E3 2012: Power A MOGA (hands on)
With the MOGA (Mobile Gaming) unit the folks at Power A are trying to fix the biggest issue with mobile gaming, the lack of decent controls. While we all love playing simple games like Cut the Rope and Angry Birds, the lack of a deeper control system is holding back the development of deeper games for the platform.
The MOGA comes in two flavors, the standard MOGA and the MOGA Pro. The MOGA is meant to be the unit that you take with you on the road while the MOGA Pro is the larger unit that will give you a standard controller feel to your games.
Connecting your device to the MOGA is fairly simple as you flip out the large clip, insert your Android device, and then snug the clip so that it stays in place. The clip is large enough to handle larger devices like the Samsung Note but you're not going to be using the clip with a tablet anytime soon. Then you pair your device via Bluetooth and you're ready to game.
The MOGA device itself is nice and compact but big enough to be used by folks with bigger hands. I'm not sure I'd want to do long three to four hour gaming sessions on it but that's what the larger MOGA Pro is for. The thumbsticks are very reminiscent of the numb sticks from the PSP as it feels like they slide rather than move around a ball joint. It's not a bad thing just a bit of a different feel. The rest of the buttons are well laid out and very responsive and have the usual Power A quality feel to tem.
The only catch with the MOGA is that it does require the developers to add a bit of code which creates a bit of a chicken and the egg problem in that developers will only add the code when there are enough gamers to justify it and gamers will only buy it if there are a lot of gamers. It does sound like the Power A guys have a lot of interest from developers though as they hope to launch with a wide selection of games when it comes out this Holiday season.
The MOGA comes in two flavors, the standard MOGA and the MOGA Pro. The MOGA is meant to be the unit that you take with you on the road while the MOGA Pro is the larger unit that will give you a standard controller feel to your games.
Connecting your device to the MOGA is fairly simple as you flip out the large clip, insert your Android device, and then snug the clip so that it stays in place. The clip is large enough to handle larger devices like the Samsung Note but you're not going to be using the clip with a tablet anytime soon. Then you pair your device via Bluetooth and you're ready to game.
The MOGA device itself is nice and compact but big enough to be used by folks with bigger hands. I'm not sure I'd want to do long three to four hour gaming sessions on it but that's what the larger MOGA Pro is for. The thumbsticks are very reminiscent of the numb sticks from the PSP as it feels like they slide rather than move around a ball joint. It's not a bad thing just a bit of a different feel. The rest of the buttons are well laid out and very responsive and have the usual Power A quality feel to tem.
The only catch with the MOGA is that it does require the developers to add a bit of code which creates a bit of a chicken and the egg problem in that developers will only add the code when there are enough gamers to justify it and gamers will only buy it if there are a lot of gamers. It does sound like the Power A guys have a lot of interest from developers though as they hope to launch with a wide selection of games when it comes out this Holiday season.
