Infinitap Games

I got a Shield for free at GDC, and it's a pretty cool device. My wife has pretty much stolen it from me to play SNES ROMs. haha (Don't worry, I own the original cartridges!)

My last unboxing was a failure, but perhaps this time I have improved my unboxing skills:

You meant business with that unboxing, looks like the heavy duty scissors were busted out!

I've always been kinda confused by the Shield. As in I'm still not entirely sure what it IS. I've seen them set up in stores, but they always seem to be running some sort of demo thing that's not interactive, unless I wasn't smart enough to figure it out. But hey, it looks cool! Did you try streaming anything from your PC yet?

Also how do you like the Dpad? It looks a lot like the 360 controller's Dpad, and that's one of the weak points of the 360 in my experience. I don't use it a lot, but the Dpad is really nice for older games.

I think the problem is that it basically has no games. It uses standard Android and there aren't many games that support gamepads. I looked through all the stuff in the Tegra store, and the were maybe like 50 games and most of them lame.

It came with Sonic 4 Episode 2, which plays nicely on it. I bought the first one on XBLA (but the final boss was too frustrating, so I didn't get E2), but it is neat playing a X360 game on a handheld.

It is great for emulators. That's probably the main use case now, I think. I hope Ouya partners with them for Ouya Everywhere, so they can get some good gamepad style games for the system. Just in case, I already got Neverending Nightmares running on it, and it looks awesome.

The dpad isn't great. I don't hate it, but my wife does.

I have not used the in home streaming because it requires a 650 or higher, and I only have a 550. That is super lame because Steam in Home Streaming works on everything. I think Nvidia is just trying to push their expensive new cards... That seems like a dick move since it is obviously technically possible since Steam does it. It seems like a really cool use case, but I don't know when I'll get a new graphics card...

Yeah, I really like the idea and the screen in particular seems surprisingly high-res for such a small device, but games for Android were designed around touchscreen mechanics. So that's much more similar to, say, playing a game with a mouse than with a gamepad. That said, I guess this means people will be able to change that and develop for gamepads with Android now. But I'd assume that will be a bit of a problem still. Compare it to something like the Mega Drive 32X attachment: Automatically, as a developer, you limit yourself to an audience that not only owns the main device but also the addon: A small subset of a subset. The mobile market is huge, but how many people will actually get an attachment like the Shield for their Android and carry that around? Especially when you consider that one of the big advantages of mobile gaming is that you don't really need to carry anything extra around, you just use your phone or tablet that you had to have with you for other functions anyway.

I think the solution to that problem would be for Nvidia to get in on Ouya Everywhere. That would get them 739 gamepad games (and counting!).

Otherwise, I think the games on Google Play have to be designed with a touchscreen for regular Android devices and have alternate gamepad controls. Since as you pointed out, the control mechanisms are very different, I think you end up with the situation where one control scheme isn't as good of a fit. For games that are ports from other platforms like the traditional Sonic games or the GTA ports, the gamepad is a great fit. Virtual gamepads are a "fail" for game design in my opinion.

But most mobile games are designed for a touchscreen, so the gamepad is not a good fit. While the Shield has a touchscreen, It is tough to use because you have to hold the game unit, and it isn't exactly light. I think if you only hold the touchscreen part, it would be really awkward.