The Ouya was an Android-based microconsole, famous for being financed by a record-breaking Kickstarter campaign, for crashing E3's parking lot on a guerrilla marketing campaign, and ultimately not living up to the hype.
It became quite controversial for the flawed launch: many backers did not receive their units in advance, early controllers had issues with lag (since fixed) and buttons getting stuck (requires a very simple hardware mod), poor wireless performance (the fix can be a setting on your router), and some games had performance issues for not being properly optimized for the Tegra 3 SoC (now there was no fix for that, it was a bit underpowered even back then).
On the other hand, it was dead-easy to port from Android (in fact you can just install most Android .apks without modding), so it quickly amassed a library of over a thousand titles — mostly mobile games, sure, but also media players and emulators for several classic systems (most up to PS1 run well, but N64 is very hit-and-miss). For a $99 machine, it was not a terrible deal. Then again, it was not a fantastic deal either.
So, well, it just didn't take off. Razer bought the company in July 2015 — not for the console, mind you, but for their online store, to be used on their own Forge TV console, and to be licensed to other companies' Android-based devices. Consequently, the Ouya system has been discontinued. At this point, it might be worth getting if you happen to find it dirt cheap in some clearance or garage sale. Otherwise, pass it up.
The list
| Box Art | Title | Genre | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Another World | Action-adventure | An Amiga classic, one of the most brutally hardcore games ever. An accident teleports a scientist to a world where everything is out to kill him. |
|
Beast Boxing Turbo | Fighting | It's like Punch-Out!, but with monsters. |
|
Chronoblade | Beat 'em up | A brawler with RPG elements, from the creator of Lemmings and GTA. |
|
Duck Game | Action/ Platformer/ Party | A quirky fast-paced multiplayer 2D versus platformer with ducks and guns, lots of guns. |
|
Final Fantasy III | RPG | Updated remake of the Famicom classic (not to be mistaken for the SNES game that is actually Final Fantasy VI). |
|
Flashout 3D | Racing | Futuristic racing/shooting a la Wipeout. |
|
Giana Sisters | Platformer | A damn good old school platformer, sequel to a classic European rule-63'ed Mario clone. |
|
Maldita Castilla | Platformer | Spanish homage to the Ghosts 'n Goblins series. So deliciously old-school, you could easily believe it's a late 1980s arcade under emulation (and the music was actually produced by emulating the YM2203 sound chip, which many arcade boards used back then). |
|
Order & Chaos Online | MMORPG | Gameloft's generic WoW. Quite impressive for the system. |
|
Ravensword Shadowlands | Action-RPG | Very reminescent of Elder Scrolls and Fable. |
|
Saturday Morning RPG | RPG | A comedy/nostalgia RPG inspired by 1980s cartoons and pop culture, with music by Vince DiCola (Transformers, Rocky IV). |
|
Shadowgun | TPS | A very badass sci-fi third person shooter. |
|
Sine Mora | Shooter | Beautiful shmup with time-manipulation elements and character designs bound to please the furfags. |
|
Sonic the Hedgehog 4 | Platformer | Does this even need much of a description? It's Sonic, it's 2D, it's good. Both episodes are available, as well as Sonic CD. |
|
Towerfall | Platformer | You and 3 other archers shoot arrows at each other in this fast paced multiplayer platformer, also has a 1-2 player campaign, tons of fun. |
|
Vendetta Online | MMORPG | A mix of online RPG and space simulator. Similar to EVE, but more streamlined and action-oriented. |
| Eighth Generation | ||
| Consoles | Ouya - Sony PlayStation 4 - Nintendo Switch - Nintendo Wii U - Microsoft Xbox One - Valve Steam Machine | |
| Handhelds | Nintendo 3DS - Sony PlayStation Vita | |