The MICRO 2023 Snack Box is a compact version of the all-button style controller for fighting games. It is so compact that I wondered if it would work well for me. At ten inches long and five inches wide (and less than three-quarters of an inch tall), he’s so small that I can almost cover his entire face with one hand. This size made me worry that it might be too small to play comfortably after using the much larger Victrix Pro FS 12 for the past few months, and using larger fight sticks for a while before that. Little did I know that its compact size would end up being my favorite part of this fantastic controller.
Having really started fighting games in the last couple of years, I’ve been playing around with what I felt was best for entry styles. Accuracy is what I’m looking for. The joysticks and combat sticks worked well for directional inputs, but I found nothing compares in style to all the buttons. Testing Victrix made a lot of things work, and movements that were constant headaches on other controllers suddenly worked (with a little practice). Even so, I was still learning the arcade-style button layout, which meant hitting the wrong attack buttons or losing my hand position on the controller. Sometimes it was a button too far left or right, leading to some interesting dropouts. So I solved a problem to find a new one.
The MICRO 2023 Snack Box did a great job of solving this problem for me, and its size helped. While I love the feel of the bigger fight sticks and the feel of having a giant control pad (I’m terrible at steel battalion, but did I ever like this controller?), there was so much free space for my hand to wander around the controller. Yes, I know all the buttons are in the same place, but when you navigate by touch and have a wider variety of similar buttons to mix and match, it can be easy to move your hand to the wrong place. It’s something I could have fixed with constant practice, but it’s also something I could easily make mistakes in a heated match, even after I got good at it. My hands shake when I’m stressed, after all.
The small size of the MICRO 2023 Snack Box meant you could feel the edges of the fight stick with your wrist and hand depending on where you put them down. The lower right corner of the controller would be in the lower right corner of my right hand. Same treatment for the left hand. If my hand felt anything other than that corner, then I knew I had put my hands in a different position and had to adjust. It seems like a small thing, but when you’re learning a completely new control scheme, something like this can help you get familiar with the controller. It was a big help for me to be able to use my Roman cancels and bursts in Guilty Equipment Effort – buttons that might as well have been on another planet while he was using the bigger stick.
This smaller size has also worked well as it allows me to easily adjust the neck position and find the most comfortable spot for me. I don’t have a dedicated place to set up the controller while playing in my bedroom. I usually sit on the bed rather than at a desk. So that means the bigger sticks have to sit on my lap, which, while functional and quite comfortable, means the controller has to stay in a specific position. There’s not much scope to move it around to better suit the way my wrist or fingers move.
The MICRO 2023 snack box is small enough that I could make minor adjustments to how it sits on my lap, allowing for better wrist rotation and finger tapping. For example, do Potemkin Buster in Guilty Equipment Effort it requires you to do a semi-circle motion back and forth and then forward again. Despite a lot of practice, my inputs weren’t reliable at the best of times, mostly due to my wrist spinning and the natural feel of tapping my fingers on the buttons. I naturally drum my fingers from little finger to index finger, which worked pretty well when fighting on the right side. On the left though, I have to twist and turn my wrist to get it right. It’s hard to do when the controller is flat, but if I put it at a slight angle I can perform the move quite reliably. This was only possible because of this small, lightweight controller and the ease with which I can move it around.
Image courtesy of Danny Valencia (Instagram, Blood). Illustration courtesy of Saf (Instagram, Blood).
It helps that the buttons gently cup your fingers, which helps keep it in place. The stick features out-of-the-box concave keys that are soft, but have minimal grip. I don’t know much about the intricate features of the battle stick buttons, but I do know the way these buttons keep your fingers pointing smoothly by simply curving them around the finger, and the fact that they have a bit of grip, helped keep my fingers in place while getting to know the club. The buttons also have a slightly softer feel to press, which was nice, while still retaining that delicious clicking sound that my brain loves when playing brawlers.
The good thing is that this controller works on just about everything so once I get comfortable with it I can hook it up to so many different systems. It works with PS4, PS5 and even PS3. Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S are covered, as is Nintendo Switch. I can hook it up to my PC or even my Steam Deck if I want. It will even connect to my Android device if I really want to. Honestly, I used to have several different fight sticks for all the different home systems, but now I can just use this one and I’m good to go.
The Snack Box MICRO 2023 also has other interesting features. I chose the artwork box version which allows me to customize the art on the stick. I haven’t done this yet because I like being able to see the inner workings of the controller through the frosted case. There’s also an LED lighting system around the buttons that lights up when pressed, creating a fun display that’s also useful if you want to look down and see why an entry went the wrong way. or another. Seeing the wrong button glow was a fun learning experience. Watching everything light up while doing a Heavenly Potemkin Buster makes an already awesome experience so much better too.
Image courtesy of Danny Valencia (Instagram, Blood). Illustration courtesy of Saf (Instagram, Blood).
You can also customize the lights to your liking with an app that lets you make adjustments on the controller. You can change brightness, play with colors and choose different animations with it. While you’re at it, you can also play around with the Simultaneous Opposite Cardinal Directions (SOCD) system, although I’m not at a point where I want to make any changes to how it works. Just be aware that holding forward and backward sets the directions to neutral so you can’t walk and charge backwards at the same time. It’s been good enough for me.
The closest thing I have to a stick complaint is that the MICRO 2023 Snack Box only comes with a six foot cord. Don’t get me wrong, this is a strong and durable USB C cable. The controller even has a small loop and Velcro strap to attach to the side to reduce wear and tear on the device’s USB port (quite a design decision there, honestly). It’s just that my TV is across the room and I have to sit close enough for this cable to reach it. If you had a setup where you sat closer to your monitor or TV that would be fine, but a longer cable would have been fine. Since this is a USB C cable, you can swap it out for another one (eg from another combat device you also have), so it’s unlikely to be a big one problem for many people.
The Snack Box MICRO 2023 is just a solid little controller overall, especially for someone like me who is just learning to use the stick. Its compact size helps keep my fingers on the right buttons and allows me to adjust the fretboard to make certain inputs more comfortable. The concave buttons continue to help me stay in place and feel great to press. Finally, the controller looks really cool in action with its lights and the ability to see straight into its electrical innards. It’s easily my favorite fight stick, and with its size adding that ease of portability, I’m excited to start taking it to the locals to start making Potemkin Buster. Let’s see if they like the light show as much as I do when it goes on because I stomped on them.
Pre-orders for the next batch of 2023 Snack Box Micro Battle Sticks are now open at Junkfood Arcades.