The Brook Universal Fighting Board (UFB) is really good, however, I was surprised to discover that the PS5 upgrade kit doesn’t actually offer 'perfect compatibility' with PS5 games as claimed on the manufacturer's web site.
The UFB-UP5 runs in PS4 specialist controller mode, which is supported in a lot of PS5 games, but not all of them. More games are starting to ship that do not support PS4 specialist controllers (if you need an example, boot up Elden Ring and you’ll see the UFB simply doesn’t work, even with the PS5 upgrade). The scary part is that we can’t say for certain that the UFB-UP5 will even work in future fighting games like Street Fighter 6.
You would hope they enable PS4 specialist controller mode for people with UFB-based fightsticks, but that support is not guaranteed and I think it’s really irresponsible for Brook to claim they offer full PS5 support when they clearly don't. It’s still a good board, just know that your mileage may vary as we get deeper into the PS5 console generation.
In short, it's an great product, but it doesn't do what the manufacturer claims, so with that in mind, I'm giving the UFB + PS5 upgrade kit a 3 out of 5.
