Calories burned on the Go with fun and without doing any workout regime. Who would not like that? This seems the idea behind a new gaming app released on the play store called “Calories Go”. This game can make you do fun workouts without actually thinking you are doing it. This app is currently holding its “Early Access” on Play store for users. The idea behind the app seems to intrude. Therefore, we tried it and here’s our opinion on it.
Calories Go: World’s First AR Based Parkour Game
Before spilling out our initial impressions on this game, let’s talk about the specialty of. Calories Go is the first AR-based Parkour game ever in the world. Augmented reality is a growing trend in technology and is being used everywhere in movies, sports and games.
What is Augmented Reality? How does it work in Games?
Augmented reality is a process of superimposing real-world things digitally through the use of digital visual elements, sound, or other sensory stimuli. Augmented Reality is getting a huge buzz, thanks to the mobile devices that we are having in our pocket. ARCore is a software development kit developed by Google that allows for augmented reality applications to be built. By using it, we can see things virtually.
If you want to check Augmented Reality right now. You can go to follow the below tweet. By searching for it on mobile, you’ll find the “View in 3D” option. Select it and after that, you’ll see a life-size wolf appearing right at your feet.
It’s AR of the tiger!
If you’ve got an AR-enabled phone, you can now bring select animals right into your space for a safari (or safe snuggle) with Search. pic.twitter.com/kWpudETgeq
— Google (@Google) May 31, 2019
Augmented reality is used in games to make things appear virtually. Do you remember Pokemon Go? The game that brought Pokemon to life with the help of Augmented reality. Not only gaming, Augmented reality is useful in shopping as well. It can help you to see what a product will look like at your home without actually having it.
Calories Go (Early Access): A Virtual Treadmill
Calories Go app is like a virtual treadmill. For many people, exercising on the treadmill is a tedious task. According to my, without music, walking on a treadmill is the most boring thing in the world. Music enables fun to exercise and also deviates our senses from exhaustion.
Calories Go also somewhat doing the same thing. It introduced fun to work out with the help of Augmented Reality. This app will use your phone camera to set up a Parkour space right at the area where you stand in. All you need to do is
- Pointing the rear camera towards the ground. This will help the app to detect the ground.
- Hold the phone steady with your hands and follow the instructions to complete the workout and burn calories.
It’s just that simple. Once the app detects the ground and calibrates the sensor, it will throw you a series of challenges such as
- Moving Left or Right
- Jump Up or Stoop Low to do squats
- Catch tweety bird to increase calorie burning.
- Mix moves to play music.
Leaderboard for Extra Motivation
Calories Go (Early Access): Review
As it’s early access, we are not expecting much from it. However, the app has got a cool idea behind it. Combining a workout routine with gaming seems a great idea. The app has got potential to make exercising a fun thing. However, It should undergo some changes to make it more useable.
For instance, some elements in the game need language translation. The UI seems good, easily understandable. However, sometimes it’s not responding quite well, especially in phones that got minimal hardware specs. For instance, I used this app on POCO F1 and it runs smoothly. However, when I tried it on Redmi Note 7, it didn’t work. Maybe, every phone does not support emulating Augmented Reality.
Overall, the experience of the early access version of Calories Go seems good. However, it needs some improvements to make it more usable. This game has got potential to be the next big thing in virtual workout tech.