Tanita is relaunching its pricey TwinStick controller.
As a lifelong fan of his Virtual activation games, glad to see it Tanita is relaunching its TwinSticks. Despite the fact that they now cost more than a PlayStation 5.
For reference, the Japanese price point for the base PlayStation 5 including the drive is 66,980 yen. While Tanita TwinSticks cost 68,200 yen.
It’s a game controller that primarily works with two games released on the PlayStation 4. Specifically, his A specific magical virtual active and Virtual On Masterpiece Collection (the latter contains three games). A few other smaller games support the controller, as I’ll explain later, but these TwinSticks are primarily intended for Virtual activation Games.
Now, I got my pair of Tanita TwinSticks when they first came out and they are amazingly good. Packed full of Sanwa parts, it’s arcade levels of quality and durability.
They can also be completely repaired if parts wear and break. The fact that a company like Tanita still makes these gives me a headache, as they usually make electronic weighing machines, but I’m certainly grateful for their work on this.
As for what drives this reissue, other than the requirement to play the original Virtual activation arcade games, not really sure. Perhaps there are plans to release the games natively on the PlayStation 5?
However, considering you can use these TwinSticks and play the previous PlayStation 4 versions on the PlayStation 5 just fine, I’m not sure what’s going on here.
Having said that, Alice Gear Aegis CS Concerto of Simulatrix on PlayStation 5 also supports these TwinSticks. Although, I doubt a tiny game like this would warrant such a re-release of an insanely expensive peripheral game.
One thing that would be welcome is a proper international release of it Virtual On Masterpiece Collection. It’s a great set and contains the best versions of each of the classics Virtual activation electronic games.
In any case, it’s amazing to see a number of games I’ve been to has been playing since 1995 they still have such a dedicated, as well as clearly very rich, fan base.
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