A real laser game at health home smart health innovation

Compete in a duel, or multiplayer without risking breaking a vase or hurting yourself. This is what Hasbro offers with its new game from the Laser Ops Pro range. We knew the arcs or the Nerf foam projectiles, but it's a whole different kind of game that the brand offers us in collaboration with Hasbro.

Mark : Hasbro and Nerf

Availability : Now

Compatibility : iOS and Android

Application : Nerf Laser Ops

Minimum age : 8 years

Includes : Two blasters and two Bracers

Not included: 8 AA LR6 batteries

Price : € 29.99

(embed) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyLoBPeF5Ho (/ embed)

A laser tag in his living room is tempting. Known for its foam projectiles, its bows, its water cannons, Nerf blasters have already gotten us used to fighting without being bruised. Let's remember their Fortnite Battle Royale rifle. But now it's a whole other range that Nerf offers us with Hasbro. After the Hero Vision Iron Man augmented reality headset, it's Laser Ops Pro's turn. These "pistols" do not have real ammunition, but lasers. The Alphapoint pack that we tested arms you with two blasters and two armbands to fix his phone. To start a confrontation, you have to have a smartphone, download the application, fix everything on your forearm and get started.

Several game modes are available, so single player and multiplayer. GPS, sound effects, lights, teams, everything is set to have a good time and simulate a real confrontation.

At your lasers, fire it.

Unboxing of the Nerf Laser Ops Pro

The Nerf Laser Ops Pro Alphapoint Pack is presented in a large rectangular box. On the front, a large illustration shows us a first visual of the blasters as well as the armbands. We notice that this pack includes two blasters. So we see that it will be necessary to fix his smartphone on his forearm. At the top left we see the brand name in large Nerve and at the bottom right, smaller, the Hasbro logo. We are told in several languages ​​that this game requires the download of the Nerf Laser Ops Pro application. More details will be given on the back of the box. But we still understand that these blasters are smart health connected via Bluetooth.

Another important clarification, this pack does not include a battery. Before you can play, eight 1.5V AA LR6 batteries will therefore be required to power the two pistols. Hasbro games are very rarely supplied with their battery, so it's good to know especially if you are impatient to Review your new game. Fit for ages 8 and up, Nerf Laser Ops Pro still requires a smartphone.

Let's go to the back of the box, here we can see more precisely what these famous blasters look like. We are also told what their different components are for. A selector to play indoors or outdoors, a team indicator on the top that will change color depending on your team. On the front of the object is a multidirectional receiving dome. Brief information is also communicated to us on the side. So we know that this game is provided with sounds and lights, that the ammunition is unlimited, that the blasters are equipped with a life indicator and ammunition. You can even have access to a quick recharge button.

On the left side we learn a little more about the Nerf Laser Ops Pro app. For example, it offers tactical info during the game. You will be able to customize the characteristics of your Nerf and gain improvements. To gain skills, you can view player statistics and history of winners. Another very good tip to be unbeatable: GPS that will allow you to locate your opponents during the game.

Remember, like every time we do a Review like this, your mobile devices are absolutely not protected by this game. So be careful if you lend it to younger people for example.

Now we know more about the Nerf Laser Ops Pro, it's the long-awaited moment of unboxing. When the box opens, we discover the two blasters attached by straps to a cardboard support. On the top are taped two plastic pockets containing the armbands. And that's it, fast and efficient. Just cut the straps and get a screwdriver. On the front of the blaster, there is a small hatch fixed by a screw. You just have to unscrew it to access the location that will contain the four AA LR6 batteries. As shown in the photo below, you have to pull out the small "drawer" to be able to insert the batteries. Once done, you just have to screw the little cover back on and the game can begin.

Design and Ergonomics of the Nerf Laser Ops Pro

Blasters look good, heavy enough to think that they will not break at the first impact or the first fall. Not imposing, but still great, it remains to be seen whether they are really suitable for the hands of an 8 year old child.

Quality

Gray, black and orange, with these three colors we are sure not to lose them. We can clearly see the name of the Nerf brand as well as the Nerf Laser Ops Pro range. On the barrel appears "Alphapoint". The trigger is flexible, and causes a "click" which allows us to be sure of having drawn well. The pistol grip and thick enough to allow good support, its light grooves accentuate this good grip.

Another important point, if the blaster may seem a little heavy for a child, he will be able to catch it with his other hand under the barrel. Practical and very realistic.

Now let's go to the features, on the top of the toy we notice the on / off button. Orange, it clearly appears on this gray background. Just click on it to get started. Below it, we see a switch button, the latter allows you to choose between indoor and outdoor mode. Its usefulness lies in adjusting the brightness of the laser, depending on the use. The intensity is not the same, this saves batteries indoors.

On the top of the blaster, we find the indicator light which allows to recognize the members of his team. Very practical when you are multiplayer, the goal is not to shoot your friends, but your opponents.

