VKB Gladiator NXT Evo HOSAS Review: How accessible are these sticks?

Alright, after a not insignificant number of hours logged with my hands wrapped around a pair of VKB Gladiator NXT Evo sticks - the ‘Space Combat’ edition - I’m finally ready to offer my thoughts on them.. Including how I think they fare on the accessibility spectrum.

I’m going to keep this relatively short, by the way: If you want a deep dive into these sticks themselves, there are plenty of folks out there who have reviewed them. We’re focusing mostly on the accessibility of the VKB Gladiator NXTs here.

Let’s get started with what I got, why, and how much I spent (which is important to note here).

My first HOSAS: VKB Gladiators and the Omni-Throttle

I’ve got a fair amount of history with flight sim controllers; I went from some of the old-school beige sticks, to Sidewinders, to the Thrustmaster T.16000m FCS before I bought these, and this is my first time making use of a HOSAS (Hands on Stick And Stick) rather than a HOTAS (Hands on Throttle And Stick).

Seeing as how I spend more time in space sims than flight sims now, a HOSAS made more sense: Especially VKB’s offering, given how customizable the omni-throttle is.. And I love it. Seriously. It’s also still perfectly usable for traditional flight sims: I just wanted to have the additional axis controls for things like Star Citizen.

The omni-throttle is limited to the premium stick, so in order to save a little money I went with the standard stick for my right hand flight stick. I didn’t need the extra buttons and hats in my case, and given the cost, saving money is a damned good thing.. Which leads me into my first gripe.

When you look at the VKB site, you think to yourself: “Ok, $135 USD for the stick, and $175 USD for the omni throttle. No big deal, I can handle that.”

Then you get the shipping price, and feel your sphincter puckering as if you were about to shove these things up your own ass.

Shipped via FedEx (DHL is an option, too, saving you just a couple bucks though), the pair cost $66. For just the single stick, shipping was $40.

This is shipping to the middle of the US, FYI.

Why is shipping so much? Well, these ship out directly from China. Thankfully, they arrived fast; I got mine in about 5 days, which is impressive.

Keep in mind that - if you order a bunch of stuff besides the sticks, such as mounts - you’ll probably end up hitting the threshold that triggers tariffs on your order. That means you’ll also have to pay import fees when they reach the US, and those won’t be reflected in your order costs.

Anyway, let’s finally talk about how usable and accessible the VKBs are.

How accessible are the VKB Gladiator NXT Evo HOSAS sticks?

I’ve been using these sticks pretty much daily for the past 2 weeks; given my holiday break time and my distinct lack of sleep, that means I’ve got a lot of hours logged with my hands wrapped around these big, beautiful controls.

Are they accessible? Yes and no.

For my configuration, I removed one of the springs in the omni-throttle so I could use it as a more traditional throttle and have it not return to center on the Y axis. That’s another great feature of these: You can modify them easily. They actually come with a lot of spare parts, springs, and are easily configurable and tweakable.. And you’ll want to tweak these, too.

They do require some assembly, but it’s not a hard process, and everything you need is included to put these together.

My only complaint here is that the twist grip tension can’t be adjusted: You can fine-tune the X & Y axis, but not the twist. You CAN, however, lock the twist in place, but that wasn’t as helpful to me here (as I use the twist on the omni-throttle to move along the Z-axis).

The ability to customize these sticks as much as you can definitely improves accessibility; I found my hands getting much less fatigued over more budget-oriented sticks, and the omni-throttle in particular feels fantastic and gives me an edge over traditional throttles in my opinion.

I will note: The base for these are not super grippy, so be prepared to either use some mounts, or something to help them stay fixed to the surface you’re placing them on (a good desk mat should be enough unless you’re going wild on the throttle).

Where these fail on the accessibility side is that some buttons may require some reach to tap, and the dual-stage trigger can be a little stiff to actuate (especially the rapid-fire trigger on the omni-throttle).. Still, these are better than most sticks.

The hat switches are pretty good, too: They have a responsive clickiness to them, and the analog hat on the omni throttle is extremely smooth. Actuating the center click is a little stiff, so if you are a bit wobbly in your dexterity you may end up accidentally triggering both the middle and a direction on hats.

Let’s wrap things up, though.

Are VKB flight sticks worth it?

If you’re a nerfed gamer like me, you’re going to be picky about your gaming interfaces.. And these are a decent middle ground. You could spend twice as much and get some REALLY high-end sticks (such as Virpil, but.. Money), but given the cost of healthcare in the US this is probably the top-end most of us will want to spend on a hobby.

If you are able to make use of traditional HOSAS or HOTAS setups, these should be easier. They won’t turn you into Maverick from Top Gun, but you’ll overall have better control when compared to even the Thrustmaster options out there.

The fact that they come with SO MANY CONTROL SURFACES - wheels, switches, buttons and more - as well as the ability to adjust the stick tensions means you’ll find yourself more capable than you would with other consumer-level interfaces.

It’s just a shame you get reamed so hard on shipping.