Ouya: Ooooh Yeah!

[Brad Leclerc]

So I was too skeptical about it actually turning into anything during the kickstarter and didn't end up backing it, but a few months later a friend of mine started working for them, and convinced me that it was actually turning out pretty interesting, so I ended up pre-ordering on Amazon.

 

Ends up that might have been the quickest way to go since it didn't suffer from the backer delays, and got the final hardware for the controller, avoiding a lot of the issues some people were (and are) hitting with the dev-kit version.

 

I'm pretty much in love with the damn thing at this point. It's right in my wheelhouse of indie/experimental stuff, and I love the whole dev process (actually learning some GameMaker and Unity stuff in prep for deciding on a tool to use for a game I'm pondering trying to make), so watching devs deal with this whole new platform, and seeing what some of them are coming up with (OMG U GUISE

), is pretty damn fun so far.

 

Along with the stuff made for Ouya, there's emulators for just about everything, runs XBMC or Plex like a dream, and even side-loading Onlive works fairly well (I played Splintercell:Conviction the other day and it was great, though it still suffered from typical Onlive "not quite awesome, but close"ness.

 

The only minor gripe with it in my mind so far is the controller. It isn't perfect by any means, but it's fine. For $50 a pop I'd have expected it to feel more solid and be a bit more comfortable to hold long-term. I'll probably wait for them to update it before getting more, especially since xbox 360 and ps3 controllers work perfectly fine with it and are more comfy for the moment. Not a deal breaker for me, but certainly understandable that people have been annoyed by them. Especially since some of been having issues with buttons sticking and such. Hasn't hit me personally, at least not yet, but understandably annoying.

 

All in all I'm totally on board the Ouya train, for better or worse. Seems to be going in the right direction with every update so far, and big things are still coming, like platform-wide leaderboards and other online focused features, so I'm hoping it's a fun ride. At this point though, it could crash and burn tomorrow and I'd still be pretty happy with what it can do already. Best $99 of gaming money I've spent in years. Hell pre-ordering SimCity was almost that much and look what happened there. lol. 

 

Totally worth it in my books. I just hope I'm not so alone in that sentiment that it fizzles before people give it a chance to win them over.

[melmer]

Tower fall looks like prime idle thumbs stream material

http://www.polygon.com/2013/7/29/4560650/cooperatives-towerfall

[Brad Leclerc]

Tower fall looks like prime idle thumbs stream material

http://www.polygon.com/2013/7/29/4560650/cooperatives-towerfall

 

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. It's got some pretty fun mechanics that I can foresee sparking some fun quips and convo from the Thumbs folk too.

[Brad Leclerc]

Oh, well excellent then. I'll go bother people there!

[Brad Leclerc]

So, now that's it's been out for the public for a bit more than a month, what are people thinking?

 

There's definitely a ways to go imo until I'd call it a "success" or whatever, but I'm totally in love with the thing. Controller isn't amazing, and the store needs work, but serious potential and enough awesome games to keep my attention for the moment. For the price, it's a damn fine bit of (most indie focused) gaming.

 

Almost sad that TowerFall is coming to PC now, since it could have been a nice draw for a while due to the fact that it's one of the best games in the last few years on any platform, but good that it'll get a much wider audience soon.

[Twig]

I just don't see the point. I have a PC, and these kinds of games are very welcome and numerous on PC. I have literally zero interest in this thing.

[Brad Leclerc]

That's fair. It really depends on how you play games, and how you want to play games. Much like something like a Roku box for TV... you can pretty much do everything in other ways, it just adds in own spin on it, and separates it from the need for a PC or other hardware.

 

The Ouya doesn't really do a lot that's fully unique, it just changes how you do it, and what you need to get in some gaming on a TV/Monitor without other hardware. Makes a good XBMC/etc box too. Whether an Ouya is useful or not for someone will depend a LOT on the sorts of games they like, and how they want to play them. Not a lot of great exclusives right now (with TowerFall and Polarity both coming to PC soon at least), so it's mostly about the form factor.

 

Getting some ACTUALLY exclusive games would be a good way to get people to look harder at an Ouya for sure. Right now there's not much reason anyone NEEDS an Ouya, it's just an interesting gizmo that may or may not fit into someone's life in a useful way.

[Lu]

Yea, I was totally on board with it when I first heard about it, but I got less and less enthused about it as time went on. That company also kept doing/saying things in incredibly misleading ways. I loved the idea, but now it just looks like a superfluous piece of hardware with a shitty controller. Plus, like Twig, my PC hooks to my TV, so there's zero point.

