Adapting Android To Support Shield's Input
The Shield is a portable console, through and through. It doesn’t make phone calls, and it doesn’t have a camera. In its quest to game well, the Shield exposes a native Android operating environment and a mechanism for streaming Steam-based games through your PC. I’ll get into that technology shortly. First, Android.
I consider myself a PC gamer, and I don’t really have much attraction to gaming on anything other than my main workstation. So, we’re co-authoring today’s review, bringing in Marcus Yam, our executive news editor. Unlike your sedentary editor-in-chief, Marcus does a fair bit of traveling, owns his share of handhelds, and likes to burn up time gaming on the road. He’s going to give us the authoritative breakdown of gaming on Shield—at least in its native Android mode. Take it away, Marcus.
Gaming On A “Clean” Version Of Android
Fans of stock Android will find a lot to like about the ROM that Nvidia ships with Shield. It's basically the pure Google experience with specific customizations for the hardware, such as controller settings.
As Chris mentioned, it's a breath of fresh air for anyone used to vendor-tweaked versions of Android, with a preference for something closer to a Nexus device. The lack of an Android skin or carrier bloat could be mutually beneficial for both the user and Nvidia's Shield development team. In theory, the closer the ROM is to AOSP (Android Open Source Project), the more quickly it can follow Google's releases. In the time that we were testing the Shield, a handful of updates were sent out over-the-air showing continual improvements. Hopefully this is indicative of the dedication to updates for those who end up investing $300 in this device.
With that said, Shield does come with some software out of the box, but none of it is superfluous. Nvidia's preloads its TegraZone app, a Shield-specific version of the website by the same name. It includes Nvidia's curated selection of games enhanced for Tegra (or even optimized for Shield’s controls). The TegraZone app is also your gateway into the PC streaming functionality.
Along with a "Shield Help" app that’s little more than a quick-start guide, Nvidia also bundles a Tegra HD version of Sonic 4 Episode II and Expendable: Rearmed, priced on the Google Play store at $4.99 and $2.99, respectively. These pre-loaded apps are stored in the system folder, so you won't lose them, even after a factory reset.
Pack-in games haven't been a thing in console gaming since the 16-bit era, but it's easy to see why Nvidia chose the two titles it did. For one, Sonic the Hedgehog is a classic with very broad appeal. It's a bright, colorful platformer that wouldn't even be out of place on Xbox Live Arcade. As for Expendable: Rearmed, it's a remake of a cross-platform shooter that was first released for Windows in 1998 and later made its way on the Dreamcast and PlayStation. If your memory is good, you may recall this game when it was bundled with Matrox’s Millennium G400 to show off the card's DirectX 6 environment-mapped bump mapping.
Beyond the two pack-in titles, Nvidia has a list of 131 games that compatible with Shield’s physical controls, some also featuring Tegra enhancements.
Eight Tegra-enhanced titles are free:
- Auralux
- Beach Buggy Blitz
- Dead Trigger
- Shadowgun: Deadzone
- Skiing Fred
- SoulCraft THD
- The Conduit HD
- Zen Pinball THD
There are 27 paid Tegra-enhanced/Shield Store games:
- ARMA Tactics
- AVP Evolution
- Bard’s Tale
- Blood Sword
- Burn Zombie Burn THD
- Choplifter
- Chucks Challenge
- Expendable: Rearmed
- Grand Theft Auto III
- Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
- Great Battles Medieval
- Hamilton’s Great Adventure THD
- Hockey Nations 2011 THD
- Jett Tailfin Racers THD
- Max Payne Mobile
- Puddle THD
- Real Boxing
- Renaissance Blood THD
- Riptide GP
- Riptide GP2
- Shadowgun THD
- Shine Runner
- Sonic 4, Episode II
- Space Ark
- Star Wars: Pinball
- Tainted Keep
- Zombie Driver THD
The list grows considerably when you include games that support the physical controls. There are 45 free titles at this moment:
- Alpha Wave Demo
- Andor’s Trail
- Avenger
- Bike Mania Moto Free – Racing
- Chrono & Cash Free
- Cordy
- Cordy 2
- Critter Rollers
- Cup! Cup! Golf 3D
- DB42 Lite Version
- Diversion
- Doptrix
- Drag Racing
- Dragon, Fly! Free
- Escape: The Room
- Eternity Warriors 2
- EVAC (HD)
- Forsaken Planet
- Gachinko Football: Free Kick
- Gachinko Tennis
- Gachinko Wars
- GraviTire 3D
- Guns’n’Glory Free
- Gunslugs Free
- Happy Vikings Free
- Helium Boy Demo
- INC: The Beginning Free
- Inertia: Escape Velocity LiteHD
- Killdroid Lite
- Legends of Yore
- Meganoid Free
- Micronytes Free
- Mini Army – Free
- Neoteria Free
- Pixeline Jungle Treasure Free
- Sonic CD Lite
- SoulCraft THD
- Speedball 2 Evolution Free
- Stardash Free
- Tiny Little Racing 2
- Tiny Little Racing Demo
- Virtua Tennis Challenge Free
- Zenonia 2 Free
- Zenonia 3
- Zenonia Lite
There are 51 paid apps that support the controller, but aren't Tegra-enhanced. Also, a decent number on this list are full versions from the list above, yielding duplicates.
- Another World
- Bean's Quest
- Beyond Ynth HD
- Boulder Dash the Collection
- Canabalt HD
- Chrono & Cash
- Critter Rollers Gold
- Cup! Cup! Golf3D
- Dark Incursion
- DB42 Full Version
- Dragon, Fly! Full
- FPse for android
- Gachinko Tennis 2
- Gailardia 2
- Gailardia 3
- Gunslugs
- Guns'n'Glory
- Happy Vikings
- I Must Run!
- Illusia
- INC: The Beginning
- Inertia: Escape Velocity HD
- Killdroid
- Legends of Yore Full
- Meganoid
- Micronytes
- Mini Army
- Monster Madness: Grave Danger
- Neoteria
- Ninjammin Beat-jitsu
- Pinball Crazy Castle
- Pixeline & The Jungle Treasure
- Quell Reflect
- Reckless Getaway
- Reckless Racing 2
- Reckless Racing HD
- RPG Eve of the Genesis HD
- R-Type
- Ski Safari
- Sonic 4 Episode I
- Sonic CD
- Sonic The Hedgehog
- Speedball 2 Evolution
- Stardash
- Symphony of Eternity
- Tiny Little Racing
- TurboFly HD
- Virtua Tennis Challenge
- Wind Up Knight
- Zenonia
- Zenonia 2