless directional system, but before long I was throwing Hadokens and Shoryukens with Ryu and Ken with little issues.
However, there's one major issue at play here: I'm a Zangief main. One of Zangief's most important moves is his Spinning Pile Driver, which is performed with one full rotation of the directional pad/stick. On the Kitsune, I cannot figure out for the life of me how to consistently throw the SPD with Classic controls like I can on a pad or the Victrix Pro. I've tried starting with up, holding an attack button, and more, but I end up jumping more often than not.
I'm assuming there's some shortcut I'm not aware of, but I find myself now wondering if I have to change characters in order to use this cool stick and that stinks. Hopefully, I find that shortcut and start spinning fools around, but for now, I'm at a handicap. This isn't the stick's fault, per se; it's more of an "I need more training" issue, but I imagine I won't be the only one in this boat when considering a Kitsune.
Tekken 8
While I was reviewing the stick, a demo for Tekken 8 dropped out of the sky, which was a golden opportunity to run the Kitsune through its paces. I'm shocked to discover and happy to report that this stick is dynamite for Bandai Namco's next 3D brawler.
Because most of the moves in Tekken are dependent on hitting the compass points – Up, Down, Left, and Right – rather than the diagonals, I am much more efficient in throwing them with the Kitsune than I was in SF6. While the demo doesn't give me access to my Tekken main (King, to keep with the pro wrestling theme), I have dabbled with Kazuya and Paul enough to know that a leverless stick is little to no hindrance. I even hit a few Electric Wind God Fists – which does require a diagonal – and that felt so dang satisfying.
When Tekken 8 fully launches soon, I plan on playing it with the Kitsune in hand.
Mortal Kombat 1
The Mortal Kombat 1 experience in Kitsune leans more on the side of Tekken than Street Fighter, as most special moves here can also be performed with just the compass points. In fact, I'd even say, with certain characters, that I fought better with the Kitsune than I did with the Victrix Pro.
Every character I played matches with using the Kitsune – which is about half the roster, give or take – felt really good to control with the stick, whether I was experienced with them or not. Special moves came out on the first try, combos were coming out cleanly, and even Fatality sequences gave me no trouble at all. The only weird element was summoning Kameos at first, but with a quick button adjustment, I was able to mitigate the issue fairly quickly.
Guilty Gear Strive
Now, I will admit I played less Guilty Gear Strive than the other games on this list, but there's a good reason for it: GGS falls into the same category as SF6 when it comes to the Kitsune. Quarter-circle and half-circle specials are easy to perform, command normals are no issue at all, and moves with full-circle commands are hit-or-miss.
Sol felt great on the Kitsune, as I was able to hit his full moveset with reliable regularity. Supers proved to be slightly more difficult, but after a few reps I figured them out too. Potemkin, however, took a little longer to wrap my head around, as his Potemkin Buster does the "half-circle, then forward" routine that still trips me up on a normal pad these days. All in all, though, just as the Kitsune fared mostly well with SF6, the same is true for GGS.
Leverless Victory
I'm ultimately very happy with the Razer Kitsune. No matter what game I threw at it, the stick performed remarkably well, with clean and crisp button presses resulting in, for the most part, the exact moves I wanted. It wasn't a perfect match; there are still some kinks I have to work out, but if I'm being honest, those kinks are in my physical ability rather than the tech I'm using.
I dare say the Kitsune also made me a believer in leverless fight sticks, too. I wasn't sure how I'd fare dedicating buttons to movement rather than a stick, but for 99% of the experience, this thing felt like I'd been using it for years. Of course, that 1% is a character I've been maining since 2009, but again, I'm still not sure if it's the device or me that's struggling there.
If you want to test the waters of leverless sticks, the Razer Kitsune is an optimal option. It's easy to use, and easy to carry around due to its small stature, while it performs well in most of the main fighting games on the market right now. I'm not ready to say leverless will be the gold standard for fighting games in the future, but I can say that if that happens, the Kitsune will be a big contributor to getting the format over the top.
Full Disclosure: The product described was provided by Razer PR for the purposes of this review.
