I'm not really a console gamer anymore. In my youth I undoubtedly put thousands of hours into my Sega Genesis and Sony Playstation, and as I've said before I've owned a console from every generation from Atari 2600 through now.
But most of my gaming gets done on a PC these days, and that's been true since Age of Empires and the original Warcraft. (I've actually moved past RTS games for the most part, but that's another post for another day.)
So Saturday's experience, where I played my Ouya until my thumbs blistered, is something of a throwback for me. And given all the flak that little console has gotten for no "killer" launch title, I was very happy to realized I had played away the better part of a day with just two games.
The first is Super Crate Box, a retro-style arcade game that is crazily addictive and really challenging. The gameplay is stupendously simple: collect as many crates as you can. Each crate contains a different weapon that you instantly equip. Baddies come at you fast and furiously, and one touch kills you dead.
For one thing, it's really hard. But you instantly respawn and start over after each death, so dying - which happens a lot - doesn't break your rhythm. Getting 10 crates and unlocking the next level gave such an incredible sense of accomplishment, I let out a whoop of excitement that scared the cat and puzzled the wife.
The graphics are decidedly 8-bit, but the soundtrack is brilliant and there are several little touches that show the game was well-crafted. Here is a gameplay trailer.
The second game was BombSquad, a Bomberman meets fighting game with lots of potential for multiplayer madness. I really enjoyed just playing against the AI, but had nobody around to play with (the cat said no, and my wife doesn't have opposable thumbs).
Again, gameplay is pretty simple. You throw bombs at each other. There is some hand to hand combat, and most of the games are played on platforms, so it's possible to knock opponents off. Still, the gameplay was positively addictive. The physics model is fantastic, the rag doll effects are very entertaining, and little things like the noises each character utters make the game very enjoyable. The graphics are crisp and attractive, and the soundtrack features rousing classical music like the William Tell Overture.
I played this for hours. If this game supported online multiplayer, it would be amazing. It featured a 1 hour free trial of full gameplay, and I quickly forked over my $4.99 after the demo was up.
It supports any number of controller formats, features a controller app for Android devices like phones or tablets, and I very much look forward to trying to blow up as many as eight of my friends.
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