The Ouya is a story of an ambitious idea made manifest. After a successful Kickstarter to raise funds, this Android-based game system has finally seen release beyond development and backer-only versions. This little box is just $99.99 (direct) and comes with everything you need to play games on your HDTV. Sadly, it's also presently an ungainly mess of a consumer product that requires more work than it's worth to get the most out of it.
Before I go into the Ouya itself, an important note: Ouya plans regular software updates that could alleviate most complaints about the system. If those updates successfully fix the problems, we will re-evaluate the Ouya to reflect that. This review is based on the Ouya as it was released to the public at launch, with firmware from June 24, 2013.
Design
The Ouya is a tiny, 3-inch cube with corners that round inward near the base. It has grey sides and a black top with a circular power button with a glowing Ouya logo in the middle, which is the only button and indicator light on the device. The back side of the cube holds an HDMI output, micro and standard USB ports, a power port, and an Ethernet port if you don't want to use the built-in Wi-Fi.
The controller looks like a fairly standard gamepad, with two analog sticks, a direction pad, and four face buttons laid out in an Xbox 360 controller figuration, along with four shoulder buttons and a single Ouya button that serves as the menu button. Two AA batteries fit into cavities in the grips, covered by plastic plates that are held in place on the gamepad with magnets. There are no Start or Select/Back buttons, which I missed in certain games. Four lights on the top edge of the gamepad show if the controller is on and connected, and if multiple controllers are connected, which player that controller is. The middle of the gamepad holds a black rectangle that serves as a touchpad for controlling an on-screen cursor.
The controller sounds nice on paper, but it's sadly close to being outright junk. The touchpad is the worst touchpad I've ever used. It's over-sensitive but unresponsive, making the cursor fly around the screen with only little concern for what my finger is doing. It doesn't click, and it takes patience to tap the touchpad just right to make it register as a tap and not a swipe. The face buttons are nice and responsive, but the shoulder buttons and direction pad feel wiggly, and the analog sticks are overly loose and prone to dead zones and snapback. Ouya is planning an update that will allow the analog stick to control the on-screen cursor instead of the touchpad, which could greatly improve Web browsing and other cursor-based software.
You can connect other Bluetooth controllers to the Ouya, but the support and compatibility for them is inconsistent. I could pair the Moga Pro to the Ouya as an HID device, but that disables the right analog stick and makes the left analog stick act like a digital direction pad. I couldn't connect it in its full, non-HID mode.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/8vkBqL_qpkc/0,2817,2420825,00.asp
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