OUYA Review - More Whimper Than Bang

Nasrin

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May 30, 2011
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OUYA Review - More Whimper Than Bang

An unfulfilled promise of revolution.

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PoolCleaningRobot

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That's a shame. I guess we really shouldn't have expected much for $99. An android stick pc with a duel core processor runs between $50 and $80 and a good android controller costs about $50 so I guess they had to cut corners somewhere. I still hope gaming on Android phones, tablets, and mini pc's takes off but I guess I'll hold out for official Google support for gaming or something like an Xperia Play 2. Still, the Ouya is the only Android pc I know of that has a terga processor in it, so maybe its still worth an investment as a small computer (not for me though)
 

4RM3D

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TizzytheTormentor said:
I still stand by the fact that if the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy comes out for it, I will buy an OUYA, because Ace Attorney on the big screen? Come on people!
I should note that is already possible with the iPhone/iPad/iPod. The game has been released on iOS and you can stream it to your TV.

You could probably achieve the same thing with an Android Phone with a little tweaking, I think.

The OUYA might make it easier, but it's not necessary.
 

Xennon

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Gonna post this here as well as the Facebook comments section.

Honestly, I find this review poor. Really hasn't done much research.

- Shrink wrap left on the controller? Really? Took me all of a minute to get it all off.
- Not sure why you were expecting there to be a toolset like LBP. That was never promised or planned. An SDK for developers to get their games on the platform was all that was expected.
- Agree that the library of games isn't great, but there are some decent ones. That is why the press playlists are all the same, because they all found the same good games.
- Not tried the wireless range, but I wired it straight away. Everyone I know who is serious about gaming has their machines wired. I don't know anyone who stored their Ethernet cables years ago :-/
- This review misses 2 real strong points of the system. a) The emulators. You can side load emulators for practically every old system. b) A media player. Install XBMC on this thing and it becomes an excellent and very inexpensive media player.
- The main menu seemed perfectly descriptive to me.
- Side loading apps gives you access to lots of additional content.
- The apps, like flixter, give access to additional movies and other items of functionality.

The OUYA is by no means perfect, but for $100 it is an excellent piece of kit and as the game library starts to grow it should get better and better. Frankly, if all it did was run XBMC as well as it does, I'd be happy with it! :)
 

hentropy

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Yeah I never had much big expectations for it, at least no right out of the gate. It seems like it will only be good for playing games that have already been released in one form or another. I just don't have much confidence that there will be developers out there who make quality games specifically for the Ouya. Putting the payment wall up there before you can play anything free or otherwise was also a bad decision, as someone who is very well acquainted with Apple products and iTunes, as well as what people complain about regarding iTunes.

TizzytheTormentor said:
I still stand by the fact that if the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy comes out for it, I will buy an OUYA, because Ace Attorney on the big screen? Come on people!
The HDness of Ace Attorney really does make it pretty awesome, especially if you haven't played the series in a while and don't distinctly remember the twists and turns. I can't imagine they won't release it for Android at some point. I play it on a tablet, but I can't imagine it would be that much more mind-blowing on the big screen, and it's not exactly complex in terms of operations, so it might be a but annoying to use a controller with it. Still, it speaks to the earlier point that the only thing the Kickstarter darling is good for at this point is playing stuff that we've already played.
 

Saxnot

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Not a very good review. let me explain in a long-winded post.

1. Cables instead of wireless: many people use cables to connect to their internet. I don't know what the statistics are, but it's certainly not an insignificant group. Your criticism isnt invalid, but it's worded in such a way that you seem to think people using ethernet are some small obscure subset and the developers were stupid to think many people would be using them.

2. Entering your credit card information: A nitpick, quite frankly. Whether you do this when first starting it up or when first buying a game, you'll still have to do it within hours of getting the thing. I assume you're not buying an android console just to play FTP games.

3. Making games: did the ouya developers ever promise to provide game developing tools? Was anyone expecting them to have some sort of game making software included? I don't understand how you got the idea that this would be like little big planet. they promised you could publish on your console, and you can.

4. Shrinkwrap hard to peel/categories being too artsy: I'm sorry, what? Is this still professional consumer advice or just everything that bugged you about the ouya? Your annoyance at category names and inability to peel off shrikwrap hardly seem like valid critisism.

The points you made that are actually relevant, like games being hard to find and the controller being uncomfortable get much less space in the article than personal annoyances and nitpicks, and positive points are relegated to the introduction and conclusion. The positive points you do mention have to do with it being small and affordable, and don't, in fact mention the actual functionality of the thing, like whether and what the advantages of android games on a big screen in HD are. You wrote a review of a gaming console without discussing how it runs games. This feels less like a proper review and more like an angry internet rant.
 

GoaThief

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Feb 2, 2012
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The review seems a little off, second article today on the Escapist I've found to be very substandard with strong hints of an underlying agenda.

A lack of little big planet style app? Shrink wrap? Ethernet connections being redundant in this day and age? Even the highly regarded Edge magazine made a reference to plugging in an ethernet cable to the Xbone in their latest issue. Very, very poor show Escapist.
 

Pedro The Hutt

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TizzytheTormentor said:
I still stand by the fact that if the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy comes out for it, I will buy an OUYA, because Ace Attorney on the big screen? Come on people!
Didn't they already have a Wii release? Where you can dramatically point the Wiimote forward to OBJECT to things?
 

