Victrix Pro KO Leverless Fight Stick review — Here comes a new challenger

Growing up, arcades had basically already died out around me, so seeing a machine in the wild was very rare. As such, I don’t have too much experience with traditional arcade controllers: a stick on the left and big buttons on the right. As I’ve gotten more into fighting games over the years, however, I’ve been considering getting a Fight Stick; a controller that replicates arcade cabinets. Performing quarter circle motions on a regular gamepad can be pretty tricky, and a larger stick would make that a lot easier. As I’ve been mulling this over, a new challenger has entered the arena: the Leverless Fight Stick. These exchange the stick for more buttons, allowing you to put one finger on every cardinal direction. It’s a fascinating evolution, but is it better than just using a gamepad?

In short, yes. Something like this will always come down to preference, but for most fighting games I’d absolutely break out a Leverless Fight Stick - specifically the Victrix Pro KO. This is the first one I’ve used, but the difference in ease of use is stark. When I do a quarter circle, I tend to move a bit too far to the right or left at first, causing the final input to be incorrect. With the Pro KO, I can just press two buttons and perform the input both faster and more accurately. I was even able to pull off a pretzel motion, but that’s still pushing it. 

The Pro KO’s form factor makes it easy to use resting on your lap. It’s a mostly flat surface but slopes down near the bottom so your wrists can sit comfortably. Your fingers should naturally rest on the buttons as well, with your left hand on directional inputs and the right moving between two rows of attack buttons. The right side has a total of eight buttons, which is a bit overkill for most six-button fighters, but there are certainly games where it’s useful (like Street Fighter VI). If you don’t like the button layout, it’s super easy to open up the device and move things around with a few empty slots you can place buttons in. It does come with a few extra buttons (and corresponding switches as well as tweezers to remove things safely), so you can fill things out however you like. I’m not too big of a fan of having up be on my left thumb, so I’ll probably move that somewhere else.

The problem with moving buttons around, however, is that the inputs are already engraved on the device’s surface. So if you customize button placement or just rebind things in-game, it might get a bit confusing. A good example may be taking a long break from a game and coming back later. Additionally, the up button is much larger than all the other buttons, so it won’t fit in a different slot. I like that it’s big, but it does present a problem in that there are only a few locations it can go. Finally, the extra buttons don’t seem to come with caps, so they’re more replacements than additions. 

That’s not all awful though, at least for my purposes. I find the basic layout fine enough and I can get used to where the up button is placed. What’s really important here is compatibility; a fight stick isn’t very useful if it doesn’t work. The Pro KO has three modes you can switch between on the side: PS5, PS4, and PC. You simply set the mode to whatever the device is plugged into, using the included USB C to A cable, and it should register as a controller. I’m happy to report that it works flawlessly on PS5. I tested it with Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising and Capcom Fighting Collection and had no issues. In fact, it felt easier to pull off combos than ever in the latter, though I think the former would take some getting used to if I want to keep using the simpler special inputs. 

On PC, it’s a bit of a different story. In some games, like Street Fighter VI and Skullgirls, it works perfectly. I also tested it with Persona 4 Golden and had no issues there, which was pretty neat. It will also work with titles like Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics, though you will need to press the start button and have the tournament lock switch set to off, otherwise it becomes totally unresponsive.