Five augmented reality games for your Android smartphone

Bored of playing the usual games on your Android smartphone? This week, we’ll bring you a few ‘different’ games that might tread a distinct path in terms of playability and fun. Augmented Reality has been in existence since a couple of years now, but it hasn’t really hit the mainstream path, at least as far as games are concerned. A couple of AR apps have been extremely popular, but in the games genre, the content is pretty limited. So, we searched through the Google Play Store and found a handful of AR-based games that might be worth for casual gamers. Mind you, these games are best played in a controlled environment. Here’s our list:

Droid Shooting

One of the most addictive AR games for Android, Droid Shooting makes your boring background come to life with droids attacking you from every nook and corner. It utilises your camera, and makes it a viewfinder for your battlefield. Also, there’s a radar, so you know where those evil Droids are coming from. With a variety of guns to choose from, this one is pretty good fun, and if you incorporate pass-and-play, then you’ll make it even more fun! There’s a time limit as well before another wave of droids come to attack you, so you need to be quick on your reflexes to get them out of the way.

The best part is that the game works even on low-end devices with little to no lag. However, we would have loved it if the droids had integrated a little more with the environment. Imagine, one hiding behind a chair, and you sneak up on it and blast its head off. Some brilliant droid shooting droid action. Nevertheless, a well-made game, which goes easy on system resources as well. 

Parallel Kingdom

This one is one of the most popular games for Android and it has already been nominated for a couple of awards, including best MMO, best Augmented Reality Game, most creative use of iPhone hardware and best use of location services. Yes, it’s cross platform as well with over one million players in over 100 countries.

AR strategy game!

A few of the features include:

• Entirely free-to-play, can purchase in-game currency or trade with other players
• Fully customizable avatars
• Weekly community events and updates
• Over 20 leaderboards with weekly rewards
• Trade Hubs allow open player-to-player trading
• Buy, sell, or trade everything from raw materials to swag
• Themed chat rooms

The game’s idea is to slay epic monsters in dark dungeons or battle the dragons lurking right in your own backyard. You can travel to far-off lands and conquer anything that stands in your way, while claiming territory, as you go. The plan of action is based on what you want to do with your territory. Usher in a new age of peace and prosperity, or forge a war machine capable of raiding the world’s greatest cities.