Cosmox Gaming is best known for its leverless arcade controllers, and although it experimented with a modular joystick in its Hautepad X model, it has yet to fully embrace the more traditional arcade stick. Until now, that is.
The Hautepad C-AS is a dedicated fight stick with a couple of neat tricks up its sleeve. The first is that it takes inspiration from Cosmox’s own C-AT controller by including adjustable buttons, meaning you can raise or lower the height of each input to suit your preferences. The second is that it includes modular ‘LS’ and ‘RS’ buttons that can be swapped out for analogue sticks. So, much like the SWORL or the Hautepad X, you can use the C-AS for more than just fighting games – if you can get used to the setup, of course.
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The RRP is around $250, but shop around a bit and you could easily find one for significantly less – possibly closer to the $130-140 mark.
Aesthetically, the C-AS is perhaps Cosmox’s boldest design to date. The metallic plate is a shining gold colour, covered with a subtle yet striking pattern made up of the company’s logo. Sounds garish on paper, sure, but it genuinely looks lovely in person. I received the gold version for review, but it’s also available in grey and purple. You’ve also got the usual LCD screen in the top left and some neat RGB lighting around the buttons and main body.
The stick itself feels good, but it needs a bit of work for future iterations. Cosmox has endeavoured to keep the C-AS as thin as possible, which means the stick isn’t made in the same way as industry-standard levers like Sanwa. It utilises microswitches for directional inputs, and while these certainly provide some nice, clicky feedback, it’s not quite on par with the arcade sticks from, say, Punk Workshop or Qanba.
The other, perhaps more pressing, issue is the lever’s height. Coming out at 64mm (shaft and ball top included), it’s a smidge too high for me. It’s still perfectly usable, and you might personally find it perfect for your tastes, but I prefer a lever that sits a little lower.
The good news is that you can whip out the magnetic lever and swap it for another compatible option, if you have one available. I replaced mine with the lever from the Hautepad X (57mm high) and found this much more comfortable.
The main inputs contain Wind Engine switches, which feel nice and responsive while staying reasonably quiet (though you’re obviously going to get some auditory feedback when you’re whacking them at speed during a match in Street Fighter 6). You’ve got your standard eight action inputs along with an extra M1 input above and the two modular inputs at the bottom.
Up on top, the function buttons house extremely clicky mechanical switches that feel very satisfying to press. All inputs are hot-swappable, too, so you can customise them with any compatible Kailh switches, while the caps can also be swapped around if you want a more faithful Switch layout (and thank goodness the labelling is on the buttons, not the main body).
Just like the C-AT, you can also adjust the height of the main inputs. The tools to achieve this are housed in the device’s interior, so simply press the button on the back to push the metal frame out and access them. Then you align the tool with the two small holes on the outer rim of the inputs, twisting them clockwise or counterclockwise to adjust the height. With three height options available, the difference is subtle, but with a bit of experimentation, you’ll find that the perfect setup makes for a much improved gameplay experience.
The most interesting feature is the ability to swap out the two modules for analogue sticks. As standard, ‘LS’ and ‘RS’ inputs are installed and you can map these to whatever you like via the web configurator. Otherwise, you can pull the modules out and swap them for the analogue sticks. These feel pretty good; very comparable to what you might find on the Switch 2 Joy-Con in terms of size and feel, including the ability to click them in for ‘L3’ and ‘R3’ inputs.
Ultimately, the C-AS is designed primarily for fighting games and classic arcade titles, but the analogue sticks do at least open up the possibility of using it for more titles. Whether it’s first-person like Metroid Prime 4: Beyond or a third-person title like Cronos: The New Dawn, the C-AS works, though I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it over a standard Pro Controller or Joy-Con.
One last thing to touch on is build quality. The C-AS is a pretty heavy device, weighing in at nearly 2kg. This is good for an arcade stick, as you’re going to be yanking the lever about pretty feverishly at times, so it’s nice to have something that can stay reasonably stable. The non-slip padding underneath helps with this and it covers the entire underside of the main body.
As is standard for Cosmox’s controllers now, the USB-C slot at the top includes a locking mechanism to ensure you don’t accidentally yank it out while playing.
As Cosmox Gaming’s first dedicated arcade stick, the C-AS is a solid effort that offers more features than your average controller while maintaining an impressively slim form factor. The buttons feel great, and the customisable modules are a pretty cool touch if you want to experiment with different control schemes.
The only major drawback is the lever itself – which is kind of the whole point of the controller. It feels good enough with some decent feedback, but if you’re coming from a Sanwa JLF or similar, it might feel a bit lacking. It’s also a touch too long for my liking; a few millimetres shaved off would make a huge difference.
The sample used in this review was provided by Cosmox Gaming.
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