Hori Real Arcade Pro 2: Special Addition Review

Today I’m going to review the Hori Real Arcade Pro 2: Special Addition. This Arcade Stick was shipped on April 17th and a restock was shipped in mid May. As many people were waiting for this stick to be on sell, it was sold out in only a few hours!

The HRAP2:SA is a full Sanwa version of the HRAP2. This means it has a Sanwa stick and Sanwa buttons instead of Hori Buttons. The stick is a JLF-TP-8YT-SK, this means it has a mounting plate (YT) and shaft cover (SK). The buttons are OBSF-30 and OBSF-24. The OSBF-30 are the normal and shoulder buttons and the OSBF-24 are the start and select buttons. The Balltop and the OSBF-30 are, as you can see, light blue. The HRAP2:SA measures 412x243x135mm (width, length, height), so it’s pretty big and weights around 3kg.

The Button layout is based on the japanese arcade cabinet layout and one will use the 6 buttons from the left. The top row consists of square, triange, R1 and L1, the bottom row X, O, R2, L2. I suggest using the default layout as it is the same as japanese arcade cabinets use and one does not have to change the button configuration every time.

Let’s take a look inside the HRAP2:SA. All buttons are connected with quick disconnects, so it’s easy to switch buttons if you do not like the color or want to change them for Seimitsu buttons. The stick is connected by a harness and has a square restrictor. One can also see the mounting plate. All cables were taped to the case of the stick with duct tape but one has to remove it or else the cables are too short to lay down the plate. All in all the cables are connected very well and as long as one does not remove the duct tape the cables are well seperated. The rest of the case is pretty much empty, maybe Hori wanted people to hide their chocolate bars in there or something.

The plate on the bottom of the stick hides the PCB. I did not upload an image of this because I do not find it too important. You will not need to exchange the PCB anyway, so just keep your fingers off the plate.

The HRAP2:SA works very well. One can expect this as it features buttons and stick that are used in japanese arcades. The stick reacts very fast and only needs to be moved a bit less than 1cm to hit a microswitch. The buttons also react very fast and do not even need to be pushed in completely to react. One probably will have to get used to the short path of the stick and how it has to be moved to hit the correct microswitches. I also had to get used to it, as I often hit up-left/right instead of only left or right. But after playing for some hours everybody should be able to pull of the moves he or she wants to do. One probably won’t have to get used to the buttons as one just has to push them and there is not such a big difference between different buttons compared to different sticks.

All in all I can say that the Hori Real Arcade Pro 2: Special Addition is probably the best stick on the market at the moment as it does not need any modifications and already comes with arcade authentic parts. The only thing that I can criticize is that the case is huge and takes away a lot of space, so it’s not the best stick for traveling. I bought the stick for around 140Euro (shipping included) and it’s worth it. It could have been cheaper but as you have to import it from Japan the shipping costs nearly as much as the stick does (3000-4000Yen less than the stick).

My ratings for the HRAP2:SA :

• Buttons: 10/10
• Stick: 10/10
• Case: 8/10
• Price-performance: 8/10

You can still get the HRAP2:SA at Play-Asia or Akihabara Shop (see links at the right column)