This week Amazon released its Roku-like media-streaming device, the Fire TV. According to Amazon, the Fire TV is more than just a streaming device, it’s also a (sort of) gaming console. I’ve been having a lot of problems with my Roku’s lately, and have been shopping around for alternative solutions, so I went ahead and picked up a Fire TV. As a streaming device, I love it. It’s snappy and responsive, and it looks great. But, what about games? I was not sold at all by this feature. I barely like playing the games on my Kindle Fire, I couldn’t really image how those games where going to translate on a bigger screen and while using a controller. Amazon describes the games as a “bonus,” which seems like rhetoric used to distance themselves if this is all a big flop. I didn’t buy the Fire TV for games, but, of course, it’s one of the first features I checked out when I got the device.
Some of the games on the Fire TV work by using the remote as the controller, much like the Roku, but some need an actual controller. The controller currently retails for $39.00, way too steep for me, as I do not intend to use this as a console. But, lucky for me (and many of you), by Xbox wired controller plugged right in and works great. I hear PS3 controllers will also work, but I didn’t test this. The controller works both as a controller within the games, but also as a remote, so I suppose once I lose the tiny remote that came with this thing, all will not be lost.
So, I went to fire up some games. Out of about thirty-six games that I already own on the Kindle Fire, only five showed up as available on the Fire TV: The Walking Dead, Rayman Fiesta Run, Reaper, Minecraft, and King Oddball. I tried Rayman Fiesta Run first (of course), and I enjoyed it more than I do on the Kindle Fire because I typically like to play with a controller above all else, but it’s not a console game (not that I was expecting it to be). It was fun though, and it looked great, much sharper than I was expecting. Reaper was fun for a bit. Much the same as with Rayman Fiesta Run: more fun than trying to play on the touch screen of the Kindle Fire. The Walking Dead looked fantastic and ran great. I originally played this on the Xbox 360, but picked it up for free for the Kindle a while back. The game also looked great, and I imagine were I to play it again, playing it on the Fire TV with a controller would be more enjoyable (for me) than playing it on the Kindle Fire.
Other games I was interested in trying on the Fire TV didn’t show up as available. For example, I have a Kindle version of Dead Space, but I find the mechanics of using a touchscreen to play to cumbersome. I was hoping to try it out with a controller, but no luck at this point. I’m sure they will keep adding games, but at this point, there’s not really that much to choose from. Amazon claims over a hundred games are currently available, but I found some of those to be games hidden-objects games that I would probably never be interested in playing on the big screen. I imagine like everything else Amazon does, the games catalog will begin to grow. They boast on the average price of the paid games is $1.85, which is really the only thing that would possibly get me to really try to play through a game on the Fire TV. If for example, I got a game like the Walking Dead for free or super cheap, I could be convinced to play it on the Fire TV, but overall, I’m not sure Android Tablet games played on a big screen with a controller is really my thing. It might work for some though, especially those looking for quick games to play and want a bigger, better experience than a small tablet can offer. But, in the end, I agree with Amazon, the games are a bonus, no more, no less at this point.
