Be a Marvel superhero courtesy Lenovo's new AR experience

You can be Captain America and wield his shield, or choose to be Thor and hold the massive hammer, or even be Dr Strange with his magic circle.

For avid gamers, Lenovo is offering these popular superhero characters, courtesy its Mirage Augmented Reality (AR) experience as part of the new 'Marvel Dimension of Heroes' in collaboration with Disney, that was unveiled at the tech industry's event "IFA 2019" here.



Lenovo, which first launched the 'Star Wars: Jedi Challenges' AR headset in 2017, has taken the superheroes experience for players to another level this time.



Players can don the Lenovo Mirage AR headset "to bring the superheroes into your space", and power the game with grip controllers, as they move their hands to vanquish the enemy.



"This is the hottest. The 'Marvel Family Dimension of Heroes' provides AR that allows people to experience things in new ways. While you can still see the environment around, the AR/VR provides an amazing active gaming experience, engaging the player in a new way," said Matt Bereda, Vice President, Global Consumer Marketing, Lenovo.



The smartphone-powered AR experience allows players to participate in life-sized battles. They can turn into Doctor Strange and fight Dormammu, or become Captain America, Thor, Black Panther, Captain Marvel and Star Lord, and punch and blast adversaries like Loki and the Winter Soldier.



It can work on the 'storyline mode' whereas Dr Strange the player can eventually defeat Dormammu, turn back time and work through the phases. Or it can be played on Survival mode, where the player takes on the bad guys, and also compete with friends online.

It can also be played in multi-mode, where the player can play with a partner, sometimes becoming Dr Strange or Black Panther, to take on the bad guys.



Each character you want to become gives you a different capability, like the Marvel characters.



The two universal grip controllers -- 6DOF (six degrees of freedom) -- have two buttons that can control the game and help the player use both hands to wield the weapons, while being in the living room.



"It provides a different experience. You can be Thor with the hammer or Captain America with the shield to get a new gaming experience altogether," said Wahid Razali, Lenovo Senior Product Marketing Manager.



"It's a very cool rich experience and lots of fun".



The product, compatible with the earlier 'Star Wars: Jedi Challenges', is to be first launched in the US in September.



"We will look at other countries later. We need to look at application to see if it can be rolled out in other countries, and other languages, like in Japanese," said Bereda, when asked when it would be rolled out in India.



The focus is on America as Lenovo is hoping to capitalize on the holiday season, after which it plans to focus on other markets.



"Lenovo is leaning on AR/VR in a big way, more than any other company. Lenovo is making the products very bullish on AR/VR," added Bereda.



The Star Wars: Jedi Challenges is available for download on a compatible smartphone. A free Marvel Dimension of Heroes update will add compatibility for players using the new Lenovo Mirage AR Universal Controllers.IANS