Ouya's Unsung Strength: Multiplayer For Parties 54
An anonymous reader writes: "Ouya, the Kickstarted, Android-based gaming console, had a much easier time selling people the idea of a mini-console than selling people on the console itself. Once people got over the excitement of seeing an indie console break into the market, they asked, 'Wait, why would I want to play Android games on my living room TV?' Almost a year has passed, and we're finally seeing an answer to that question: party gaming. It's one thing to play a console against your friends online, but when you get a bunch of people in the same room, most console games are too deep and complex to just pick up and play in a fun, semi-competitive way. The person who owns the fighting game is going to mop the floor with everyone else. Mobile games, on the other hand, are often incredibly simple, and Ouya forces every game to have a free trial, so you can easily weed out the ones that aren't good for groups. For example: 'In Hidden In Plain Sight, your character is one ninja lost in a sea of CPU-controlled ninjas with exactly the same texture. In the first few seconds, you have to walk left, right, up, down, anything that will let you understand which of the characters on the screen is yours. Once you've got that, you have to figure out your opponents. Any move that doesn't look like it's performed by the AI could give you away.'"
This exists (Score:1, Insightful)
it is called nintendo
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what in the fuck ? (Score:4, Insightful)
NES, SEGA, SNES -- simple, fun games that have been playable at parties for 30 odd years now.
Or the WII -- which is pretty much tailor made for this kind of stuff.
have we really gone full circle with "everything old, is new again"
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But this allows you to use a whole new device instead of the thing you already have!
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That is a load of crap. Each platform has games that both breed experts and are both so simple that they are playable at equal levels by all.
The summary talks about fighting games. K.O. Boxing for the NES comes to mind, but then so do any games which require any kind of skill like racing games such as Micro Machines on the SEGA. The Wii is far from free of this kind of problem too with one of the classic cases being Super Smash Bros. A great and fun game until you play it with someone who is actually good a
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mods console.
complains that mod broke functionality.
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Re: what in the fuck ? (Score:2)
\Forced Demos? Not anymore.... (Score:5, Informative)
Last I heard they don't have ot provide free demo's anymore either....
Reinventing the Wii (Score:4, Insightful)
'In Hidden In Plain Sight, your character is one ninja lost in a sea of CPU-controlled ninjas with exactly the same texture. In the first few seconds, you have to walk left, right, up, down, anything that will let you understand which of the characters on the screen is yours. Once you've got that, you have to figure out your opponents. Any move that doesn't look like is performed by the AI could give you away.'
Yeah, there's a Wii U party game disc that has about a dozen variations on this; along with a dozen variations on a dozen more mini-game archetypes...
http://www.nintendo.com/games/... [nintendo.com]
Not to rag on the Ouya, but if this is the Ouya's niche, they're taking on Nintendo on their home turf, without Mario, Metroid, Zelda, or Pokemon... not even a Pikman or Skylanders to back them up.
The Ouya's about half the price after you get some extra controllers relative to a WiiU with a few extra wiimotes. But the value proposition of the Wii U is far greater... not to mention unlike the other current gen systems... they kept back-compat with the original Wii.
Game prices between platforms (Score:2)
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How much does an OUYA game cost (the price of the main entitlement) compared to the average Wii U game?
Yeah, comparing Batman Arkam Asylum or Lego Lord of the Rings to "CandyCrush" clones isn't exactly that informative.
Silly party minigames vs silly party minigames? Well the WiiUpartyU is $30 bucks including a controller... so basically free assuming you want a controller, which if multiplayer in-room gaming is the goal... you do.
Still your point is made. I think a lot of WiiU's virtual console stuff is ove
About time (Score:2)
Maybe now tepples can stop rehashing the same point on every article in games.slashdot ;)
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I suspect he's the Anonymous reader.
Some people think split screen is obsolete (Score:5, Insightful)
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Let him talk. I like to get together with my friends to drink and hang out, and party multiplayer is a wonderful addition in that context.
Re: Some people think split screen is obsolete (Score:2)
Playing online with consoles requires a dedicated subscription. I never quite understood why I should pay to be allowed to use my internet connection, and I suppose a lot of other people like me cannot play online with their console.
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Playing online with consoles requires a dedicated subscription.
Well no, it didn't with the PS2 and PS3. And even now it doesn't for every game. With the PS4, F2P online games can be played without PS+. (Examples being DCUO and WarFrame) Also asynchronous games don't need it either, SCEfoo uses the example of a chess game that lets you "send turns" a la PBM/PBEM Chess for that.
