Amazon Fire TV may be a great set-top box or not so great, depending on who's doing the review and, well, whether they're into gaming.
Amazon's moved into the 'getting more crowded by the minute' market of boxes aiming to put the Netflixs out of business, it's offering something something competitors don't have: a gaming aspect and a voice search feature.
As the Mercury News notes, the voice feature may have been necessary to include given the "mess of an interface" on the Fire and notes it doesn't search anything except Amazon's own videos.
The hottest thing about Fire, note several reviews, is its games with more than 135 available. The slight drawback is you'll likely have to dole out $40 additional bucks as many require an Amazon controller.
"While you can play games on some of Roku's boxes and on Apple TV, the selection for Fire TV is already much better than for Roku and the games are much smoother than those on Apple TV, which requires users to beam games to it from the iPhones or iPads," notes the Mercury News review, which makes it clear Fire TV is not the next Wii by a long shot, at least right now.
"The Fire TV isn't going to replace an Xbox One or PlayStation 4; you're not going to find a "Halo" or "Titanfall" on it. And the selection of games so far is only a small fraction of what you'll find for your smartphone or tablet. But it makes for a good, casual living room game machine. The games it offers are fun, inexpensive and require less of a commitment of time and effort than console games," notes the review.
The LA Times also doesn't see Fire as the next gaming box of the century.
"The graphics of the games were unimpressive. They're basically games built for smartphones and tablets that are blown up to fit on the big screen. The video quality was fine, but the graphics were on par with games for the PlayStation 2 and the original Xbox. If you're looking for the finest quality in gaming, you better stick to the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One," reports the Times.
The review adds, "No one should buy the Fire TV solely for its gaming abilities, but it serves as a solid complement to the device's ability to stream video and audio from the Internet. One could spend a night around the Fire TV watching TV shows, listening to music videos and playing a few games on the device."
But not everyone feels that way. Wired's review calls Fire TV 'the thin edge of the wedge" and says adding gaming could be an early path to taking on Sony and Microsoft.
"The only substantial differences between Fire TV and Xbox One are that one of them is less powerful and doesn't have a disc slot. Those seem like, and could be, weaknesses. They could just as easily be strengths."
The review, though, does outline some minor issues, stickiness on part of the game controller and a quirky remote control, and some sub par games such as an "unpolished" Double Dragon Triology game offering.
But then the review makes it clear Amazon should get kudos for already moving forward into better game development with its Amazon Game Studios initiative and brain trusts hired on to develop better games.
The Daily Herald didn't delve into the gaming aspect of Fire at all in its review. It describes Fire as "a showcase for Amazon's video offerings." While it states the search feature as a standout aspect, it also disses the TV box for lacking in more ways than one.
"Fire TV being largely about promise. Many features aren't ready yet, and the ones that are don't work yet with every service," states the review, noting "Fire TV is a good investment if you use a lot of Amazon content, but you'll need patience for features to arrive or get better."