 

I read they gave people store credit for those who got their unit late, for an amount of... $13,37.............. NNNNnNNNnNHhhHHhHGggGGGg.

[SecretAsianMan]

I think it's interesting as a concept.  Like many things, I'm glad it exists but it's something I'll probably never get into.

[Ben X]

It was defiintely a great thread title joke worth making at least twice imo.

[Ben X]

Yeah, it's pretty dull, I think we should stop talking about it.

[Brad Leclerc]

I think it's to the point now where it'll have to be made at least 7 or 8 more times before it's funny again, but we'll get there!

[melmer]

[KitGonzo]

Well, I've already got an OnLive account so as a way of getting that on my TV (using my PS3 controller)... I can see the appeal. Just.

[feelthedarkness]

I got a chance to mess with one this weekend, and it's pretty neat. If you have 4+ friends around to play games with, Tower Fall is just spectacular, and totally worth buying an Ouya for. It's the most fun local competitive & co-op I've had in a game in a long time. 

[JonCole]

I got a chance to mess with one this weekend, and it's pretty neat. If you have 4+ friends around to play games with, Tower Fall is just spectacular, and totally worth buying an Ouya for. It's the most fun local competitive & co-op I've had in a game in a long time. 

 

Really? I mean, really? Because I know some people out there who are still like, "I'm still on the fence about the PS3, it may just not be worth it since I played most of the games this generation on the 360." If people can resist buying a piece of hardware when it has Uncharted, Infamous, LittleBigPlanet, Metal Gear Solid, Gran Turismo, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, I can't really believe that one game will convince anyone to buy anything worth more the price of the game itself.

[Tanukitsune]

Isn't Towerfall going to be released on iOS and PC later? 

 

I'm surprised nobody here has talked about this "delightful" OUYA commercial.

 

 

[feelthedarkness]

Really? I mean, really? Because I know some people out there who are still like, "I'm still on the fence about the PS3, it may just not be worth it since I played most of the games this generation on the 360." If people can resist buying a piece of hardware when it has Uncharted, Infamous, LittleBigPlanet, Metal Gear Solid, Gran Turismo, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, I can't really believe that one game will convince anyone to buy anything worth more the price of the game itself.

 

TowerFall is hysterically fun with 4 people. If we had this in college we would have worn it out, instead of Goldeneye. I don't think cinematic single player games are fair comparisons!

[gregbrown]

Unsurprisingly, the Ouya store is gross as hell.

http://www.merseyremakes.co.uk/gibber/2013/08/its-difficult-to-trust-the-ouya-store/

[JonCole]

TowerFall is hysterically fun with 4 people. If we had this in college we would have worn it out, instead of Goldeneye. I don't think cinematic single player games are fair comparisons!

 

LittleBigPlanet isn't a cinematic single-player game and it has a great co-op experience. I wasn't trying to make a "fair comparison" as much as I was incredulous that the Ouya is worth buying for a single game when many people won't buy a more prominent console despite numerous notable games.

[Nachimir]

Yes, there's going to be a PC version of Towerfall.

[feelthedarkness]

LittleBigPlanet isn't a cinematic single-player game and it has a great co-op experience. I wasn't trying to make a "fair comparison" as much as I was incredulous that the Ouya is worth buying for a single game when many people won't buy a more prominent console despite numerous notable games.

 

 

Hmm. I didn't intend to open a 3rd front in the console war, but I will concede that if you are a machineless person and looking to buy a sunsetting console, than the PS3 is a far better investment. Ironically, we used 3 PS3 controllers, because they sync with the lil' box. 

 

Cool news about the PC Port. How would one sync 4 controllers to that? 

[Thrik]

I don't know how far it can go, but I synced one PS3 controller with my PC via a cheap Bluetooth dongle. I'd be surprised if the same software doesn't allow for multiple controllers. Xbox 360 controllers are trivial to sync wirelessly if you use Microsoft's official receiver.

[youmeyou]

I use this bad boy with 4 wireless xbox pads to play 4 player PC games all the time.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Xbox-360-Wireless-Gaming-Receiver-Windows/dp/B000HZFCT2

[Zeusthecat]

YA!!!!

 

I couldn't resist reviving all three of these to ask two simple questions: What the fuck is going on with the Ouya? Did it fall off the face of the planet or did it ever find some kind of decent user base?