GameStick: The cheaper Android console alternative that’s great for kids (review)

Your first glance at PlayJam’s Android-based GameStick home console might lead you to think it looks silly. The analog sticks are oversized, the controller housing itself seems comically too big and round, and the bulk of all the processing power is in an HDMI stick that’s just barely larger than a flash drive. But what you won’t see is that it works pretty darn well as a console.

Sure, the GameStick doesn’t have the machined elegance of fellow Kickstarter project the Ouya or the intense processing power Nvidia is putting into the Nvidia Shield (which also streams PC games), but what it lacks in style and power it makes up for in functionality. The buttons are shockingly responsive and the console takes up very little space since it plugs directly into an HDMI port.