Being in the emerging technologies field, I have had the opportunity to test many different systems involving Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR). The Star Wars Challenges VR system is a great introduction to AR for those who don't want to sink $1,000+ in a VR system and a high-end PC. This phone-based system takes the concept introduced to the public by the likes of Google Cardboard to the next level with the addition of a tracking beacon that orients the in-game graphics and your visual space to the real world, giving you a motion-sickness free experience that you soon lose yourself in. The three different types of games you can play provide hours of entertainment, which include a chess-type game, a battle strategy game, and the one you will purchase this for, the light saber battles. They are all designed to cater to your activity level, allowing you to pull up a seat in the middle of the floor for a thinking game of Holochess, get down on the floor to move your live-action battle, or break into a sweat fighting the likes of two Crimson Guards as you slash, block, duck right, slide left and duck under their onslaught, as well as many other enemies including Droid Troops, Grand Inquisitors, and the dreaded Darth Vader. In all, the cost of the system is worth the amount of entertainment you will receive, especially with some of the sales Best Buy has on the systems (I purchased mine at 50% off). At the discounted rates, and the recent release of a multi-player battle mode, It may be worth picking up two systems. PROS: - A wide variety of game play - Very stable, so no worry about motion sickness - The "hologram"-type graphics fit well to the plot, so you don't notice the resolution - Portable; You could play it outside on a nice clear night! - The developers are continually improving the gameplay - Setup is easy no matter what phone you use CONS: - The AR headgear is front-heavy, reducing the play length of any one session - Tested on seven different adults, and four children, and all wished the strap near the back of the head could be lower to help with the balance, but the design stops the strap at the top of the ears. - While the battery life of the lightsaber and tracking beacon are long, the app puts high-demand on your phone, which causes much heat and will have your phone battery running low before anything else. - There is no easy way to clear alerts or messages you may get on your phone during the game, so you have to disassemble the headgear to clear an alert. (I find putting it in airplane mode before playing reduces some of it, but the low-battery alert still has to be dealt with)

I was not sure what to expect, but the premise was more than enough to give it a try. I can't tell you how happy I was with the experience once I was up and running. OMG - it is more fun that I hoped. Holding and using the saber is a lifetime of dreams come true. I play this for hours each session and have not even bothered playing the other modes; that's how much fun battling 3D opponents with a lightsaber is. LOVE LOVE LOVE. [This review was collected as part of a promotion.]

I was greatly surprised by the quality for the price. It is the best AR I've played with. There is a lot to do within the game and it seems they keep it updated pretty well. Build quality was good, quality materials. Though it was plastic, it still feels good. Great gift for someone that likes tech, gaming, and/or Star Wars. [This review was collected as part of a promotion.]

Awesome device makes me feel like I'm actually fighting a Sith Lord. Darth Maul was as real as he came in though my living room amazing experience. Also the chess and combat was great so much detail in a AR gaming I also am pleased if they would do DL in the future for more gaming in Jedi Challenge. [This review was collected as part of a promotion.]

I bought this for my 13 y/o son for Christmas and he LOVES IT! Actually, we all love it. I wish there was a way to block incoming calls/texts while playing, because that can get annoying really fast. [This review was collected as part of a promotion.]

Not exactly for a younger kid to sit through activation and sync process. VERY GOOD quality! Would be fun if another person had one to battle you?? Box is super nice and definitely not cheaply made. Unfortunately, I'm returning ours.

We were so excited to buy this for a family gift and it looks amazing but none of our phones are compatible so we cant play it. Try to download app before purchase we did not realize none of our phones would work when we purchased.

Realistic and fun for players and spectators. Jedi is requested at every game night! [This review was collected as part of a promotion.]

This is so cool. I like how you can use different model phones with it. [This review was collected as part of a promotion.]

Excellent game. I bought this as a gift for my brother and his entire family can enjoy it.