PlasticTree

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May 17, 2009
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Pedro The Hutt said:
TizzytheTormentor said:
I still stand by the fact that if the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy comes out for it, I will buy an OUYA, because Ace Attorney on the big screen? Come on people!
Didn't they already have a Wii release? Where you can dramatically point the Wiimote forward to OBJECT to things?
I'm not sure about that, but what I do know that at least one of the older games is available in the virtual console.
 
Jun 20, 2013
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I'm still going to buy one because of how much I support the idea. If digital distribution is the future of software, then we need open platforms. We really need them. Everything both being closed off and digital is going to be a nightmare for everyone involved.
See: Xbox One.
 

Vivi22

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Aug 22, 2010
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If you were hoping this would be like Little Big Planet, offering tools to create your own game, you'll be disappointed. You're simply given an avenue to upload an already designed and programmed game, which doesn't offer incentive to regular consumers.
Absolutely no one anywhere was expecting that so I fail to see why it's even being brought up. Even acknowledging that the general consensus on the Ouya is that the first release is far from perfect (but considering yearly updates to the hardware are the plan, I'd expect that to change), some of the stuff in this review is questionable. At best comments like these show an utter lack of research making me call the qualification of the reviewer into question. At worst it may demonstrate some intentional bias, but I'll give the benefit of the doubt and attribute criticism's like this to simple ignorance rather than malice.

Although we don't recommend shaking it intentionally, the OUYA is actually durable enough to be jostled during gameplay without crashing your game.
Considering there are no actual moving parts the only thing I can think is "duh."
 

Vivi22

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Capitano Segnaposto said:
There is still the issue of, "I already can play all these games as is on my iPhone/DS/[Insert Gaming System Here]. There is nothing worthwhile in buying this thing. Even as a collector, I don't think it is worth anything to even make the minuscule amount of space it would take to put it in my collection.
It's a brand new Android console offering a controller, en masse, for the first time to the platform. Of course there's not much more than some quick ports and the like. Give it some time and I'd imagine we'll see some developers putting out games meant to use the controller that you can't do on things like the iPad.

If this were the PS4, Wii U, or Xbone, would you take a look at the launch lineup only and write them off for good? Because launch lineups always suck. Always. I think it's actually a rule to be honest.
 

Madmanonfire

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Jul 24, 2009
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PlasticTree said:
Pedro The Hutt said:
TizzytheTormentor said:
I still stand by the fact that if the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy comes out for it, I will buy an OUYA, because Ace Attorney on the big screen? Come on people!
Didn't they already have a Wii release? Where you can dramatically point the Wiimote forward to OBJECT to things?
I'm not sure about that, but what I do know that at least one of the older games is available in the virtual console.
All three games of the trilogy are on Wii's virtual console. Yes, you can point dramatically with the Wiimote to object. And it's better, IMO, than the buggy HD trilogy version.
 

Aardvaarkman

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Jul 14, 2011
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Why did anybody think Android was a suitable OS for a game console? That's a mind-boggling decision.
 

Zombie_Moogle

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Saxnot said:
Xennon said:
Wow, looks like you guys beat me to the punch

I've been pretty thrilled with my Ouya. Spent the first night with it playing Towerfall for hours with friends
Love the side-loading & dev support
Personally, I've had no problem with the wireless, but then again I'm an offline gaming kinda guy (albeit one that doesn't mind digital distribution]

Both of these guys brought it up in their posts, but this bares a lot of repeating: Who exactly thought this was going to be a Little Big Planet box? Not gonna rail on the writer (much) because maybe people they knew had this impression (somehow) & they're just dispelling the notion, but again, I have no clue why anyone would have that impression.

I'll be back with more, once I hammer out the setup of a good VNC so I can play Skyrim on my Ouya at full spec... just cuz ;)
 

elvor0

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Sep 8, 2008
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The review itself has some pretty poor points, which a few people have already said so I won't elaborate.

On the console itself, I'm not...really surprised. I mean seriously, anyone who thought this was going to be the next big thing are likely the same people who thought gaming was going to move to purely Zynga-esque facebook/mobile gaming. ie: Totally fucking clueless. I remember the newspapers hyping it as something sure to put a dent in MS, Sony and Nintendos user base. Even if you didn't think it was going to be a big thing, it's an entirely superfluous investment in both R&D and cash. I'm still not sure why it got funded in the first place.

Anyone who wants to play android games or mobile games, you know what they already have? A fucking smartphone. What can you plug that into? Your TV. Heck I can already get angry birds on my xbox if for some strange reason I feel like playing it on my TV, god knows why I'd want to stick games designed for a tiny screen on my huge HDTV in the first place, but I see no reason why I'd want to spend $100 dollars on console that plays what are essentially browser games. Yeah sure the games are fun, but they're /mobile/ based games for a reason.

That may come off as overly aggressive towards the thing, it's just more I'm confused as to why the thing /got/ so heavily funded and hyped as it did.

I am aware of the goodness of an open source console, I really am, but I feel like this was a wasted opportunity, why bother with something like this when really what needs to happen is a beefy console that can actually compete with the big boys, baby steps and all, but this feels like more of a stumble than a step.
 

Midniqht

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Jul 10, 2009
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This doesn't surprise me in the slightest. The more I heard about the Ouya, the less interested I became.