First reviewers smash the Ouya

The Ouya looks like it might turn out to be the little android console that could not, as the first reviews of the system – that will apparently receive yearly hardware updates – are not good at all, with one reviewer giving it a 3/10.

Complaints range from the controller hardware being sticky and regularly lagging behind player inputs, to missing features in the Android 4.1 operating system, but the biggest problem with the Ouya is the game library: there's only 104 available games at the moment, most of them very similar to simple social networking and smartphone offerings. Part of the reasoning for this is that Ouya has its own store, as opposed to using Google Play's already giant library of titles.

Hope you guys all washed your hands…

The reviewers also take note of the fact that games can be downloaded for free before you buy them, but it's apparently never clear when a game will ultimately remain free or if it will cost a premium over £10. This often results in annoying popups and prompts in-game.

The most damning bit of criticism suggests that potential buyers should consider this version of the Ouya a beta console. Ouch.

It's not all doom and gloom though, as The Verge did praise the hackability of the console, with the reviewer able to get several mainstream apps like Netflix and Plex working on the little machine, as well as emulating Mario Kart 64. Unfortunately he said the process was far from easy and beyond the capabilities of most backers who will just want to sit down and play.

KitGuru Says: Not a good initial outing the Ouya. This isn't going to encourage sales of the console, which GAME  just put up for pre-order in the UK, at all.

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