I returned mine after 30 minutes and here's why. People want to this product for one reason: the lightsaber battles. I, like many, have been waiting for a VR product that simulates a lightsaber duel and this product finally gave me that opportunity. They got the hardware mostly right but the software is deplorable. I have no idea what the game designers were thinking. So, first of all, the lightsaber battles are all but hidden in the game -- you have to find the correct gameplay mode and then go through a bunch of mini-stages to reach the duel. The mini-stages are incredibly boring as all you do is deflect blaster shots that travel so slow it's almost impossible to miss them. Then, the duels themselves are all 'pre-scripted' -- the game tells you when to block and when to swing. Zero randomization. Where's the fun in that? Also, anyone who's watched a Star Wars movie knows that a single swipe of a lightsaber results in a limp being cut off or someone being cut in half -- yet, in this game, I can slice through Darth Maul 50 times and he's fine. How could they do this? Then, for some really strange reason, they decided to put a tower defense and chess game in the app. What?! Why?! Seriously, who buys a VR lightsaber system to play chess? The app should have been one thing: lightsaber duels. It should have worked like a 'fighter' game where you advance through 30 or so characters (both good and bad) and culminated with a battle against Vader or Luke depending on what side you chose. Like a fighter game, the battles should not have been pre-scripted and should have required some skill to win. New characters should have been introduced either through updates or in-app purchases. If/when they decide to make a second generation on this device, I seriously hope you'll consider changing how the app works -- you'll make gamers and star wars fans much happier.

3 Years and my son STILL plays with it. That is saying something!

It does not work with droid phones, ad is very misleading about other phones usage

This is really fun. If your phone is not on the list it will probably still work thanks to a "Custom" profile setting that lets you adjust the output to work. The Star Wars game is fun and lets you feel like you are using a lightsaber. You do need a decent amount of room. to play, roughly a 6 to 8 foot circle. The only issue is I can not also play Marvel Dimension of Heros. The only thing you would need are the "Universal Controllers", but those do not appear to be sold separately.This is really fun. If your phone is not on the list it will probably still work thanks to a "Custom" profile setting that lets you adjust the output to work. The Star Wars game is fun and lets you feel like you are using a lightsaber. You do need a decent amount of room. to play, roughly a 6 to 8 foot circle. The only issue is I can not also play Marvel Dimension of Heros. The only thing you would need are the "Universal Controllers", but those do not appear to be sold separately.

Very cool VR game. Ran it a few times with my iPhone X. Games is awesome, however, set up kind of stinks. Set up documentation is lacking a bit. Walk through the app BEFORE you put the phone in the headset!!!! Even go past the title screen. Also, be very careful putting the phone in adapter, first time I did my Zagg screen protector got caught on the one metal slide adjuster and ripped/cracked the protector (had to replace). Make sure the metal slides are back and also bend the plastic open a little more to give it space so you don’t caught on that dang thing each time. Other note is that the phone gets very hot, after about 45 mins of gameplay my phone showed the overheat warning so we were forced to stop. Phone was very hot when I took it out. If you can get by these issues, game is intense!! Would still recommend to any SW fan of any age!

About a year ago this product was first released and it sold for about $200 which I thought was overpriced and it was, now you can find it for less than $100 at most stores. This product isn't that great mostly because the lightsaber isnt in sync with your movements no matter how much you center it. The lightsaber hilt has a calibration button that centers the blade but after a few seconds or fast movements its out of sync again. This was especially frustrating when I had to make quick movemnts and ended up losing because the blade didnt move along with the lightsaber. The actual gameplay is pretty good it has holochess. lightsaber duels and a battlefeild game. It still could have been better but its still fun to play. The graphics arent that great either, you can still distinguish ... Read moreAbout a year ago this product was first released and it sold for about $200 which I thought was overpriced and it was, now you can find it for less than $100 at most stores. This product isn't that great mostly because the lightsaber isnt in sync with your movements no matter how much you center it. The lightsaber hilt has a calibration button that centers the blade but after a few seconds or fast movements its out of sync again. This was especially frustrating when I had to make quick movemnts and ended up losing because the blade didnt move along with the lightsaber. The actual gameplay is pretty good it has holochess. lightsaber duels and a battlefeild game. It still could have been better but its still fun to play. The graphics arent that great either, you can still distinguish different characters but its not very clear. The quality if the components is great they feel well built and it don't feel cheap.Read Less

About a year ago this product was first released and it sold for about $200 which I thought was overpriced and it was, now you can find it for less than $100 at most stores. This product isn't that great mostly because the lightsaber isnt in sync with your movements no matter how much you center it. The lightsaber hilt has a calibration button that centers the blade but after a few seconds or fast movements its out of sync again. This was especially frustrating when I had to make quick movemnts and ended up losing because the blade didnt move along with the lightsaber. The actual gameplay is pretty good it has holochess. lightsaber duels and a battlefeild game. It still could have been better but its still fun to play. The graphics arent that great either, you can still distinguish ... Read moreAbout a year ago this product was first released and it sold for about $200 which I thought was overpriced and it was, now you can find it for less than $100 at most stores. This product isn't that great mostly because the lightsaber isnt in sync with your movements no matter how much you center it. The lightsaber hilt has a calibration button that centers the blade but after a few seconds or fast movements its out of sync again. This was especially frustrating when I had to make quick movemnts and ended up losing because the blade didnt move along with the lightsaber. The actual gameplay is pretty good it has holochess. lightsaber duels and a battlefeild game. It still could have been better but its still fun to play. The graphics arent that great either, you can still distinguish different characters but its not very clear. The quality if the components is great they feel well built and it don't feel cheap.Read less

