So I just got Mortal Kombat for my 360 today and the D-Pad on the regular Xbox 360 controller is just not good for this game at all. So has anyone tried the new 360 controller (with the Transforming D-Pad)? What did you think of it?
It’s just as mushy. Get a fightstick if you’re serious.
I know this is a dumb question, but on the rare occasions I am forced to use a standard controller for fighting games (Note: I am in the fightstick club myself), I always used the analog stick, feeling it to be a closer analog (natch) to a stick. Why do people use those terrible D-pads? 
I guess they make double tapping easier.
I don’t know about other fighting games (I’ve been an MK man since I was 10), but the MK series doesn’t lend itself well to analog sticks. Too many special moves require back forward or forward back tapping, which doesn’t work well with a stick.
Fair enough. I come from the land of “Roll the stick from down to forward” which has always seemed way easier on an (analog) stick than a D-pad.
Never liked Mortal Kombat. 
Is there a new one that’s officially from Microsoft, then? I had to solve this problem by buying a third party wired 360 controller that inverted the D-Pad and left thumbstick positions.
Yeah, there’s a new one with a “transforming” D-pad and non-colored face buttons (not sure what they were thinking with that latter bit.). It’s unclear if it has totally supplanted the older model or not though.
It hasn’t. Regular Xbox 360 controllers are still plentiful. In fact, the transforming controller is officially called a “Special Edition,” so it’s harder to find than the regular controller.
Huh. I thought it was a limited production model that had subsequently gone “unlimited”.
I confess it is not a matter of deep concern for me, however.
Well limited is relative. There were plenty at Target, but none at Kmart.
Either way, I bought it and it works great with Mortal Kombat. Finish him!