Meet Ouya. It's the Android-powered micro-console that blew up on Kickstarter. With this console in your living room, you can plug an open, democratic store of indie games straight into your TV.

From the time we've spent playing on Ouya, it's fair to say that the Ouya's digital store manages to mix the creativity of the indie scene, the scrappy local multiplayer of the Super Nintendo, and the shareware free-to-try fun of raiding Amiga Power demo disks.

It's certainly something.

We wanted to share with you the Ouya games that we've enjoyed playing thus far. For this first expedition into the wild and stormy waters that is the Ouya's Discover panel, though, we're going to concentrate on fresh and original games. Ones you haven't played a million times already on mobile, basically.

So, we'll be skipping top-notch games like pixel-art platformer League of Evil, addictive gem Super Crate Box, epic mobile role-player Ravensword: Shadowlands, and moreish multiplayer puck-fest Ice Rage.

Instead, we chose these:

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DubWars

By Helium Interactive - Free, with $14.99 unlock

DubWars is a psychedelic twin-stick shmup in which your dinky spaceship fires its weapons in time to the dubstep track playing in the background.

So, you start with staccato gunfire to match the song's steady introductory beat. Then, as you wait for that all-important drop, the game goes silent and your weapons stop firing, forcing you to dart and evade all enemies for a precious few seconds.

And then, there's the drop. That ear-piercing, caterwauling, headache-inducing drop. And with it, your ship unloads an almighty arsenal of laser beams, homing missiles, and explosions, which rips through the waves and crowds of enemies.

Sure, it might just be a one-note joke. But it's a satisfying and electricfying little shmup while it lasts. And it might - MIGHT - have made me start to appreciate dubstep. Just a tiny little bit. For a few seconds.

No Brakes Valet

By Captain Games - Free

In this madcap game, you try to park a load of vehicles that have had their brakes cut. So, cars and school buses screech into your lot, and you've got to try and guide them into the different bays before they wind down to a stop.

It gets even more fun in multiplayer, when you can purposely and purposefully crash your car into an opponent's vehicle to shunt it out of a good spot. Or, even better, into the disabled spot so your enemy's left with a huge fine.

Polarity

By Bluebutton Games - Free, with $4.99 unlock

Polarity's inspiration is pretty obvious. This is cult classic puzzler Portal, but now with the colour-switching conundrums last seen in Outland. Or Polara. Or Ikaruga.

So, when you're red, you can stand on red platforms and move safely through red gates. And the opposite is true for when you're blue.

This proves the foundation for some rather ingenious puzzles, often requiring you to swap back and forth between the colours in mid-air.

It's a bit ugly and the puzzles are nowhere near as good as the ones in Valve's game, but Polarity is worth a stab.

Knightmare Tower

By Juicy Beast Studio - Free, with $3.99 unlock

If every platform needs its own endless-runner, then Ouya will make do nicely with Knightmare Tower.

In this game, the dev casts you as a pint-size knight, who must get to the top of a tower by using enemies as springboards. You'll move left and right to position over an enemy, then strike down with your sword to bounce back up.

There's depth to be found in the different enemy types - like tiny bats, tubby spheres that can cover themselves in spikes, and pus-filled sack monsters that spit toxic slime - a combo system, and a shop filled with power-ups.

It's every bit as compulsive as any other endless game, and boasts some gorgeous cartoon graphics. An easy recommendation for your first Ouya shopping spree.

Amazing Frog

By Fayju - Free

Amazing Frog is puerile, childish, and utterly brilliant.

In this brainless sandbox game, your goal - if you can call it that - is to make a frog do the biggest and longest leaps you can manage before he crumbles into a heap. And farts.

The graphics are crap and the controls barely work, but that matters little. It's simple, playful nonsense that will have you contorting in fits of giggles. And it's even better, predictably, when played in split-screen multiplayer.

TowerFall

By Matt Makes Games - Free, with $14.99 unlock

In TowerFall - which has quickly made a name for itself as the first must-have Ouya game - you and up to three pals play as archers. You all try to spear one another with arrows in fast, intimate single-screen duels.

It's got super-tight controls, brilliant power-ups, some great mechanics (like wall-jumps and having to retrieve arrows when your quiver runs dry), and a great instant replay system for rewatching those unbelievably lucky shots.

It's incredibly well put together, and packed with content. Matt Makes Games delivers exactly the sort of scrappy local multiplayer skirmishes that will ensure Ouya always has a home under your TV.

Hidden in Plain Sight

By Adam Spragg - Free, with pay-what-you-like unlock (99c to $49.99)

I thought TowerFall would have been the standout entry in our multiplayer Ouya test. I was wrong. So wrong.

Measure it by time spent or laughs had or rivalries forged, and the winner is easily Hidden in Plain Sight.

In this game, you and your opponents assume the role of ninjas within a crowd of identical characters all randomly wandering about the screen. Once you've figured out which ninja is yours, you've either got to touch all five statues in the arena or kill the other player characters.

The idea is to act like a brainless AI robot, while simultaneously trying to figure out which of the other ninjas are being controlled by human hands. It's a devilishly simple concept, but leads to some of the most enjoyable local multiplayer bouts you're likely to find on Ouya.

There are loads of other modes we haven't even tried yet, but this is quickly becoming the go-to Ouya game for local multiplayer.

The Little Crane That Could

By Abraham Stolk - Free, with $5.99 unlock

The Little Crane That Could is hard. Your job is to control a truck with a crane arm and complete objectives like dropping a basketball in a hoop or unscrewing giant bolts.

But this is no precise simulation. The truck moves more erratically than you expect, and the physics are ever so slightly messed up.

This leads to a lot of failure, a lot of frustration, and a lot of absolute silliness. But also a massive feeling of reward when you finally pull off that deceptively simple objective.

BombSquad

By Eric Froemling - Free, with $4.99 unlock

Okay, so BombSquad is not going to displace Bomberman as the best game about blowing the bits out of one another. It's not that smart or strategic. But it can still be quite a lot of fun, in its own very simple way.

Opponents stand on a small platform and try to blow one another up - or knock one another off - with bombs. There are loads of different explosives to try, including trip mines, sticky grenades, and freeze bombs.

It doesn't quite manage to hold your attention for the entire two-minute duration of a match, but it's something brainless to play at the end of a long multiplayer session.

Get on Top!

By Deep Plaid Games - Free, with $1.99 unlock

QWOP maker Bennett Foddy has turned his attention to a new sport: wrestling.

The silly crumpled bodies, five-second sessions, and rudimentary graphics of his athletics "sim" are all present and correct here, though.

The idea is simple: you use the analogue stick and button to pull or push your opponent to the ground. But when two veteran players go head-to-head, you'll discover a lot of depth to the mechanics.

Best of all, two players can go mano-a-mano on just one controller. Which can prove to be a rather uncomfortably cosy situation, let me assure you.