I will start with the negative - Sales person told us that my Galaxy Note9 was compatible even though the box didn't list my phone...they were wrong, so after spending a lot of time trying to load everything to use my phone finally found it was not going to work. Luckily my wife has the Galaxy S9, which although not listed on the box, is listed on the website as compatible. After a great deal of frustration, and talking to a useless tech support person, I have it workings. now, the positive...it is awesome. The graphics are so real, the audio is great, the many different types of battles you can do are beyond fun, and many turn out to be a great work out as well. Overall, I rate the fun and game a 5 but overall a 4 due to all the difficulties.

I found one of these in stock at my local store and had to pick it up. Downloading the app and setting it up were straightforward (this does require a compatible smartphone). The headset and light saber controller are comfortable and relatively sturdy. I have had issues on and off with the whole AR environment "spinning", but I think this is coming from my phone, not the headset. Give yourself plenty of space, and take on your favorite Star Wars baddies in virtual light saber duels. The "strategy" games are kind of fun, and the control feels surprisingly intuitive. If you are a Star Wars fan and enjoy virtual/augmented reality games, give this one a try.

So my friend and I bought this after the price was reduced to at least 99. I bought it on black friday making a deal out of it. I was going to do an unboxing video and mine are usually short and sweet and to the point. That was not the case with this one. We not only had to not do an unboxing video but we ourselves did not know how much work it was just to set up a demo. It is fun for playing but the hoops you have to go through to set it up is why it does not get 5 stars for me. You will have fun and it will drain your battery life of your app installed cell phone but I would wait for a sale for this kind of product and not spend anything about $99

Wish I could write -5 stars! Bought this for my son for Christmas and we were super excited to play it. Opened the box everything looked amazing. Got to the instructions telling us where and how to download the game to my phone. Searched the link and an error code came up. I tried again, same error code ... Started researching and found out you can't download the game any longer and that it's no longer supported by Lenovo and was retired June 1st 2022. If you can't download the required software why is it still for sale??? So frustrating, please do not buy this, it is very unfortunately a scam

This is really fun. If your phone is not on the list it will probably still work thanks to a "Custom" profile setting that lets you adjust the output to work. The Star Wars game is fun and lets you feel like you are using a lightsaber. You do need a decent amount of room. to play, roughly a 6 to 8 foot circle.\n\nThe only issue is I can not also play Marvel Dimension of Heros. The only thing you would need are the "Universal Controllers", but those do not appear to be sold separately.

This a must for any Star Wars fan from child to adult. Easy enough to set up. The younger kids need help loading the phone into the cartridge but that’s not really a deal breaker. Only thing I was disappointed about was there isn’t a big selection of Android phones that are compatible with it. We originally bought it for our 9 year old for Christmas but quickly realized his phone wouldn’t work with it. Thankfully we have iPhone 7’s so we just kept it and use it as a family toy.

Pros: great graphics. love that you can see the room your in and the saber in your hand, YOUR hand. good sound in headphones. portability. menus have much more options that your led to think they do. love that you can have a second player and battle each other.\n\nCons: to have a second player you have to buy an additional saber. can be a little tricky to set up. don't rush and you'll be OK.

This is a really fun game to play. The graphics and interaction with the characters is really cool. The setup instructions are a little vague and tough to walk through but once up its a blast to play. One other item - After about 20 minutes of play my phone came up with an over heating warning. So plan your battle to last about 15 minutes before needing to pull your phone out to cool.

These work best with Apple phones. Also recommend the play be limited to 30 min intervals, your phone will get hot. The kids (including adult kids) love the game play. The company will stand behind the refurbished models. If you don't have $$$, this option is a fun, and much cheaper second.

This does NOT work for iPhones that run ios14. Apparently this has been a known issue for some time and the company is in no rush to update the app. So disappointed because this was my sons big Xmas gift and now I have to return it.