^I use classic and I have a HRAP N I modded full Sanwa last summer (with octo and 2lb spring). But pad still isn't so bad, for me its easier to do Drive cancels on pad. Whenever I played SF on Sony pads, I would put light attacks on shoulders. But this might interfere with the drive attack (but I guess you can bind it to R2 too).
This is the best Street Fighter in a long while and I was burned after 5, and also 4 which I dropped after a few months of playing Vanilla.
The roster is perfect. Its not too big, which you shouldn't even want at launch, because there is a LOT to learn and remember. I am not entirely sold on the character designs, some of them kind of look mundane. When I saw Kimberly for the first time, I was thinking she was a player avatar. And I wouldn't expect her to have the Ninja style. But Capcom is trying to usher in a new generation of Street Fighter. Its like they want to be done with stereotypes. Some of these fighters look like they could be you and me, on the other hand Manon looks like Lady Gaga. But gameplay is what counts and you can dress up characters anyway (eventually). I think its excellent. I started with Marisa online, and I like her Pankration style. She hits hard. Manon is also great, she combines Judo with ballet and it works. Judo only wouldn't really work as they can't do fancy footwork, but the Ballet gives manon an excuse to attack gracefully. Kimberly is great, as I like Guy a lot. Jamie is drunken master which is insta cool. JP I didn't try yet, but he kinda looks like the FANG character (but infinitely better, I hated FANG).
I think its a smart move to launch with all the 8 original world warriors, they did this for SFIV also but not in V. And then its ballsy to put Deejay in the starting roster, and he's never looked and played better. I fucking love his theme too. Cammy has never been more fun too, and I dig her new look. Juri is another ballsy move I think, though her popularity grew after SSFIV I think. Ofcourse, they can put favourites like Akuma behind DLC again, but its doesn't matter to me, I like this current roster.
World Tour I can dig too. I am a sucker for Final Fight lore, and a cleaned up open world Metro City with iconic Mad Gear characters running around is pretty great to me. Its in some sense a sequel to Final Fight. SF fully embraces this universe here, though they already did since SFA. Your avatar can slot special moves from everyone, which is cool. You can do spinning bird kick as well as Blanka's roll for example.