Retro Arcade levers: bat-top or Japanese/ball-top?

[Yzz]

Perhaps one of the most pointless, yet somewhat interesting debates out there is whether "bat-top" or "ball-top" arcade levers are better. If you grew up in the Americas, it's likely that you are more familiarized with the bat-top levers, which are also popular in Korea and I believe Europe. Japanese arcades, on the other hand, have always preferred the ball-top levers, hence why these are sometimes called "Japanese levers".

The Sanwa JLF, a very popular japanese lever

A King of Fighters '99 cabinet with bat-top levers

I think that everyone agrees that none of these is objectively superior, but some argue that specific games favor one style (like bat-top levers are better for Tekken, since these allow for faster hand motions). In the end it all comes down to preference. So, people who have tried both: which one do you generally prefer? and those who have tried only one or none of these: which one looks better?

 

[Derachi]

My North American Nostalgia for Bat-Tops is too strong

I like a ball-top just fine but my heart lies with bat-tops

 

[em]

I haven't seriously played in a real arcade in almost twenty years, so take that as you will. American style bat tops were totally unusable for me back then. Perhaps I could have gotten used to the shape, but the levers/springs were also tuned to require a tremendous amount of force back then to the point where it hurt my hand to play Street Fighter III in my college joint.

All my home sticks have been ball tops with [micro-]switches.

 

[toastie]

having spent my youth playing fighting games in competition settings with ball-top fight sticks only, bat-tops just feel weird now. I have no idea what to do with my hands on those things!

 

[neil]

Ball-top are what I remember from my childhood. But bat top is probably more comfortable and ergonomic.

 

[BotenAnna]

There's a bit more to it than just the shape of the top, where the primary distinctions is how the levers sit and are tensioned to neutral and how the switch/actuation layout works. I personally like Seimitsu when I'm using a Japanese lever, which are pretty much arcade classics like the Sanwa in your picture. I use a lot of Korean sticks though, which are mostly battops that are tensioned via rubber grommets rather than springs. The Fujin V3, Knee, and Crazy Dongpal are probably my favorites, but I've mostly stopped using that last one.

Old American style sticks(Happ competitions, now known as IL levers) kind of suck imo especially now that Korean sticks are easy to get. Korean sticks give you a somewhat similar feel, but with more precision similar to Japanese sticks.