Turtle Beach just released their sick new Victrix pieces that pay homage to Street Fighter II and Street Fighter II: Champion Edition. No surprise here, but this collection consists of a Street Fighter themed backpack which features the classic Street Fighter logo, with orange and yellow accents and is adorned with a silhouette of Ryu vs Chun-Li on the front of the bag. There’s also a Victrix Pro KO Leverless Fight Stick that’s got the iconic Street Fighter II: Champion Edition character select screen etched into it on a Big Blue colored aluminum base. How do we feel about each of these pieces and what’s our collective score for the set as a whole? Find out in this review!
Victrix Tournament Backpack – Street Fighter Edition
Manufacturer: Victrix (Turtle Beach)
MSRP: $99.99 USD
First up is the Street Fighter backpack. This Victrix Tournament Backpack is actually extremely well made, and I’ve paid way more than $100 for backpacks that weren’t nearly this well designed.
A lot attention to detail went into this backpack, as it’s clearly meant to both serve a practical every day purpose while also being a proper transport for your sticks if you’re a card carrying member of the FGC who loves to take multiple weapons into LAN battles.
This bag can comfortably hold both a KO Leverless as well as the normal PRO FS fight stick, as well as a fight pad, and a set of Atlas 200‘s so you can run your mouth both locally or online without ever missing a beat.
You could also very easily convert this from your stick carrier to a daily driver, utilizing the cushioned pocket meant for the leverless stick to house a 15 inch laptop. The bag features a ton of space and a plethora of pockets, which makes up for only having one major cargo compartment.
The backpack features stretchy pockets on either side so you could carry a water bottle or two, orange mesh lining under the handle and along the back and rear of the straps that both looks stylish and also allows air to flow so you can breathe when wearing the bag for extended periods of time.
While I do appreciate the attention to detail put into this bag, I’m not completely sold on the design choices. It’s a Street Fighter themed bag, so it doesn’t technically pick a single game which messes with the aesthetics a bit.
As a bit of an afficionado growing up, I vividly remember the original Street Fighter arcade cabinet that didn’t feature the now traditional six button pattern, but instead featured two pneumatic buttons that performed different actions based on the pressure used.
Those original cabinets had a red and a blue button, and it’s clear the backpack colors were derived from the side art of that cabinet, as it featured a half circle design that used silver, red, yellow, and orange as color swooshes on the background.
This choice is a little bit strange to lean so heavily into the original Street Fighter’s presentation, since Street Fighter II is what really kicked off the cultural phenomenon, but it’s nice to know that old nerds like me aren’t completely forgotten when it comes to the franchise’s storied history.
Personally, I would have preferred they keep the Trapper Keeper style look and colors of the Street Fighter II arcade cab, opting for yellow, pink, and black, especially since any knowledge of the original game points out two obvious design choice flaws.
There are no female fighters in the original Street Fighter, so putting Chun-Li on the front is out of place since she didn’t debut until Street Fighter II, and the “world map” that’s printed on the inside of the bag is also the one from Street Fighter II and not the one from the original Street Fighter.
Design questions aside, I love this bag. It’s well made, spacious, and the zippers have a very nice rubberized pull tab that makes opening everything a breeze. If this thing had the channels that wrapped the zippers to protect from water, I’d argue it was almost as well made as my Aer bag that ran almost $200 more.
Victrix Pro KO Leverless Fight Stick – Street Fighter II: Champion Edition
Manufacturer: Victrix (Turtle Beach)
MSRP: $299.99 USD
First off, to note, this is a PS4/5 stick that also works with PC, so Xbox gamers are unfortunately left out on this collab. You really can’t understand how much the etched art pops on this stick until you see it in person.
Even this photo of it next to the standard KO stick doesn’t do it justice, it’s laser engraved and smooth to the touch, but it’s so nice looking that I’m terrified that extended use will rub the engraving down.
The Street Fighter II: Champion Edition of the KO leverless stick features the full twelve character roster from when the boss characters were first made playable, and the aluminum is brushed a gorgeous blue that was very clearly inspired by the look of the “Big Blue” Street Fighter II: Champion Edition arcade machine.
While there aren’t any real differences between this collector’s edition and the standard KO, my one complaint is that I would have preferred the controller cable had been yellow, as the purple one that comes with the standard edition helps the graphite gray pop a little harder.
And honestly? I hate yellow as a color but because of the arcade machine’s accents, yellow would have gone so hard. While $300 is a hefty price tag for a fight stick, the KO Leverless comes with the same aluminum casing and rubber mat bottoms.
While the extras are found on the traditional lever version, it’s still $100 less which makes this a terrific buy that feels far more premium than the competition. Start with a Fightbox, if you like it, upgrade to the Victrix.
My iPhone tried its best to show you these sticks in tandem with each other, but I’m just not a good enough photographer to do Victrix’s gear proper justice. Shoutout to the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection on Steam.
If you were here when the KO Leverless originally came out, we included it in our best gifts for 2024 guide, and my thoughts are still relatively the same. The stick easily comes apart so you can customize it to your liking.
However the etched placement for the buttons is still my biggest drawback because moving your direction buttons one slot to the left means your inputs have labels that point to the wrong buttons and you obviously can’t move an etched symbol.
I love the feel of the buttons used in this stick and have not yet felt the need to swap or upgrade them (plus, Victrix does include four more buttons if you want to fill all the slots) but as any fight stick user knows, this is only a matter of time.
The Victrix Street Fighter Collection was reviewed using review units provided by Turtle Beach. You can find additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy here. The Victrix Tournament Backpack – Street Fighter Edition is available here and available for $99.99. The Victrix Pro KO Leverless Fight Stick – Street Fighter II: Champion Edition is available here for $299.99.
