Augmented Reality Play with the tori Explorer Pack

Kids will enjoy playing the four STEAM games included with the tori Explorer Pack. Games are elevated by the tori board and AR toys.

One of the benefits of going to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) each year is that we get to see the latest products and toys in development.

The tori Explorer Pack

We immediately became intrigued by the tori Explorer Pack by BANDAI NAMCO, a  well-known video game producer. 

What immediately drew our attention was how the Explorer Pack’s physical were represented in the tori apps using Augmented Reality.

The tori Explorer Pack comes with three toys, (a spacecraft catapult, and wand) and a tori board. 

It also includes a Creativity Kit that allows kids to customize the spacecraft and other elements to be included in the gaming apps.  This brings the A (Art) in this fun STEAM toy.

By holding the tori physical toys above the board, kids can manipulate their toys in the tori apps to solve puzzles and build things.  It’s truly remarkable.

The tori board uses a patented 3D tracking solution involving magnetic sensors to track the position and orientation of the tori physical toy used on or above the board.

This 3D technology gives the precise location and tracking of the toys in each of the games.  tori refers to this as “Mirror Play.”

Kids have the ability to decorate their own toy and elements and use them in a couple of the tori apps. 

This gives kids the fun of DIY activities to enhance their own entertainment, showing kids what is possible with a little ingenuity.

Kids can decorate with ink pens, crayons, glitter, ribbons, just about anything!

The tori Parent Dashboard

The Dashboard is a free app for parents to see how kids are progressing in their games.  tori transforms this information into the types of skills kids used in the game.

tori actually helps to equate the value of play into tangible skills that parents would like enhanced in their child’s play.

The tori Parent Dashboard tracks skills like…

• Creativity & Problem Solving
• Motor Coordination
• Executive Functions
• Space and Numbers
• Social Skills

And the dashboard gives parents a number for each time a skill is used in a game.  

Parents can even send a number of predetermined challenges to their kids for each game for the next time they play. 

Playing these challenges give them extra bonus points to spend on “accessories” in games.

FEATURES:

• An interactive learning and gaming experience for kids ages 6-12
• A board that transforms physical toys and their actions using 3D Augmented Reality into tori games
• A physical catapult, wand, and spacecraft that are represented in the actual games
• A Creative Kit that includes pages for kids to color and decorate their own spacecraft and accessories to be scanned into tori games
• Kids can also use digital stickers to enhance their buildings in the Supreme Builder game
• Four free unique tori gaming apps to be used on the tablet or phone for kids to learn different skills
• Kids earn “points” by getting better in their skills to be used to unlock further levels

PROS:

• tori incorporates STEAM through elements of building structures, adding art to structures, determining how far a catapult will fly a ball, determining the distance in shooting an aircraft  flying ahead, mirroring and rearranging pieces to solve puzzles, and more
• The included Creative Kit is a clever way for kids to incorporate their own art created designs into the game using AR
• Games are entertaining  for  both kids and adults
• Currently, there are four games to play with more games likely on the way
• Kids love the thrill of seeing their physical toys and the creative enhancements  they made incorporated in the tori games
• Teaches kids to be attentive, use critical thinking, and spatial reasoning to learn how to advance

CONS:

• There is no light on top of the board to indicate that it is turned on or battery capacity indicator – helpful when trying to sync with a new game app or charging the tori board
• Is a little pricey but it can grow with your child as she gets older
• Some of the games are not as enticing as others, but I think this depends on each kid’s interests

The tori Explorer Pack is available from Amazon for $129 with free shipping.

A Mom’s Perspective

The tori Explorer Pack has a lot going for it.  We love its implementation of STEAM-based principles in its play.  

Giving kids the ability to physically touch and color elements that show up in a video game is truly amazing.

Using the Creativity Kit, kids can decorate their own spaceship or other elements, like the trees, flowers, and totem poles to be put into the Jungle Rescue app. 

Best yet, before coloring all of the sheets in the Creativity book, kids can make copies of the sheets so they have endless ways to enhance their games.

All four of the games give kids the ability to physically adjust the tori toys to see how they react in their games, learning spatial reasoning, reaction time, dexterity, and cognitive problem-solving skills.

As with popular gaming apps today, tori requires kids to build skills and complete modules until they can make it to the next level, giving kids inherent goals to make it past tougher modules.

As the tori Explorer Pack continues to grow in popularity, we are sure to see more tori games to utilize their existing toys. 

Once our school’s makerspace is back open again, I’m sure the tori Explorer Pack will be a hit with our kids.

Interested in other  STEAM toys?  See some of our other recent STEAM review toys like the Sphero RVR and Circuit Scribe Drawing Kits.

*I was given a tori Explorer Pack in exchange for an honest review.  All opinions are my own.