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Well if you count number of hours then yes:
1) Playing single player/multiplayer with strangers
2) Playing multiplayer online with friends and headset
3) Actually getting together in front of the same screen
The value is pretty much inverse though, playing alone is for the game. Playing online with friends is mainly because they can do that while the kids are asleep, it's a good way to chat and have fun while doing things "together". Actually meeting is best, but happens quite rarely and when we have the chance
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But there is a persistent console fan on Slashdot
That would be me, I think.
who likes to tell me that local multiplayer with friends is obsolete.
It is, for most genre's. Oh sure, you might have some school age kids, college guys in a dorm room, or people pulling out a Wii at holiday get togethers...but haven't you noticed how much people are playing games online? Oh, that's right, you got your PS2 late in it's life so never did much online gaming.
He claims that the vast majority of gamers are adults,
They are, and have been since the PSone days. The average gamer is 31 years old. Didn't you read the ESA's 2014 report? Head to page 5.
http://www.theesa.com/facts/pd... [theesa.com]
Rememb
The gamer age trend is downward (Score:2)
Oh, that's right, you got your PS2 late in it's life so never did much online gaming.
If console games' online servers get taken down faster, how isn't that an advantage for PC games and their often player-run servers?
He claims that the vast majority of gamers are adults
They are, and have been since the PSone days. The average gamer is 31 years old. Didn't you read the ESA's 2014 report? Head to page 5.
That's interesting. In the 2011 version of the same ESA fact sheet, the average gamer was 35. I wonder what has been causing this downward trend. And that's still not a vast majority in the sense that the m
Super Bomberman (Score:2)
One of the best multiplayer games I've ever played.
SB II added way too many special bombs or whatever. Took away the 'simplicity' part of the game.
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Not normally a social gamer, but ... (Score:2)
I was in unusual circumstances a few years back, which made social gaming not only necessary but desirable. (Necessary in the respect that there were very few alternatives for socialization, since we were working in an isolated area.)
I learned an important lesson from that: accessible multiplayer games can be a lot of fun. The only requirement is that there are a bunch of people in a room, and that those people want to have a good time. Once the games become online multiplayer, the lack of face-to-face i
Re: Not normally a social gamer, but ... (Score:2)
Even for simple games, skilled players do all of the winning. I consistently win at Mario Party for example.
XBMC (Score:2)
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Or you could just get a Pi, install Raspbmc and use your TV remote via HDMI CEC.
Sure, if your TV supports CEC. Mine has the hardware but is configured not to use it, and nobody who knows Sharp TV hacking is forthcoming on the subject. I even sent messages to some of the people who sell TV hacking codes and they didn't bother to respond to let me know if they had a code for me.
Also plays 1080p without a hitch.
If you've got the 512MB model.
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Also plays 1080p without a hitch.
Latest stable of XBMC, Gotham, now works completely out of the box on Ouya. 1080p, AC3 and DTS decoding, AC3/DTS passthrough, everything. And as a bonus, you get a silky smooth XBMC interface experience unlike on the Pi.
You have a point about the CEC thing tho. Just get a remote with an IR learning function so you can use that to turn the TV on/off and control the volume on your receiver. Everything else will be used to control the Ouya.
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There are plenty of complex and deep console games, they just don't get the attention on Slashdot like the dudebro games like CoD and Battlefield-foo do.
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Okay, it looks like you like strategy games and mech games. do realize that just because the PC based strategy games aren't often on consoles, the consoles have their own games and you won't recognize the titles.Now you're not going to be able to find ports of most of those... so you'll have to settle for stuff like:
RTS: Head over to PSN (You do have the PS3 net-connected, right?) and pick up the PSone ports of the C&C games: C&C, C&C Red Alert, C&C Retaliation If they're not on PSN, you
They could advertise better (Score:3)
This is an Ouya avertisement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
It contains cartoon vomit and a cartoon man beating himself to death with his own spine while up to his wasit in his own vomit. They could probably advertise better.
I like the Ouya (Score:2)
Some of the games are great fun. Ballistic in particular. Not a lot of thinking involved, but fast, fun, and pretty.
Draw Rider is good on the Ouya as well. A couple of others come t mind.
My kids refuse to play it for the most part - they are too into their Xbox.
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