Ouya - First Impressions
What is Ouya? Haven't you heard? Ouya is the revolution that's going to sweep the games industry, at least that's what its creators hope. Made famous by its incredibly successful Kickstarter, where it raised over $8.5 million, Ouya is an Android-based, open source games console based on an Nvidia Tegra 3 chip. Imagine if an Apple TV played games, as it could well do in future, and you've got the idea.
Ouya - Features
As noted just now, inside Ouya is an Nvidia Tegra 3 chip - the T33 variant with a 1.7GHz ARM A9 quad-core processor and 1GB of RAM. The wisened among you will know this is far from the bleeding edge of mobile processing, especially now we've seen the Sony Xperia Z Ultra and its Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 system on a chip perform so well in the 3DMark 11 benchmark. But it's good enough for the kind of games Ouya's intended for, and plays a large part in keeping Ouya's price down to palatable £99 with one controller included.
(It's worth noting, however, that it's $99 in the US. If Ouya wasn't a plucky start-up, we'd be seriously hacked-off, but we'll give it the benefit of doubt in this case.)
There's 8GB of internal storage, which should be ample for games and apps, but there's a USB port should you need to expand it or load external apps and games. There's 802.11n Wi-Fi built-in, though it only supports the 2.4GHz band, not the 5.0GHz band that's faster.
Joining the USB port at the rear is an Ethernet port, HDMI and Micro USB port - the latter of which is for connecting Ouya. All told it has everything it needs, and there's Bluetooth built-in for pairing with the wireless controller - we've yet to ascertain whether it's available for other purposes.
Ouya - Design
There's something almost iconic about Ouya's design. Perhaps it's the size, but it just looks damn cool. Its silvery metal body does no harm, while the four exposed screws at the top give it an industrial look and feel that hints at its homebrew-ish outlook. We've yet to try, but we assume unscrewing them will let would-be tinkerers get inside and start making alterations.
Ouya - Controller
The controller, by contrast, is conventional. Its only nod to modernity is the black segment in the middle, which acts as a touchpad. It's the least useful feature, however, since so far it seems limited to aiding navigation of touch-based apps rather than any interesting gameplay applications.
Besides this, the controller has four main face buttons, two analogue sticks (both clickable), a D-pad and four shoulder triggers - two basic ones, and two analogue ones. It's a wireless controller that uses Bluetooth, and it's powered - in true retro fashion - by two AA batteries that sit in each of the two handles.
On the whole the controller is good. The button layout is fine, and the analogue sticks have a decent level of resistance - we haven't had enough time to get a feel for their accuracy. There are a couple of stumbling points, however. The D-pad feels mushy and imprecise, while the left-hand analogue trigger on our controller has slightly sticky feel as if it's rubbing against its housing when pressed.
Ouya - Software and Setup
Setting up the Ouya is much like setting up any modern gadget: connect to Wi-Fi, setup account, setup payment details and... check for a software update. The latter part took a while, and the Wi-Fi connection mysteriously dropped once, but it's all straightforward enough.
The basic interface gives you three options: Play, Discover, Make and Manage. They're self-explanatory, and the menus and options are cheerily simple and intuitive. Our only complaint about the interface thus far is that there's no simple way to manage your download queue, which means you have to hunt through the menus to cancel any you've decided against.
The Discover section, where you download games and apps, is fairly rudimentary as well, but given the number doesn't top 200 yet that's not a big deal.
Ouya - Games, Apps and Performance
Which brings us onto the obvious topic of games. We'll get into this in more detail in our full review next week, but it doesn't take long to realise there's not much depth here at present. The highlights from what we've played are Canabalt HD and Vector, neither of which are exclusive to Ouya. The main highlight is the 3D conversion of Final Fantasy III, though the presence of numerous emulators might take the sheen off that a touch...
The most graphically intense game we've played thus far is Shadowgun, another Android refugee. Judged on Google Play ratings alone it's a popular game and it looks good; Shadowgun's graphics are sharp and detailed, even if it lacks the whizzier effects of consoles titles. But it's a very generic third-person shooter, the kind that's a novelty on a mobile or tablet but feels shallow when played with a controller on a 42-inch screen.
There aren't many non-game apps yet, but Plex (the media streaming app) is a highlight and there's all sorts of fun to be had side-loading Android apps.
First Impressions
So far Ouya seems much like everyone expected - an interesting curio that still has a long way to go before it feels like a serious gaming platform. Check back next week for a full review next week, but at first glance it's a fun toy for hackers and tinkerers rather than a mainstream console alternative.
Ouya too underpowered for you? Then read our Xbox One vs PS4 comparison .
