Victrix Pro KO Leverless Fight Stick review: a must-have controller for pros

Leverless struggle sticks have gained plenty of traction over the previous few years, and veteran esports opponents with a long time of arcade stick expertise have been switching over to all-button controllers. The Victrix Professional KO Leverless Combat Stick has been designed with high-level opponents like this in thoughts, making a controller that may be personalized and fine-tuned inside a matter of minutes.

Victrix (owned by Turtle Seaside) is thought for its premium struggle sticks that unsurprisingly include costly worth tags. Nonetheless, the leverless market isn’t the identical because it was solely a few years in the past. These days, gamers have extra choices than ever earlier than in terms of choosing the most effective PC controller, which makes it more durable to face out from the gang. Priced at $249.99 / £229.99, the Professional KO offers you with choices by no means earlier than seen on a leverless controller, however will you truly profit from these additions?

Specs

Options

When in comparison with cheaper leverless controllers from the likes of Sehawei and Mayflash, the Professional KO’s function set seems to be largely the identical. Functionally talking, there isn’t a lot to separate the Professional KO from its opponents: RGB lighting, a number of SODC (Simultaneous Opposing Cardinal Instructions) choices, and high-quality switches for the buttons are pretty commonplace. It’s the finer particulars of the Professional KO that focus the system in the direction of aggressive gamers that make this leverless controller shine.

Low cost leverless controllers often solely assist PC and a handful of earlier technology consoles, whereas the Professional KO is available in two varieties relying in your console of alternative. Whereas this received’t trigger any points should you solely intend to play at house, having assist for the PlayStation 5 or Xbox Sequence X|S is crucial in terms of aggressive play. Identical to the Razer Kitsune, which additionally encompasses a related worth, albeit with out the extra buttons, leverless controllers with assist for present technology consoles all the time come at a premium.

The standout function of the Professional KO is its customizability, making it doable so as to add 4 extra buttons to the struggle stick. You too can reassign any button to any enter, together with shortcut instructions inside your favourite combating video games. Every thing it’s worthwhile to customise your controller has been constructed instantly into the system, a function we’ve seen in arcade sticks however by no means in a tool as slim because the Professional KO. Included throughout the struggle stick is a swap puller device, much like what you would possibly obtain with a gaming keyboard, in addition to 4 buttons, full with Cherry MX Velocity Silver RGB switches.

With video games reminiscent of Road Fighter 6 that includes a number of mechanics tied up in button combos, some gamers choose assigning devoted buttons to every command. This merely wasn’t doable utilizing conventional struggle stick layouts, as each button has already been assigned. Some skilled gamers have gone so far as to mod their struggle sticks, however this includes drilling into your controller and changing the PCB to assist extra buttons. The Professional KO unlocks this potential for aspiring skilled gamers, permitting you to determine whether or not you want further buttons.

The Professional KO additionally comes with a 3m braided USB-C cable, and also you received’t have to fret about random drop-outs out of your cable disconnecting because it’s securely hooked up utilizing a locking mechanism. Following the aggressive design philosophy, there’s additionally a event lock swap that disables the struggle stick’s smaller buttons, reminiscent of Begin and Choose. This ensures you’ll by no means lose a spherical or match based mostly on an unintentional button press.

Design

The Professional KO’s structure deviates from the norm with its placement of the 4 further buttons, inserting three across the bounce button, and the final positioned in the direction of the left of the motion keys. Victrix says legendary combating sport champion Yusuke Momochi helped optimize the position of those buttons, and it’s useful to have them obtainable when you’ve got gaming duties you may assign to them.

I attempted out the commonest structure skilled Road Fighter 6 gamers use, getting access to a shortcut for Drive Parry and Drive Influence. It’s clear from the get-go that these shortcuts are helpful within the warmth of battle, they usually’re positioned in spots the place you received’t have any issues by accident hitting them.

In the meantime, the Professional KO’s detachable high plate is comprised of aluminum, paying homage to the sensation of a MacBook Professional. Much like a MacBook Professional, the Professional KO is pretty boring to take a look at, with the one markings on the plate being the Victrix emblem and button labels. The Professional KO’s premium construct high quality is what separates it from the competitors, contemplating many of the cheaper controllers on the market go for plastic relatively than metallic.

As a premium model throughout the gaming house, Victrix is thought for its understated designs on its struggle sticks. In a considerably unusual transfer, the buttons on the Professional KO additionally function RGB lighting if you need that typical gamer aesthetic. Whereas this will look good with sure coloration schemes, it’s right down to the person to not go for something tasteless just like the horrible mild present mode preset. On condition that all the struggle stick is customizable, although, there’s an opportunity these button labels received’t be related to you while you begin shifting issues round. The RGB mild rings surrounding every button may also be individually personalized utilizing the Victrix Management Hub software program, extra on that later.

Now that I’ve seen the Professional KO’s RGB lighting, I now perceive why Razer determined to maintain it restricted to a single strip of sunshine alongside the sides of the Kitsune. The inventory model of the Razer Kitsune appears to be like much like the Professional KO, although I choose the classier Kitsune on this respect. The Professional KO’s lighting could be personalized with random colours and brightness settings to make it look foolish, whereas you’ll be hard-pressed to make the Kitsune look something however fashionable.

