Welcome to an article where I will do my best to describe how good the Odin Pro really is for cloud gaming and how Google Stadia currently stands out.
In case you do not know yet what the Odin Pro is, that is not unexpected. The Odin Pro is touted as a portable Android device with controller, similar to a Nintendo Switch Lite by design and well, it is an Indiegogo darling to say the least. I was not an early backer, but thanks to a most friendly person from AYN, the company behind the console, GamingBoulevard got its device early and I have been testing it like crazy. This is the first of a few articles I intend to do, as more and more time will pass, I hope to get a better view at how well or bad the device itself performs.
For this first article, I am specifically touting the device as probably the best way to play Google Stadia despite one major flaw. At the time of writing this article, there is no Google Stadia button in the layout of the button mapper, so you do need to take the long way ’round to get to another game. This literally means closing the Stadia app, confirming you are starting another game and so much more. While this is barely a handful of seconds each time, it does take away from the possibility to use the added functions of the physical button on the controller.
Not such a big issue, but it would be cool to have this function after all. It is a part of Stadia and this is the only part where the device falls short of being perfect for Stadia. The Odin Pro has an amazing screen and I just love it a lot, despite not being a big lover of Android, I do live with its flaws in order to play this device. From its responsive buttons and proper layout of said buttons, we go to the core of this article, Odin Pro feels like it was made with Stadia in mind and I personally love this aspect of it.
My love and dislike of Stadia has been well documented, I have had my ups and downs with the service, but it has to be said, I have encountered very few bugs or delays on the Odin Pro. For my test case, I played a few games and I want to start with Sekiro, the brutal game from the studio that did the Souls games and Sekiro is basically just running perfectly on this device. I was afraid of having big-time pixel drops or worse, but the internal FPS counter stuck at a very smooth 50+ at all times, which was highly impressive. I was playing the game when my nephews were visiting and they were constantly asking me what this nice device was. They knew it was not a Nintendo Switch, but were impressed by the visual powers of the game.
It is kind of funny that a 12-year-old knew that this visual quality was not the Switch, but when I told him it was something I was playing on Stadia, he ended up asking a lot of questions about Stadia. Which is sadly a little representative, a lot of gamers or youngsters do not think about Stadia when thinking about gaming. Kind of a shame, so the good uncle that I am, I gave him the lowdown of how Stadia works. I wonder if he will end up making an account because he did seem very interested…
The next game that I tried, Serious Sam Collection, was a bit more of a test case, as I was able to compare it to the Nintendo Switch version. I did feel I enjoyed both equally, but in all fairness, I played this one during the night on Stadia, when there were fewer influences. For those unaware, I have the best experiences with Stadia at night, when the bandwidth is all free. During my gameplay, which was on the shorter time of things, I felt like Stadia performed very well. Maybe I could say the Nintendo Switch has the upper hand on this one purely because of its higher portability? The need to be connected at all times does kind of influence things here.
For the statistics buffs, my ISP provides around 300 Mbit down at night, speed tests gave me an astounding 95% and I had very little loss during a speed test. During my evening time, I often just have 60 to 80 Mbit, which is still fast, but I do seem to experience a lot more audio skips and pixel bombs at times. The worst-case scenario is that any fast-moving action is either playable or not. I never have this issue at night. All this is supported by a Wifi 6 system at home. My TV Stadia is hooked up by Lan cable, my Odin Pro is playing over Wifi.
As my third game, I played Ys: Monstrum Nox, an action RPG that I just adore. Thanks to NIS, I was able to get them on PlayStation and Switch, so I can compare the lot of them. Needless to say, PlayStation was the prettiest version by far. The two others do not even come close. I need to be fair here, I did NOT test this game on my Chromecast 4K, it was never my intention to play it that way, I wanted the comfort of playing the game on my sofa. Enter Nintendo Switch? Not exactly, this game is much better on Odin Pro really.
On Nintendo Switch, this game is actually a lot more pixelated than on Stadia and the difference is very big. I would go as far as to say that Stadia is by far the best option here when it comes down to portability. I know, not truly portable, but the difference in screen clarity is really big. If I were to give the PlayStation version a visual score of 100 and the Nintendo Switch a score of 50, I would score Stadia with around 90. The Odin screen is clear, the game is incredibly smooth, even during strong battle scenes with a lot of the enemies on screen, Stadia held up great. Well above personal expectations to be honest.
So I went ahead and even tried the game during evening hours, at which I would score it around 80ish, I did have one really small glitch during the gameplay, but it was really small, like just a second. Did not hear any audio stuttering and the fast travel where you instantly whoosh from one point to the next, even that was flawless.
As I am currently about 20 hours in for various games and systems, right now, I can safely say that Playstation remote play is NOT good at all. Games that need the right thumbstick are out of luck and while there are paid apps that can apparently fix this issue, I have decided against spending money on those as I can get most proper games on Google Stadia. The service has really grown a lot in the past year and I assume it will only get better in the coming years.
I have also tried Cloud gaming, a service that usually works really well on my Xbox, thanks to Game Pass, but so far, I am running into a few visual glitches in the bigger games. Small games like Skull had no issues, but a big one like Dragon Quest 11, did not fare so well. I requested the game for comparison on Stadia so hopefully, that can be touched upon in a future article.
As things stand, the lack of having the Stadia button is something I can live with. Sure, I do expect the Odin to get an update sooner or later to include this, and then, Stadia will be the main Go-To service for me on this device. I really enjoy how fast and responsive everything is, from the buttons to restarting games. During my Ys gameplay, I had accidentally turned it off instead of wanting to up the volume, those things just happen, it took Stadia like a second or 2 to be fully working again. This was above expectations really. I never did play Stadia on anything else but my TV before and I was impressed.
In conclusion, Odin Pro is a great console. Sure, it is much like any android phone with its perks and downsides, but it performs incredibly well for Google Stadia. I look forward to trying more games soon, so I can compare and review games at the same time. Now if only we got an update to have that missing mapped button, it would be perfect!
PS. Yes, I do own a dock, but do not intend to review that separately for Stadia as anyone with a Stadia controller usually also owns a Chromecast 4K, it just makes no sense to hook up my Stadia controller to anything else.
