I am always searching for some cool little apps that might be overlooked or not found for one reason or another. Today I came across an app called AR Kobit. The app is in Japanese, and I’ve checked on the US app store and there isn’t an English version of it. There is a button that was translated into English though. That being said, it’s really not hard to find your way through it, because most of the buttons use icons that are self-explanatory, and if not, there aren’t many interactions so you won’t have any problem using it.
According to the official website, Kobit is a mysterious creature who came to earth a long time ago. He seems to love copying faces of other creatures. In fact, it seems that he has forgotten his real face because he is used to copying other people’s faces. He also doesn’t know where he came from.
With AR Kobit you can do just that, you can copy friends and family faces and attach them to Kobits. all you have to do is to either select a face from a photo from your iOS picture gallery or use the built-in camera app to take a photo of a face.
Once you are ready, you can start the AR app. It will ask you to scan for a surface and then in a click on a button the app will start spawning Kobit creatures out from portals onto the surface. If you haven’t captured any pictures of a face, Kobit will use its original face. If you captured one or more faces, all those Kobits will use all of the faces captures in the “My Kobit” picture section. You can store up to 20 faces, so you can bring all your family member’s faces, your friends and anyone you like and make them all appear in this fun little Augmented Reality (AR) experience.
The Kobit creatures will start spawning one after the other in the limited area that you’ve chosen. Of course, after a while, there will be no free space. I’ve played it on the living room’s table. Once there was no more space, those adorable Kobits start falling from the table. Instead of just watching them fall out of the playable area, you can also use the bomb button that shoots a bomb that explodes and eliminates those Kobits in certain radius where the bomb fell.
Those Kobits are so cute and funny little creatures and it was so much fun watching them moving on the table. The faces look really funny on a Kobit. I took a picture of my cat and I was laughing the whole time.
ARKobit is a fantastic little app for kids.I think that what makes this experience work mostly due to the cute and funny character design and animations, the works so well once you put custom faces on it.
From what I’ve seen on the official website, it seems that there are other interactions that will be introduced soon. There is some kind of a spaceship icon with a “Coming soon” text, but I haven’t seen it in the app itself. I guess that we get to enjoy it in a future update.
When I play this app, I just felt that this app will bring up joy to kids. Just try it yourself, download the app, let the kid take pictures of you, other family members or even your dog or cat, and let him enjoy this AR experience and watch his reaction. I highly recommend watching the gameplay video above to see how this ARKobit app plays out.
I wish there was more interaction, like having the option to poke and push those Kobit out of the table or drag them around—I tried, but I didn’t find a way to do it. I do recommend implementing this feature, it can really improve the overall experience, especially for kids who enjoy observing and touching everything. Even adding a cute voice when they are poked can really amplify the experience in my opinion.
Overall, AR Kobit by Entap Inc. is a great little ARKit app. It was released back then in November 2017, and I just can’t understand how I missed it. The app is ranked 4+ in the App Store, so it’s suitable for young kids. If you are looking for a fun little Augmented Reality app for kids to enjoy, look no further, I’m sure you and your kids are going to have a blast playing it together.
P.S., if you are the developer reading this, fix the camera app feature. It captures the photo with the camera and app’s UI elements.
You can download the app from the App Store here.