Put Your iPad’s LiDAR Scanner to the Test with These AR Games

Zombie Gunship Revenant AR

Zombie games are a dime a dozen these days, but there aren't many that take advantage of augmented reality. And while Zombie Gunship Revenant AR is not what you might expect from a zombie game, it's still fun to play.

Instead of killing zombies close and personal, you'll be in a helicopter, taking hordes of zombies in the air. You'll control your gun by moving your iPad around. The game will show you the terrain with a thermal camera, so you'll know where the zombies are. Once you find them, you'll have to use everything in your arsenal to get rid of them. You can use guns, cannons, missiles, and many more weapons to kill them all, again.

The Machines

You've probably heard of The Machines before, as it was a highly anticipated AR game for the App Store.

The Machines is a multiplayer AR game where you have to destroy the towers of your enemies and take their base in order to win. You'll have to use your own skills and the abilities of your robots to claim your victory.

You can play with people from all over the world, and climb the leaderboard, or you can also battle your friends and the number one on your friend leaderboard.

If you like action and strategy, this game is worth the $4.99. It'll keep you moving in more than one way.

Angry Birds AR: Isle of Pigs

The Angry Birds games have been around for almost as long as the App Store itself. And it seems like these little birds with anger-management issues aren't going anywhere either. Now you can even play them in AR with its game Angry Birds AR: Isle of Pigs.

This game follows the same formula as the classic Angry Birds games: you'll control a certain number of birds and you have to use them to destroy the green piggies' structures.

The difference is that now you use your own environment. You can move around in your room and see the structures and piggies from different perspectives. This creates a new way to play and to interact with the birds and pigs.

Kings of Pool

Playing pool with your friends might not be as easy as it was before, but that doesn't mean it's impossible. You can always have an AR pool session thanks to Kings of Pool.

Kings of Pool lets you experience the game as realistically as possible. With an AR experience and similar physics of real-life pool, you'll feel as if you're playing the actual game.

You'll have to face against eight other players from around the world to become the best in the game. Once you're done with that, you can challenge real players from all over the world, or have a casual game with any of your friends. If you don't have anyone to play with, there's even an online chat you can use to meet other pool players.

And, if you're good enough, there's also a leaderboard you can try to climb by defeating the best players in the game.

Quiver

Not every game has to be about killing zombies or escaping animatronics. And if you want something for your kids to play, you'll want to avoid those kinds of games.

For a more family-friendly AR experience, you can play Quiver, a 3D coloring game. What's cool about Quiver is that it combines traditional coloring with today's technology.

You can download specific drawings for your kids to color, and once they're done you can start the Quiver app to bring their drawings to life.

You can interact with every drawing in the app. They make small animations and actions depending on what you want them to do. While the 3D models on the iPad are not the best, they have a unique style that your kids might like. Plus it's a good way to kill time when staying indoors.

ARia's Legacy - AR Escape Room

As you can guess from the name, ARia's Legacy is an Escape Room game you can play on your iPad. It uses Augmented Reality to scan your surroundings and create an Escape Room right where you are.

You're part of a team of archaeologists, and when you stumble upon a chest, you're thrown into a room filled with puzzles. Your goal is to interact with the room, solve the puzzles, and get out of there. Or, you can keep digging, no pun intended, and find ARia and discover her legacy.

Ghosts 'n Guns

If you're into shoot'em up games, you might want to give Ghosts 'n Guns a try. This fun AR game has you shooting different types of pixelated ghosts around your house or wherever you are.

There are several levels for you to complete. In order to make some progress, you have to destroy as many enemies as you can and fight a boss at the end of the level.

Ghosts 'n Guns is not the most complex game you'll find on the App Store, but it does its job right. If you want a solid game filled with senseless shooting and tons of fun, this game is worth a shot. Pun intended.

dARk: Subject One

Augmented reality and horror games shouldn't be mixed together, but they do exist, even on the App Store. A good example is dARk: Subject One, a short horror story that you can play in your own home.

In dARk, you'll play as Subject #3 and your goal is to enter a different dimension and rescue your colleague who got trapped in there.

As you progress through the game, you'll find out more about this dimension and what actually happened to your colleague. You'll also find out you're not alone in there and you'll have to do everything you can to get out alive.

Even if the game is short and a little old now, it'll still give you a spooky experience.

The Birdcage 2

The Birdcage 2 combines puzzles, magic, and AR into one place.

You'll play as a sorceress who's looking for an all-powerful wizard hoping he teaches her what he knows.

Instead of the wizard, she finds a bunch of puzzles in the shape of, you guessed it, birdcages. You'll have to move around to solve a number of puzzles. Once you open the birdcage, you'll free the magical creatures that were trapped by dark magic.

With a bunch of spells and magic, hard puzzles, and many different collectibles throughout the game, The Birdcage 2 is a good game to start using the LiDAR on your iPad Pro.

Paper Bin AR

If you've been playing mobile games for a while, you probably remember Paper Toss, a silly little game where you, well, toss paper into a bin. The game was simple and it was just a creative way to spend your time.

Now, you can continue spending your time in a more immersive way thanks to Paper Bin AR. As you would expect from a game like this, you'll only toss paper around your own environment. You can move the bin and adjust the difficulty of the game. There are also global and local leaderboards to compete against other players.

Like the original Paper Toss, there's not much more you can do in the game, but it's strangely addictive. If you need to kill time, Paper Bin AR will help you do that.

Five Nights at Freddy’s AR: Special Delivery

If you're a fan of the Five Nights at Freddy's universe, chances are you probably played this game. But for anyone else who's into jump scares, Five Nights at Freddy’s AR: Special Delivery is a great AR game that'll give you exactly that.

Special Delivery is a game where the animatronics of Five Nights at Freddy's get into your own house. You'll have to use your iPad as a tool to see them and as a weapon to protect yourself.

You'll have to move around, using your flashlight and taser gun to defend yourself. If you let the animatronics get to close to you, you'll get jump scared and you'll lose.

There are a bunch of collectibles and different characters to unlock. And you can also create custom animatronics and send them to other players near you.