Our take on the NBA All-World mobile game in AR
This week, as planned for months, Niantic unveiled its new NBA All-World game. This AR basketball game once again uses the company’s geolocation technology. An initiative designed to encourage players to visit real-world courts while having fun with their iPhone (and Android).
If Niantic has created some of the most popular augmented reality games on mobile devices like Pokémon Go and Ingress, it’s safe to say that this approach to AR isn’t always a guarantee of success. Harry Potter Wizards, for example, closed its doors despite the license with the planetary aura. Not to mention competitors struggling to discover their creativity…
NBA All World Test
If you’ve played any of Niantic’s previous titles, NBA All-World will look very familiar to you. After installing the free app, you get a basic player, from which you can use the game map to travel to real-world locations to collect items, earn money, or compete with other players. Unlike Pokemon Go, the big new feature of NBA All-World is that instead of visiting random points of interest to compete with other players, you have to go to actual basketball courts to earn your spot on local leaderboards. And here you can meet James Harden, Lebron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo and another Paul George.
If this seems like just a detail to you, it has a big impact on the way you play. First of all, we are no longer casually walking the streets, some even taking reckless risks by car, because you have to find land around you. This point is important because Niantic wants to target a different audience here. According to the studio, 99% of players will not come from Pokémon Go or Ingress, but from successful titles like NBA 2K. NBA All-World wants to encourage players to get off the couch and get some exercise.
Thanks to this limitation, NBA All-World intends to create real chemistry with the basketball community as a whole. This is a new opportunity to meet friends or even reunite basketball fans near you. That’s not all, you can even play mini-games in the NBA All-World game on your phone while you catch your breath.
Ready to play ball? Go inside the NBA All-World game in Part 2 of Beyond The Game. @NBAAllWorld ? pic.twitter.com/6Q55ogVuAR
– Are you ready to go to the whole world? ? (@NianticLabs) January 24, 2023
On the actual gameplay side, Niantic has chosen to have fairly simple controls on some accounts (like defense, mostly automatic), but the ability to move in all directions and dribble, jump back, or rush to the basket. really good
Not only did Niantic offer diverse and exciting gameplay, the firm also tried to integrate basketball culture into every aspect of the app. There are partnerships with companies like Adidas and Puma so you can buy virtual clothes or shoes that match what the court stars are wearing in real life (where’s the Nike?). The stars of the game are also very well modeled, including their abilities.
However, the map is still perfect. While Niantic already has tons of user-contributed data from other augmented reality games, NBA All-World doesn’t yet show all neighborhood courts. On the other hand, there are many places where you can spend your money like parks, shops and so on.
Either way, Niantic did a pretty incredible job with NBA All-World, and all the ingredients are already there to make it an absolute HIT. Ultimately, this is probably the best AR game of all time, which will be quickly approved (or rejected) depending on how it is received by the community. The more players, the better the game.
Download free game NBA All World