Efficiency

Swapping out buttons on the Professional KO is an extremely easy course of. The struggle stick has 4 safety clips behind the system, and when you set these to the unlock place, the highest cowl could be pulled away to disclose the spare components. Utilizing the swap puller, it takes lower than a minute to take away every button from the struggle stick.

The Professional KO options sizzling swappable switches, versus Sanwa buttons that many arcade sticks are recognized to make use of. Sanwa components was the gold customary for arcade sticks, however keyboard switches have advanced in leaps and bounds over the previous decade, creating a variety of choices to fit your precise choice. One other benefit of utilizing keyboard switches is that it’s cheaper to switch a button if it occurs to interrupt, with most switches costing below a greenback. Even should you don’t see your self as the kind of particular person to experiment with new switches, it is a large deal in terms of the system’s repairability, as this course of could be carried out by anybody.

I discovered the Cherry MX Velocity Silver switches included with the Professional KO to be nice for combating video games. They strike the appropriate stability of being each satisfying to hit and delicate sufficient that you just received’t blame the controller for not responding to your instructions. I changed the Cherry switches with Gazzew U4T Thocky tactile switches to see how they fared compared, and this resulted in a significantly squishier expertise. It doesn’t matter what swap you employ, the buttons on the Professional KO get fairly noisy when hammering in combos, so that you’ll must take that under consideration should you’re round any mild sleepers.

Software program

The Victrix Management Hub software program lets you fine-tune the Professional KO to your liking. You’re in a position to replace the system’s firmware, run diagnostics to make sure all of your buttons are working appropriately, and configure the struggle stick. The software program permits you to reassign any button to any command to create the controller scheme structure you’ve all the time needed. This might will let you create setups that go towards aggressive rule units, so we advocate checking to see what’s tournament-legal beforehand.

For instance, Capcom’s rule set for Road Fighter 6 states you can’t have two inputs assigned as the identical assault command. When you’re prohibited from setting this up in-game, you may force-customize the Professional KO to avoid these guidelines. Extra importantly, you have got the choice to vary the Professional KO’s SODC mode, guaranteeing you have got a struggle stick that may play each fashionable and traditional combating video games with none points.

As for the lighting, you may tweak every button to have its personal coloration, velocity, and brightness worth. You too can swap between 4 lighting profiles, a useful function when hopping between combating video games as you’re ready to make use of the lighting zones to assist map your buttons. Lastly, the software program permits you to modify your controller’s audio settings to mute your headset’s microphone, in addition to modify the sport and chat audio stability.

Victrix has clearly given plenty of thought to how individuals will use the Professional KO, and that turns into much more obvious while you study that the majority of its options could be accessed with out ever putting in the software program. The one factor you may’t do with out the software program is change the lighting on the struggle stick, however virtually the whole lot else could be completed utilizing audio, lighting, and performance buttons. That is implausible for skilled gamers, as you’re in a position to keep the Professional KO’s full function set while not having a pc.

Worth

The Professional KO worth is $249.99 / £249.99, inserting it on the greater finish of leverless controllers. There’s an evening and day distinction in construct high quality and performance between the Professional KO and its opponents from the likes of Sehawei and Mayflash, although, so it’s not a shock to see why there’s such a large worth disparity. Along with the assist for present technology consoles, the Professional KO’s user-friendliness makes it straightforward to customise with out having to seek for tutorials made by the combating sport neighborhood.

Alternate options

Razer Kitsune

In a conflict of the heavyweight leverless struggle sticks, the Razer Kitsune stands reverse the Professional KO as its most important competitor. The Kitsune doesn’t formally assist changing the hot-swappable switches just like the Professional KO, nor does it provide any customization choices in terms of remapping buttons. They’re each nice choices should you’re seeking to compete towards the most effective gamers round, simply remember that the Kitsune isn’t as versatile because the Professional KO.

Learn our Razer Kitsune overview right here.

Verdict

The Victrix Professional KO Leverless Combat Stick brings collectively the most effective parts of top-tier arcade sticks and all-button controllers, making it straightforward for newbies to dabble into areas that have been beforehand locked off to bizarre individuals. The method of including buttons to the Professional KO is lifeless easy, and the truth that all of the parts are saved throughout the controller itself, despite its smooth construct, is exceptional.

There are leverless controllers with related options to the Professional KO at half the value. Nonetheless, you received’t discover the identical degree of thoughtfulness in terms of catering to aggressive gamers. From the light-weight and slim design that makes it straightforward to hold, to the built-in instruments in case it’s worthwhile to swap out a damaged swap, Victrix has considered the whole lot an expert participant wants on the street.

In case you’re on the lookout for the most effective of the most effective proper now, the one off-putting issue of the Professional KO is the value. That mentioned, you received’t discover a leverless controller that helps present technology consoles out of the field with out paying a hefty price. The Razer Kitsune is the Professional KO’s solely rival at this worth level, so the choice between the 2 leverless controllers comes right down to how a lot you’ll profit from the additional buttons. For our cash, we’d relatively have the additional options provided by the Professional KO, even when which means paying barely extra for the privilege.