Hitbox is a cheatbox isn’t it?

I play on Hitbox and I made two whole videos on why I personally switched to Hitbox, which was because of my left wrist. I am not going to repeat the contents of those videos here, because the videos exist and the past hasn’t changed. If you want to know more about my personal reasoning, you can either check out my Switching to Hitbox and my Hitbox 6 months later videos on my YouTube channel. Most importantly though, as you might have guessed, I am still playing on Hitbox. So you should be aware that I am extremely biassed on this subject. If you have a problem with that, this is probably not going to be a piece you will enjoy. For everyone else, let’s move on.

Cheating at home

Let’s get one major point out of the way first, the whole ban cheatbox discussion is only really relevant in the realm of esports. What input device you use at home is neither important nor an issue. So in regards to cheating or not I will only be speaking for the… let’s call it recreational use of controller’s other than arcade sticks. Plus, this whole arms race analogy that is being thrown around, it simply doesn’t hold water, when everybody is still bound by the same rules anyway. I am not even interested in locals and tournaments, off- or online and I am pretty sure a lot of people aren’t.

Macros

Between people having awful connections, being on wifi and rage quitting, seriously, even IF they’re using single button macros to cheat to hell and back to execute electrics with Mishimas, 2 frame clean hits with Happy Chaos or 1 frame links in Street Fighter IV, I honestly couldn’t care less. However, that is not a thing though, is it? Which also leads us directly into the next point, there are no macros on a standard Hitbox. I can’t speak for Snackboxes, MPress or custom builds of course, but I’d hazard a guess that they don’t have Macros out of the box either.

By definition a macro is a single instruction, which means in our case one press of one button, that expands automatically into a set of instructions, meaning simultaneous or successive button inputs, to perform a particular task. If the Hitbox could do that, yes that would be cheating, but it can’t. Not only doesn’t it have access to macros, up until the latest firmware update, which I cannot even run as that can only be done via windows, the original Hitbox didn’t even have the option to access left stick and right stick inputs. Which is to say that it has less simultaneous input options than a standard DualShock 4, DualSense and even Joycons of all controllers.

SOCD cheating

A lot of people seem to get hung up on the fact that “instant flash” kicks are an issue, are they though? Up overriding a down input, doesn’t create any problems. The input buffer would usually allow you to press up, down, kick and still have the flash kick come out anyway. Which means you have been charging again before the flash kick even happened, same thing. One requires a little more precision than the other, but next to ergonomics, that is literally the biggest selling point, being more precise with your inputs. That was never a secret, nothing that needed to be kept hush-hush, that has always been front and centre. It is not cheating. In fact, if you, like myself, have extensively played 3rd gen Monster Hunter, or hell even 2nd gen, I’d argue it’s even easier on a pad, with a PlayStation layout at least.

You know what would be cheating, if Guile could approach you whilst charging a sonic boom, scary right? Well I think it would be scary, but even if the game allows it, the Hitbox SOCD cleaner does not, as left and right at the same time will default to neutral, or for you weebs out there, five, meaning nothing.

Too efficient

Yes Hitbox is more efficient than an arcade stick, but you know the current standard isn’t Arcade Sticks, it’s DualShock 4s and they’re more efficient than sticks as well. Not to mention the shift to PC is in full force. The standard might very well be keyboards not too long from now. Wait what? An input device that the original Hitbox’s concept was based on, with a lot more buttons… keys, that has been around for ages, with tons of ways to do whatever naughty stuff you could ever come up with? Bitch, shut the front door! We still need to deal with this cheatbox right here.

I’ve said this across other videos already, right, the input device you have available and feel most comfortable with, is the best controller you have. I bought an arcade stick back then, because I wanted to play Tekken 5 DR in the arcades. I was perfectly happy playing on pad up until that point, but if I wanted to play in the arcades I had no choice but to learn how to play on stick. That is no longer an issue, in fact, in the handful of arcades that are still around, a lot of the cabs, from what I understand at least, allow you to plug in your own controller anyway. If anything it’s not that Hitbox and by extension, controllers and keyboards are too efficient, it’s that arcade sticks just are not.

Move it old man

It’s almost like they think this is some sort of Anime or K-Drama, right? Where the younger generation are getting on the hip and trendy bandwagon, as the old timers are holding on to traditions and trying to make the younger generation understand that the tried and tested is the way to go and shouldn’t be abandoned. By the end of the story, some event would occur that will prove the old guard’s point, because the new way created a problem and tadah we will stick to what we know and it’s good that way. That’s not how real life works. If it did, we’d still be using fax machines and that’s assuming we had even managed to get that far.

As I said in the beginning I am 100% biassed and honestly I think Hitbox, or rather button-only controllers, especially looking at the shift towards PC, are the future. Do you think it’s cheating? Yes or no, please explain to me why you think one way or another in the comments, either here or on the YouTube video. See you next time.