Who didn’t play some sort of pong as a kid? Sonic Speed Ball, the first app out of Boston-area Theoretical Labs, is working to enable that childhood obsession on your phone. The two developers behind Theoretical Labs launched the $0.99 app last week, dubbing it, “a new type of air pong game based on sound instead of sight.” And they’re not stopping with Sonic Speed Ball, currently working on building two other app ideas. We’re looking forward to seeing more from this team.
The game is simple: connect your phones over Bluetooth, swing to serve, swing to receive, and determine when to swing by the loudness of the sound. Think tennis on Nintendo Wii, but with iPhones, and with sound instead of visual cues that let you know when to swing.
Review: This app takes some imagination
The game play reads, “Half the fun is really getting into it, so jump high or swing low.” And after playing, I’d have to agree this app is probably best for people who have some imagination and are less in tune with the precision of when to swing (read: children).
While the instructions explain you have to swing perfectly to hit the ball, for the most part I seemed to make contact no matter what I did – dropping it in my lap, swinging sideways, throwing it on the couch, etc. Aditionally, the peak loud point when you’re suppose to swing did not seem quite differentiated enough from the sound of the ball approaching. Two player mode was definitely more fun, but when one of us missed, it didn’t feel apparent as to why.
Looking forward to more
Sonic Speed Ball is a fantastic concept and off to a great start for its version 1 release. The use of sound in gaming like this we look forward to seeing more of. We can see how kids could really get into playing this, “jumping high” and “swinging low,” and pretending there is a real ball involved.
Personally, I would love to see some added entertainment within the game — I’m thinking WarioWare-esque micro-games but within the game, like “strike a pose” or “do XYZ in under 10 seconds” competition between players between serves. Overall, if there were greater difficulty and sound differentiation (perhaps some sort of vibration involved in measuring the when the opponent makes contact / peak of the approaching ball?), this game could be not only a blast – but addictive, too.
Mobile is hot right now in Boston, and BostInnovation is really looking forward to seeing more from the duo at Theoretical Labs.
To learn more about Theoretical Labs follow them on Twitter.
