CrazyToysAR is a claw crane arcade game machine in AR (some refers to it as teddy picker, grab machine, claw machine or claw crane). Zepend Wei, the developer of the game, has decided to bring the same experience in Augmented Reality (AR) so you can play it in your home or everywhere you want to.
This is an ARKit iOS game. I’m reviewing version 1.0. In the description of the game on iTunes, the developer mentioned that he plans to add more exotic toys and also add a dolls collection system. There are only bunnies to collect as for version 1.0. In the future, we will probably get more type of prizes to collect.
If you are not familiar with the Claw Crane arcade machine, here is an image of a real one:
How To Use a Claw Machine?
n this game, players need to move a claw crane in any horizontal direction and position it above a toy that they want to grab. Once they are happy with the position, the need to press a button that will release the crane downward to try an grab that toy. After the claw descend it will make an attempt to grip one or more of the toys. When it succeeds in getting a prize or not, it will return to the opening in the corner of the case to release its content. If there is a prize there, it will drop and you will able to own it.
The arcade claw machine consists of two gameplay controls: a joystick to control the movement of the crane and a button which controls when to release the crane. Keep in mind that there is a 30 seconds timer. If you don’t press it in time the crane will just drop automatically.
Claw Machine Gameplay in AR
CrazyToysAR didn’t proffer me a great AR experience for a few reasons. First of all, the game starts immediately with the surface detection screen. Second, if it finds a location it doesn’t ask the user for acceptance for placing the machine, it just put it their automatically.
Third, the machine is very large, and although I have no problem with having a real-size claw machine in AR, I do want to have an option to resize it. Fourth, I didn’t notice a shadow drop from the crane, which can help to give the player an estimate where the claw is going to drop and give the game a more realistic experience ( you can also move around the machine to get an estimation). Fifth, the crane wire is missing in the game for some reason, giving the look that the crane is floating in the air.
Furthermore, the bunny dolls jitter quite a lot and when the crane is able to get a hold of the toy, it sometimes appears like it is completely outside the claw and not within it and it jitters a lot as well. I think the developer should create a more precise collision detection boundaries for the bunny.
Other things that I didn’t like is the screen that you get once you are able to successfully obtain your prize. The rewarding screen shows an image that looks like a transparent GIF image with really bad cutout. Furthermore, the bunny doll is positioned over that image in the way that you got it out. Why I need to see the bunny’s butt in front of my face, just make it face the camera with a smile, it would be much better.
The claw animation and the machine look nice and quite authentic, but in the real claw machine, the picker is shakier and lose. I think there is room for improvement regarding the overall visuals, make things look a bit more realistic, but overall it looks nice.
One thing that bothered me is that the game doesn’t adapt itself to landscape orientation, something that I would like to see addressed in future updates. I know most people will prefer playing it in portrait orientation but I see no reason why not have both, it’s not like it’s going to break the gameplay or anything.
There is also an annoying UI design where the user needs to tap a textual notification on the screen to dismiss it. Once I insert a new coin, I don’t need to dismiss any text that was there on the previous try. I believe most users won’t understand that they need to tap the text to dismiss it. If you put a notification, at least add a close button or an ‘X’ button so we know how to dismiss it.
Is the Game Fun?
If you ever enjoyed toying around with a real claw machine, I’m positive that you will enjoy playing this game as well.
Having said that, there is plenty of room for improvement and making this game more attractive for users. The developer is aware of this and it’s nice to see that he plans to add more content to the game later on.
I personally want to see a larger variety of prizes in the machine. I want to be able to hear the sounds of the crane when it moves. Maybe it has sound but the music is too loud for me to hear it. I want to see some splashy visual effects when I get my rewards. This is not a physical game, it’s digital, there is plenty of room to get a bit crazy and make the rewarding part more exciting to watch.
I would personally create a collection book, where players will need to try to fill it up with all the available toys in the machine. The developer can then add more prizes each week. For example, today is Halloween. If there was a collection book, the developer could have had some special Halloween related prizes so users could have an option to feel up the special Halloween collection section on the album.
Conclusion
CrazyToysAR is a nice idea for an AR game. I’m sure there are many people out there that will enjoy being able to play a claw machine in their home. I have friends who are badly addicted to it and they can spend half an hour on that machine when we are at the mall.
Here, however, you don’t need to play a dime, it is a free AR game. Just keep in mind that the game does give you a limited amount of coins, but you can watch a 30-second ad to obtain 5 more coins which give you 5 attempts.
The core gameplay in CrazyToysAR is fun an addictive but there is a big room for improvements, optimization, and features to make the game more attractive and exciting to play. I do hope that the developer addresses those issues and add more content. I’m sure that once he does, this game will be much more interesting and will appeal to many more users.
Click here to visit the game’s page on iTunes.