Rapid Review: ARBasketball - Shoot Some Hoops Anywhere
ARBasketball ($0.99) by Simiotica is the newest augmented reality game that gives you a hoop and some basketballs. The game has a similar set up to ARDefender where you print out a grid which your device recognizes where to place the hoop. You point your camera at that piece of paper, and where ever you are you can start shooting hoops.
To shoot you just flick the screen for power and aim, and that’s it. There are three different game modes with practice, classic, and action. You can position yourself in six zones around the paper to shoot for two or three, depending on the mode. The game is very similar to ARDefender in that there isn’t much to it.
Rather than making a full featured game that just happens to use augmented reality they made a simple game revolving exclusively around augmented reality. It’s neat to show off and experience a couple of times, but that wears off quickly. Then there is really nothing else to do with such simple game modes, and a basic app.
When playing you need to sit at just the right angle for the device to pick up the grid, and as you move to different zones the hoop can blink in and out. Occasionally sitting still has the same blinking in and out of the hoop, and having the whole app slow down. When actually playing the game the flick controls don’t work that well for continuous precision.
Also the two point shots are extremely close to the basket for no challenge, and the three point shots are hard because of the controls. ARBasketball is a nice tech demo, but nothing more with such a basic game on top of the augmented reality. There is so much that can be done, but as it stands you can steer clear.
