The first wave of Ouya consoles were sent out to Kickstarter campaign backers not too long ago, meaning that quite a few folks have already started to get their hands on their shiney new Android systems, with more to follow shortly through the rest of the month, and into June.
If the reviews are any indication, the Ouya is off to a rough start, but the company still has time to re-tool the console before it hits store shelves in June.
Polygon was the first to get a hands on with the console. Their first issue with the Ouya was the controller, which from the pictures we've all seen at this point, certainly looks familiar enough to most modern controllers (Ouya CEO Julie Uhrman dubbed it a "love letter to gamers"). However, as Polygon writes, "While the shape of the controller feels good in the hand, the wireless Bluetooth gamepad - extras sell separately for a not insignificant $49.99 - has a few design decisions that could be improved upon. The Ouya controller's shoulder buttons, for example, are constructed of a glossy black plastic that matches its top panel, but doesn't feel great to rest fingers upon. The controller's analog sticks have a good feel in their movement, with the right amount of tension - they're neither too loose nor too tight. The d-pad and face buttons, on the other hand, feel mushy, giving the sensation that they require too much force to move."
Engadget seconded Polygon's opinions, saying "Sticky buttons and gummy analog sticks are the sorts of things you wouldn't even tolerate on a cheap, third-party controller and so it's disappointing to find them here on the official unit."
Third time's the charm with TheVerge, who says that controller has a "cheap, breakable feel." Seems you get what you pay for, as the Ouya's cheap price is also a weakness.
Lag also seems to be an issue from all critics. According to Engadget, it wasn't "enough to be noticeable in casual games but those requiring more precise timing it can be a bit of a problem." Likewise from Polygon: "On the Ouya, I needed to react much earlier, knowing it would take an inordinate amount of time for me to get off the ground. This same delay applied to every game I tried, though its overall impact varied from title to title."
At the heart of any console is its library. When the console officially launches, there will be a shade over 100 games available in all, and with a host of developers having already pledged support for the Ouya, we can expect quite a few more on the way. The only trouble is rooting through all these titles to find something, anything, worth playing. The closest thing to an exclusive title the system has is "Final Fantasy III," which, while featuring revamped HD visuals, is still a 9 year old game in the US, and almost three times that in Japan. As TheVerge puts it, "This platform desperately needs a game like 'Grand Theft Auto,' or 'Shadowgun,' or 'Assassin's Creed,' or 'Bioshock'... or something. Thing is, you could plug your Android phone or tablet into an HDMI cable and play a bunch of those games on your TV, often with a controller. 'Shadowgun,' 'Grand Theft Auto,' 'Asphalt 7,' and a surprisingly large number of other high-quality games are available in the Play Store."
Engadget echos consumer concern when the Ouya was first announced. Who really wants to play the same sort of games you can play on our phone on your television? "There are quite a few titles here worth playing, but virtually all of them have been seen elsewhere in one form or another, which makes the initial offering a bit hard to get excited about. Additionally, the vast majority are what we'd broadly call "mobile" games: simple experiences and simple graphics that are fine for casual play, but lack the kind of immersion you might want when you get settled in at home on your couch."
There are some worthwhile titles according to Engage, like "Wizorbs," "The Ball," "Spyder Arcade," "Gun Slugs," "Puddle THD," and others. But barely a half dozen worthy games out of 100 is hardly a compliment to the emerging console.
There's at least emulators for fans that want to go retro, which Nintendo doesn't seem to mind. But at the same time, this experience is still old hat. People have been able to play NES and Genesis (or whatever your nostalgic tastes are) games to their hearts content, running whatever emulator on their computer for years now, and WITH their preferred controller. Doing so on the Ouya seems a bit convoluted according to TheVerge, as "hunting for ROMs and sideloading games isn't a particularly easy process either."
Price is also an issue. While all games offer free-to-play in some form or another, a demo for example, the prices jump all over the map. Some games are $0.99, others are $5.99, and in the case of "Final Fantasy III," as high as $15.99, although to be fair, Square Enix follows the same nutty pricing strategy on iOS.
The silver lining in the console seems to be the open endedness of it, by which I mean the hacking. However, this isn't for the novice. Considering I'm even less experienced than one, I'll leave it to TheVerge: "The Ouya may not currently do much, but it's capable of an awful lot...You can open up the console with an Allen wrench and four screws, and no corner of the OS is outside your reach. It's a remarkable developer plaything, a device with lots of potential and few true limitations. But all the things you can do are things no normal user will ever figure out how to do."
In the end, there's a lot of potential in this console, and obviously a market for it, but things are a bit bumpy. There's some streamlining the company has to do if they want their audience to rise above 60,000.
