As you know, Roku launched a new line of digital media streamers and the top tier Roku 2 XS brings casual gaming to the platform. Over on the Roku forums, some questions have arisen regarding gameplay and remote control. The three minute video above discusses the Roku RF Bluetooth gaming remote, featuring an accelerometer and gyroscope to enable “motion” control. Think the original Nintendo Wii remote, minus that sensor bar. Angry Birds is the first premium game to take advantage of this technology and Roku kindly bundles the game for free.
I can’t say I’m the biggest Angry Birds fan, nor can I say I’ve been a fan of motion gaming. However, Angry Birds on Roku seems to work reasonably well and looks comparable to its mobile brethren. At first, I thought something was wonky with the zoom feature. However, I later realized it’s not a rendering thing but, rather, is how Angry Birds manges to keep the foreground and background in perspective while keeping the ground fixed at the bottom of the screen. Of course, launching the birds is the more critical gameplay element and it’s intuitive and responsive. To launch those birds at their piggy targets, hold down the OK button and physically manipulate the remote to set the projectile’s direction… then let go of the OK button to let ’em rip. If we’re nit picking, the little white dots representing trajectory could be larger, but otherwise the game is the game.
Currently, Angry Birds is the only available motion control title… but Roku hopes to have “dramatically” more games available by Christmas, offered “in the $5 range.”