Let's move on to the armbands, essential to the game since they allow the smartphone to be held on your arm.

Armband and installation

At the first touch, you have the impression of finding sticky rubber balls that could be found at anything at 2 € (all at 10 francs for old connoisseurs). Quality and comfort level we will iron. It sticks to the skin, it pinches and it pulls, in short, very bad feeling. We advise you to fix the brassars over your clothes for better comfort.

To successfully fix your phone, you must do so before hanging the cuff on your arm. This operation requires a little more effort, so your two hands will not be too much. Don't be afraid to pull on the rubber straps if your phone is big. It will be better maintained, but still remain vigilant. As discussed above, this type of game does not guarantee the security of your smartphone. So make sure everything is in place and that it will not move. You will need to position your mobile phone on the hollow part of the cuff in order to benefit from the notches provided for this purpose.

Once done you can take another tedious step, hang the cuff on your arm. Attach it so that you can clearly see the screen, if you are right-handed put it on that arm. The smartphone is there to give you directions and locate your opponents.

You can ask someone to help tie him up. Its sticky and soft consistency makes the exercise a little complicated. It’s a bit like attaching a gum belt, not that simple. Be sure to pass the hook through one of the holes, then push the strap through the loop to make sure nothing comes off.

Nerf Laser Ops Pro: an intuitive application

The application is very simple. First, it invites us to connect our two blasters. First of all, you have to connect your mobile phone using Bluetooth to allow it to detect blasters. Then by holding down the trigger and the ON button, the application recognizes it and you can continue. At this point you can name your pistol thanks to a combination of two words which are proposed to you. At the editorial office we chose to call them Velvet Nova and Wolf Comet. Once done, you land on the health home page. This is where you will have the choice between single player and multiplayer.

Solo mode

For Solo mode, don't get too carried away. You quickly become disillusioned, by launching it you realize that an additional accessory is necessary. Too bad, it is not provided in the Alphapoint pack. This solo mode needs an adapter that will fix the smartphone on the front of the blaster in order to play in augmented reality. Good idea, who would have deserved to add this small additional utensil in the pack.

This absence can be explained by the fact that the Nerf Laser Ops Pro has been designed to play at least two people. This also explains the presence of two blasters. But then, why offer us a solo mode? Because the application is also used by the other products in the Laser Ops Pro range, which are sold alone.

The solo mode is therefore unusable.

You will have no choice, multiplayer will be your only game option. It’s a lot more fun because you can use the app to its full potential. You can form teams thanks to the indicator light on the top, calculate the points and above all use the GPS function to easily locate your opponents.

Blaster menu

Always on the main screen, you can access the Blaster menu. This is where you will find your different blasters and their general condition (battery, life, laser …). You can also improve them with power-ups. To start, we give you a first power-up: Ultra-powerful shooting is an attack that can cause even more damage, we even recommend recharging your blaster to reactivate it. There are four other power-ups available that you will need to unlock in order to use them: massive explosion, radar, health pack and heal allies. They can be obtained in different ways: by scoring 500 points, 1000 points or by finishing a "every man for himself" game. Only negative point, some of these power-ups seem to be unlocked only in single player mode. As explained above, without the adapter it is impossible. Simple error on the part of Hasbro or marketing technique to force us to buy an almost useless accessory in addition? Your turn to judge.

Still in the blaster menu, we find the "Improvements" tab. As the name suggests, this is where you have to go to improve your weapon. Health, charger capacity, damage, repair time and recharge time. All available from level 2. You can even improve your power-ups with Heal, Attack and Functionality, all available from level 4. As you go, you will pass the levels and unlock more and more power-ups.

A short explanation accompanies each improvement and power-ups, which makes it much easier to navigate.

Other functions

Let's get out of the blaster menu to take a look at the classification side (tab always visible from the menu). You can know your positioning in relation to players around the world. Filters allow you to adapt the modes (solo or multiplayer), the time (this month or all) as well as the people (those with whom you have played, or the whole world). It allows you to get a good idea of ​​your level.

Finally, like all games, you need an adjustment space, you will find that of Nerf Laser Ops Pro, in the main menu. You can deactivate the sound, music, vibrations of your phone and adjust the volume of your blaster.

Getting started with the Nerf Laser Ops Pro

Now that we have all the info, all that's left is to go to war. Already you have to find a friend to play with, it shouldn't be too hard. One player must create a game for the other to join that game. To do this, go to the multi-player mode, select all smartphones, synchronize your blaster with your smartphone. If there are only two of you, you will not be able to fight in a team battle, it seems logical. It will therefore be necessary to select “each for himself”. Once all this is done we have more to wait for his opponent to join us and the game can begin. Well almost,The synchronization is a bit long and sometimes you have to start again from the beginning for this to work. When everything is going well, all the participants (here two) must come together and collect their smartphones. This operation is quite long (30 seconds) and we do not really understand why. It feels like spending your time syncing phones or blasters. A bit long, especially for children.

