‘One Piece’ Game Blends Playing Cards and iPhone AR App

At the International Tokyo Toy Show this past weekend, Bandai was showing off its augmented reality game ‘OnePiece ARcardass.’ Some of the cards (which you need to purchase separately) come with augmented reality markers on them, and when you view them via the free ARcardass application, your character will magically appear on your screen.

The game, while very unfortunately named (did you really need that extra ‘S’?), seems like a lot of fun. Collect new character cards from the popular One Piece series, and then use those characters in battle in the iPhone game.

Using augmented reality and an iPhone game is certainly a great parallel offering to what would otherwise be fairly boring playing cards (sorry, but I’m not a fan). My guess is that Bandai will sell far more cards this way, so players can collect as many characters as possible.

Here’s a picture of my dog Pepe (above) sitting unsuspectingly behind my new game character Tony Tony Chopper. I’m not sure he realizes that there’s a virtual anthropomorphic reindeer standing inches from his beef jerky stick.

Check the video promo for One Piece AR Carddass below.