Star Wars Arcade: Falcon Gunner Augmented Reality
I am not a huge video game nut, unless you count Donkey Kong. But I just purchased Star Wars Arcade: Falcon Gunner and this game takes video games to a new level. It does this with augmented reality, something I have seen in apps such as Yelp. Falcon Gunner replaces the background in the video game with whatever your iPhone camera is seeing. In my case I had TIE Fighters attacking over the San Francisco Bay and the cities of Sausalito and Tiburon. The game is a full 360-degree game, meaning you turn around and move to locate and chase the TIE Fighters. The game play in augmented reality is fast and smooth.
Star Wars and video games go hand-in-hand. There is a long line of Star Wars-themed games going back to the days of arcade games, and continuing through home console and mobile games. Now, the first augmented reality Star Wars game for the iPhone just hit the app store. It is called Star Wars Arcade: Falcon Gunner ($4.99, iTunes link).
The game starts with the scene from the original Star Wars inside the Millennium Falcon after they escape the Death Star and the TIE Fighters attack. You are Luke Skywalker in the gunner’s turret below, and you turn the iPhone to rotate around and shoot the attacking TIE Fighters while Han Solo and Princess Leah either encourage or heckle you depending on your skills. (“Let me guess, you are trying not to hit anyone.”) In the 360-degree background is the Death Star and an earth-like planet, which come into view depending on which way you turn. The game is completely immersive, and works especially well while sitting in a swivel office chair.
The game also has an augmented reality mode which replaces the computer graphics background with your camera view. So you can play in your room or outdoors and the spaceships look like they are coming in from the distance. (see video below, which was taken from the Empire State Building). Be careful doing this in public, otherwise you might become that guy depicted in this other promo video showing what you might look like if you play the game in public. The augmented reality mode is fun to show people, but for pure gameplay I prefer the full-graphics mode. I’ve been playing a pre-release version of the game for a few days. I am not a game guy, but there is a real Wow factor here.
via The First Augmented Reality Star Wars Game, Falcon Gunner, Hits The App Store.
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