So Many Me (Ouya)

There have been a lot of new releases on the Ouya lately and one of them is the platformer "So Many Me." There's no demo for the game on the Ouya  (which is kind of strange) and I'm not about to spend $10 on a game that I have never heard of even if I do want to support the system and the developers.

Stranger more, while installing some Chrome extensions on the same day I saw that there was a Demo as an app in Chrome. So I turned it on for about 20 minutes.

You jump around as this little pea with legs activating buttons and using teleporters. You eventually bump into more of....you but with different personalities. I thought this was interesting because I was at one point writing a short story about a guy with split personalities that actually manifest into alternate versions of himself - erm, this game doesn't really go into that in the demo but at least you can use those little guys to do things like help you across large gaps or leave them behind to press buttons. Oh and they do have different personalities when they say something.

Apparently there are going to be different "forms" that you can take on during the game to through different barriers.  The game is definitely colourful and cute, perhaps a little too cute even for me.

Our little hero pea has to save a princess. Surprising.

There was a boss at the end of the demo that looked like something out of Plants vs. Zombies and as the demo came to an end I could tell that this wasn't a game for me. I have nothing really too negative to say about So Many Me, it had some funny parts in the demo but overall had that feel of 'seen-it-before' - maybe that's just something that's going to happen to me a lot now after 20+ years of gaming.

I think if my daughter was a little older I would get this game for her. It's rooted in some good gameplay mechanics even if they are executed a little too simply. Steam actually suggests that if you like 'So Many Me' then you might like 'Battleblock Theater' but I actually didn't really like that much either (bought it on the Xbox) so I guess that makes sense. There are quite a few people recommending it on Steam, so again, I guess it's just not my genre. I'd rather go back and play Super Meat Boy, Guacamelee, Braid or Mark of the Ninja again....

I hope it does well on the Ouya but I also hope that Extend Interactive doesn't blame the console for lack of sales.

Knightmare Tower (Ouya/iOS/Android)

The first thing that I played on my Ouya was Knightmare Tower. I had already played Burrito Bison on my iphone and found it funny and challenging and hard to put down. I played the free version for a few hours and already had upgraded my knight and rocket as far as they could go - then I decided I was having lots of fun and bought it. Thank you Juicy Beast.

The first couple blast-offs are short lived, but slowly you accumulate enough gold to make some serious upgades to your knight, which leads to longer flight time, which leads to more money which leads to more upgrades...(and repeat). Oh and there are a bunch of Princesses to save, not just one. Each Princess that you save will give you a chance to get an item during a run, nice little bonus. There are also potions that you can upgrade with gold and challenges that you can skip with gold (thanks for that by the way, that made the game much more enjoyable - no sarcasm). It still feels a lot like a mobile port, which I am sure it is, although the iOS version came out later and a two player mode would have really made it a substantial game, but nothing beats being completely in the zone and just smashing and slashing enemies in half or popping bubbles filled with gold and hearts - it just feels very "classic" somehow.

I love colourful games right now. The simplicity of the concept really sucks you in, the art-style is typical of Juicy Beast : great. I also really enjoy reliving that feeling that my first Nintendo games gave me, I don't really understand how to explain that, maybe it's an obsessive drive of sorts, but this game seemed to give me that feeling. It could almost be a Mario game, he would just be jumping on flying Goombas & Koopas and he would make that funny spread eagle death jump when he hits the lava....yeah it would totally work. I'm loving Knightmare Tower.

ps. I have read that it's perfect on the iPhone. If you've got it let me know.

Ouya : First Impressions

Ever since I first announced that I had finally received my OUYA friends have been asking me what it's like. So here we go. 

First of all, I think that explaining my expectations will help to understand my opinion of the console. OUYA was meant as a low cost alternative to the big consoles,  as a console for gamers by gamers, a place for indie games, a return to multiplayer-livingroom gaming, a device you can experiment with, open up and develop for. Paying into this idea (for me) was a protest against the big consoles, in my case the Xbox 360 and trying to wake them up to the fact that gamers have money that they will spend elsewhere if they aren't respected and cared for. (I'll rant about Xbox and their Xbox Live service another day) I just mention all this because I have read comments about the OUYA and it is constantly compared to the Xbox or PS3 - and I think that they misunderstood the concept of the OUYA and had unfair expectations.

The console itself is a small box no bigger than a coffee mug. A coffee mug! There is no external power source and sitting idle it doesn't make a sound, when the fan is on it's a quiet whir. The biggest complaint gamers had as the OUYA was being rolled out was the controller and perhaps there are some bits that I think are a bit flimsy; the triggers jiggle, the d-pad is a little sharp, the U-button got stuck on me twice - BUT when I hold my 70€-Halo Reach limited edition Xbox 360 controller with a chatpad and rechargable battery pack in my hands, yeah it feels great, but it costs 70% of the whole OUYA console. Oh, and I can use my fancy Xbox controller on my OUYA by the way (you can too, it's just got to have a cable).

Booting up the OUYA for the first time I was a little miffed when it asked me for credit card information straight away. I would have liked to be given the option of Paypal or something similar because in Europe not everyone has an actual credit card. Sofware-wise it's got a very clean interface, but I don't understand why I can't organize my game library into categories (such as 'purchased' and 'unpurchased' - not a word, whatever) - and that there is no overview of a download queue, you can't see how much a game costs until you click "buy" - of course there is a confirmation, but still. There's also no child-lock to make sure your kids to go buying up the whole store - but I am sure these things will be changed in the future as it progresses.

Although they guys and gals at OUYA announced that they had more games at the release of the console than any console previously, you have to expect that most of those games aren't going to be great. This comes hand in hand with the publishing freedoms that OUYA has allowed. Think for a moment of the indie games on XBL (after all these years) and we can agree that 89% is crap and I believe publishing is more restrictive and development is definitely more difficult - than on the OUYA. So you have to expect more of the same, at least at the beginning. The games (and apps) will come, as development comes - remember the developers have only had the consoles in their hands for about 8 months.

Games are free to try on the OUYA. Developers make their own restrictions as to what this means: either you can play a certain amount of time per day, or you have a demo-like, or you play to a certain level and then must pay to continue. Remember that we are talking about Android games that cost around $2.99. Developers or journalists complaining that games can't or aren't making money on the OUYA are also being unfair, the console isn't even on shelves in alot of places, definitely not here in Germany, and word just hasn't gotten out yet. I think the users that bought the console are reluctant to buy games so far because they want to see where the OUYA is going first, but I also think that once some original quality games get to the OUYA you will see an increase in sales. Some of the games on the OUYA I haven't bought because I have already played them on PC or on iOS and I see no reason buying them again.

OUYA as a company has some growing pains, but they are doing some things right. They gave their early backers $13.37 to spend on games, to hopefully smooth over any hard feelings about late consoles people might have had. I commend them for this, it was probably adds up to about $800.000 they just gave to people. Sure this means they are giving money to gamers to buy games from their store, but they are getting the ball rolling and I think it's smart. They've also started a "Free the Games Fund" to match funding for games that agree to OUYA exclusivity for a time.

All in all I am satisfied with the console (although I should say I am still waiting for my second controller) - I think they delivered what they said they would and if nothing else comes out of this console other than Sony and Microsoft changing their stances when it comes to indie games on their next-gen consoles then I think that it was already worth it.