Once all this is done, you have to fix your phone on your wrist. Really impractical, as explained earlier, the material used is unpleasant and has a tendency to pinch and catch all the surrounding dust.

In addition, our phones are getting bigger and bigger and it weighs on our wrists. The poorly distributed weight of a phone, especially on a child's wrist, can prevent proper play. If there was only that, we are constantly worried that our cell phone might fall to the ground. The straps that hold it are pulled as far as possible, and tend to slip. You have to worry about it all the time to avoid the accident, which could be very expensive. This little detail will undoubtedly dissuade many parents from lending their latest smartphones to their fair heads. We advise you to put it over your sleeve to avoid it pinching too much.

Small tip: install your phone so that the screen is on the inner part of your forearm and put your hand under the barrel of the blaster. This will give you better support, you will feel less of the weight of your phone and you will be able to see your screen more easily during a battle.

Let's get to the heart of the matter: combat. There is a small problem with the laser which is not very precise, but that’s what we expected, after all it’s just a kid’s game. However this can handicap children who wish to run or hide.

We specify, to weaken his opponent, target the red sensor located on top of the blaster. When you touch it, it lights up in red indicating that the shot has worked and therefore it loses a point. You have access to 10 rounds at a time, and to refill your cartridges you only have to press the button below the butt of your weapon. You don't need to remember it, because every time you run out of ammo the screen below appears.

On your screen your remaining ammunition is displayed, your standard of living as well as a central hexagon which gradually empties and which once empty releases a power-ups (it changes depending on your level). Each part lasts 5 minutes. It's a good time, not too long to get bored and short enough to be effective and quick. Your score appears at the top of the screen in real time.

If you have no more life, this does not mean that everything is finished, the screen above appears and it is enough to wait 10 seconds to be able to start playing again. During this time, your opponent will not be able to attack you. At the end of the fight you see who won, your score and your level.

Nerf Laser Ops Pro against the competition

Despite some small technical faults, Nerf Laser Ops Pro defends itself pretty well and can be a lot of fun for Laser Game enthusiasts. But other brands offer similar products with a few details.

LAZER M.A.D. Advance Battle Ops

As with the Nerf Laser Ops Pro it is a game that is played indoors or outdoors. You can customize and personalize your blaster to form teams. We start with 20 hit points, and several modes are available: training to work on precision, burst, close combat or from a distance up to 50 meters range.

Laser Battle: Night vision

Equipped with a flashlight, light effects, sound and a range of 60 meters it’s the perfect game for playing outdoors. Also with his night mode no need to stop playing once the sun goes down. It is delivered with two laser pistols and two red and blue breastplates to form teams.

Laser X: The real laser tag

A little different, laser X offers in addition to its competitors targets to wear. You must therefore aim at these targets as in a real laser tag game. Indeed, they are designed to record the impacts on most parts of the body. It's the little extra that can make all the difference.

Vair Field: turns a smartphone into a weapon

Discovered during Laval 2018, Vair Field is a slightly more developed and especially handmade laser game. It is an augmented reality game where two players compete. Each participant inserts their phone into a pistol and uses their phone to aim at their opponent. The play area turns into real battlefields and to push realism to the maximum the designers have thought of everything. When you run out of ammunition, you must remove the magazine from the pistol for real and replace it with another. Not easy, of course, but this game has the merit of being truer than life.

Conclusion

The Nerf Laser Ops Pro Alphapoint pack is not perfect, but it does have some fun. It will still offer hide-and-seek and battle games to children, without hurting themselves or breaking anything, and that's already really good. With an imprecise laser, it is probably much more immersive in large outdoor spaces, a garden for example where we could hide. Batteries not included or the need for a smartphone can put some brakes. As the armband is not at all secure and very uncomfortable, many parents will hesitate before lending their cell phone. The single player mode not accessible without an adapter is also a bad point for this game. But its price of € 30 and the compatibility of the application with other games in the Nerf range amortized this purchase well. It’s still a good laser game for young children.

Good points

• Intuitive application

• Good quality blaster

• Interesting game modes

Negative points

• Very uncomfortable and poor quality cuff

• Imprecise laser

• Batteries not supplied

• No security for the smartphone

Design and Ergonomics – 7

Application – 8

Getting started – 6.5

Facing the competition – 6.5

Value for money – 7

7

Design and Ergonomics : An interested design, coupled with good quality. The Blaster appears to be strong and resilient.

The application : An intuitive, well-made application that offers many features.

Getting started : A very unpleasant armband to wear. The smartphone is difficult to hold on the forearm and the laser is not very efficient.

Against competition : It is positioned quite well, despite some flaws it is a fun game.

Value for money : For 30 € children have what it takes to have a good time, spend and compete in different teams or even play solo if you buy the adapter.

AB SMART HEALTH REVIEW