It came, somewhat surprisingly, yesterday, the day of its official launch. So spent most of the evening tooling around with it.
Why was I surprised it came yesterday, you ask? Because I've been getting excited for my new toy over the last several weeks, and I've been following the Ouya saga somewhat closely, and there has been a lot of chatter about the problems with the console.
Not everyone who backed the little-box-that-should (my term) on Kickstarter had received their Ouya yet, and I hadn't received any notice whatsoever from DHL that my package had shipped, so why should I expect my Ouya to be waiting for me when I came home from work?
But there it was.
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| Talkin' bout a revolution? Perhaps... |
I didn't really know what to expect. In my research about the product I had purchased, the Ouya received mixed reviews at best. Much of the tech gadget media took the console to task for a bad interface, mediocre controller, and a lack of alluring launch titles for games. Internet trolls slammed the console as irrelevant before it even hit shelves, and unhappy backers who were expecting something more expressed disappointment.
So I had to ask myself: I'm into this thing for $119 all told including shipping, what is it that I want from the Ouya? It's pretty simple.
I love gaming, but for me it's a very small part of it. I want an entertainment set top box with an open operating system where thousands of creative developers are developing apps to make my living room experience better. One of my biggest frustrations with my XBOX 360 was the lack of apps for XBOX Live.
I think with the Ouya, that's what I'm going to get, and at $99 plus shipping, that's not bad.
I am excited to do some retro gaming with emulators. I've had a console every single generation, from Atari 2600 up to Xbox 360. The retro games are the best... I played Megaman 2 last night, and it was awesome.
I'm also looking forward to supporting some indie developers and discovering the weird stuff they come up with. I don't care about Call of Duty 11, or Madden 2273. If I want an immersive experience in gaming, I'll use my PC.
Let me address some of the gripes that I saw on various reviews and message boards.
Interface: I'm not really sure what all the fuss is about. Maybe I'm just very familiar with Android - I have an Android phone and tablet - but within an hour of turning the thing on, I had Dropbox and XBMC sideloaded, and I was sorting through internet video on my TV. Next I'll get the Amazon App Store, and see what's out there. I'm about a six out of 10 on the tech savvy scale, but this was easy, especially with the help of this crazy thing called "the Internet."
One thing I did find annoying was the lack of a clear way to back out of the current game or application. You basically just hit the Ouya button on the controller, and it zips you back to the main menu. It feels like your force stopping the current app. I'm sure this will get fixed as Ouya updates its interface.
Controller: I had absolutely no trouble with the touch pad on the controller, which was a huge gripe I read. The controller fits well in my rather large hands, it came with two Duracells (a little touch I appreciate), and I had no issues with buttons sticking. The only trouble I had was I had to lean forward on my couch to keep the wireless controller in range; I had the same problem with my XBOX.
Launch titles: The critics are right about this... there is no launch title that I decided I absolutely had to have. But it does have the most launch titles of any new console, ever. There were several that intrigue me, like ChronoBlade and Soul Fjord, both of which are still in development, and Organ Trail, a zombie apocalypse version of Oregon Trail.
But the complaints that Ouya has no go-to title the day it launches strike the same chord with me as the people who wanted their money back from Blizzard and EA when they couldn't play Diablo 3 or SimCity the day it came out. Did you really buy those games just for the experience of playing them on launch day, or is it something you're going to try to enjoy for dozens of hours over the next several months/years? Just because there isn't a knock-your-socks-off title the day of launch, so what? I'm in for the long hall.
Graphics: The box works with 1080p and 720p HD. The graphics in the ChronoBlade demo look fantastic. Some of the videos on XBMC look crappy... but that's because they're hosted in standard def, not because of something the Ouya is doing. Are they going to be as pretty as the Playstation 4 or XBOX One? Obviously not. But they're sufficient, and at the price, they're darn good.
Here is my feeling so far. It's an unfinished product... but I don't mean that in a bad way. Ouya's kickstarter went live on July 10, 2012. This thing is not even a year old, conceptually. They recognized there was a demand, built the thing, and got it shipped. It sold out at all of its retail locations on day one.
Now people in the Android ecosystem have a platform to build on that's going to stay in my living room, displayed on my HD TV. That makes it different from my phone and tablet, and that means devs are going to have to figure out what works and what doesn't in that paradigm. I'm looking forward to taking that journey along with them.
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