We tested the new Bandai Namco device, designed for the smallest of the house (from 6 years) and that offers different applications.
Bandai Namco surprised some time ago with the announcement of a new game device called Tori, which was intended to mix the traditional toy with the video game. An experience for the little ones (from 6 years old) that follows in the wake of other products such as Nintendo's Labo, although in this case its virtues are others that are not so related to the assembly. The device is already on sale thanks to the company's collaboration with ISKN. What exactly is Tori? We see it.
The package is composed of a Tori Board, a kind of magic slate – this is a pleasure to tell the little ones – and different toys such as a ship, a catapult and a mountable wand. The grace of the device is that the pizzara connects via bluetooth with our iOS or Android device and allows to recognize the movements with the toys so that they have a presence in different applications and games. The most surprising thing for the little ones is to see how what we do in the real world moves to the screen with great ease.
To see the interest generated by the device I was testing it with my two daughters (halfway between 6 and 4 years old respectively), and the results were very satisfactory. The assembly is very simple, since we simply have to place a piece inside the toy that we are going to use in each of the applications, and then you just have to use it as indicated on the screen. The most relevant thing was to see how the movements and precision of them, both when loading the catapult and releasing it and when moving the ship from one side to another, respond perfectly on screen.
Four are the games that we can try. The first is that of Jungle Rescue, the catapult through which we have to throw balls to create paths and activate mechanisms that allow a key to reach the cell where the monkeys are locked. There are several levels of difficulty and the phases are becoming more ingenious. It is not just about having precision, but also about seeing what actions to take first so that the sequence ends up successfully. It is very visual and intuitive, and you quickly understand what are breakable blocks, buttons to activate mechanisms and others.
Crystal Chase is another of the games we can try. It is a kind of ship racing with the possibility of firing lasers to kill enemies. Simply by controlling the ship on top of the board without touching it, we can move back and forth, aim higher or lower and shoot by pressing one of the Tori Board's buttons. More demanding than it seems at first.
Then come two more complex games, as they are associated with the magic wand and there it takes a little more skill. Shades of Light invites us to take objects and recreate their shadow on a screen to, joining different objects, create new figures in the form of shadows. It must be said that at this point we had some problem when playing with the depth of movement to make the shadow more or less large, although nothing serious.
The other is Supreme Builder, which allows moving blocks to build different types of constructions. It happens a bit like the previous one, where the control is not as precise as we do not have physical control of the main gadget: yes, we control the wand but it also controls various elements of the screen and that makes it somewhat more complex.
Paint and customize
The proposal is completed with several elements of crafts to take into account. On the one hand we have a huge book of designs that the little ones can paint at will. The grace is that once done, these objects can be scanned and appear in the video games they are dealing with, such as flowers, trees and totems in the jungle application. The other is that we will have some molds to Labo for toys to paint and customize them to our liking: you just need to fit them, scan them and we will have the spacecraft with a totally own and exclusive design.
Tori is a fun experience, designed for sessions with children who find a good variety of proposals. Some games work better than others, but it is undeniable that the technology used is very attractive to the audience it addresses: see how you directly control the ship, the catapult or the wand is much more immersive at these ages than doing it with a traditional command . The mounting additives – simple – and coloring are always a guarantee, so it is worth checking out, although it is true that the wand mini-games do not have that immediate fun that the other two have. If future new apps are added to the presented product, we have game for a while.
