The Sega Dreamcast's library is home to a lot of exceptional games, but one of its biggest strengths is undoubtedly fighters. Such standouts as Power Stone, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and Soulcalibur immediately spring to mind. While my technical ability with most fighters is probably akin to that of a caveman banging a rock against the ground, I do really enjoy the Dreamcast's celebrated library of fighting titles.
While the Dreamcast's predecessor, the Saturn, came packaged with a stock pad that many consider to be one of the finest entry level controllers for fighting games, the Dreamcast's standard controller pales in comparison, with most complaints being levelled at its D-Pad. This issue resulted in many picking up Sega's excellent Dreamcast arcade stick back in the day. Play styles differ, however, and those who wanted something that they could grip with both hands sought out the ASCII Pad FT. This lovely controller is probably the closest any officially licensed controller got to mimicking a Saturn controller, and it even came with built-in rumble. Build-wise, it was a slightly chunkier recreation of what the Saturn controller originally offered, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. It does get deducted points for having no shoulder buttons, however.
But now, in 2025, controller manufacturer Retro Fighters have dropped their latest take on a Dreamcast fight pad, the D6, and it's looking very Saturn pad-shaped! In fact, it clearly takes cues from both the Saturn pad and the ASCII Pad FT, looking like an amalgamation of the too. It even features the exact same circular convex D-Pad.
While some Dreamcast fighting game aficionados have praised Retro Fighters' StrikerDC Wireless controller, it was originally designed to be more of a good all-rounder, whereas the D6 aims to satiate fans of that genre specifically. This controller is available in both black and white, and is compatible with the Dreamcast, Switch and PC. It went up for pre-order in September of last year for a price of $49.99 (about £38). Retro Fighters were kind enough to send us one to review.
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| Top: StrikerDC Wireless Bottom: The D6 |
If you're unfamiliar with Retro Fighters' previous Dreamcast outing, it achieved its wireless functionality with a receiver that connects into the controller port, and the D6 does exactly the same. This does mean that the only option for Dreamcast with the D6 is wireless, although the controller can function wired with Switch and PC by using the supplied USB to USB-C cable.
As the StrikerDC Wireless and D6 controllers don't have VMU slots on them, this receiver is also where you put your VMU. The D6 receiver has additional compatibility with the 4x memory Card, and the upcoming VMU Pro by 8BitMods. It does not currently work with the VM2.
While Sega didn't originally intend for us to squint across the room at our VMU screens, this is the method that companies like Retro Fighters, along with Retro-Bit, have opted to go for to keep their price points down. It also removes the risk of wireless connections being interrupted, which can lead to save data on VMUs being corrupted.
This technical hurdle has been overcome by Chris Diaoglou with his DreamConn and upcoming DreamConn S, but those controllers are —understandably— much higher in price.
Upon plugging the receiver into your Dreamcast, you need to press the triangle button on it, along with the pairing button on the top of the D6 to get the two to pair. While this seems like a relatively simple process, it did take me a few attempts before I could get them to sync together. Despite this quibble, now I've got the controller paired, simply pressing the button on the top of the controller will connect it to the receiver instantly whenever its plugged in.
