Among Hasbro’s fall releases this year was an unexpected item – a new version of laser tag gear. Following previous iterations under both the Tiger Electronics and Hasbro brands, the Laser Ops series aims to enable play that is easy to pick up and use without any outside gear, but can be substantially upgraded when paired with smartphones. To that end, the first blasters in the line largely succeed.
The “Feel” of Nerf
The Power button sits on the right side, as does the indoor/outdoor switch. This switch increases the IR beam intensity for daytime play, when things like sunlight could interfere. In theory, you could use this for longer range at night…but assuming normal play conditions, you should be able to have consistent play at ranges of 200′.
Playing with Friends, Extra Gear Optional
Once all blasters are locked in and ready to play, you can shoot each other as long as you like. Blaster hits are made obvious via the dome lighting up red, and player “deaths” are accompanied by loud music. The sound is not optional, so don’t be using these in the library. Players can respawn back in relatively quickly, if you prefer keeping people in the game.
All Laser Ops blasters come with “gel” phone mounts for mounting the phone to your arm during play.
All by Myself?
Smartphone users without friends nearby can also use a single-player mode, involving a continuous spawn of attack drones. The game overlays itself on your main camera feed, allowing for an “augmented reality” experience. After pairing your blaster and picking the powerup you want to use, shoot the drones until they explode and reload as needed. Enemies spawn faster as time goes on, and have more health to drain before being destroyed.
Single player allows for the accumulation of experience points outside of multiplayer; some options for upgrades (respawn time, for example) can’t be used in single player but are applicable to multiplayer, for instance. The entire experience is also very well done, with hiccups only occurring so far when my older phone was trying to do lots of things at the same time.
It should be noted that single-player packs of Laser Ops blasters come with a barrel attachment for mounting your phone. The double pack does not. It doesn’t make single player impossible, but it does mean you’ll probably be holding the phone in one hand while firing with the other, and reloading by pressing the handle against something.
Final Thoughts
The Nerf Laser Ops Pro Alphapoint is a great starting blaster in this new line. It has the feel of a Nerf blaster, and laser tag games can be organized straight out of the box without any extra gear. Having smartphones on hand, meanwhile, serves to augment and upgrade the experience, while also allowing single-player games. It’s a complete system with room to expand in both game types and blasters (there is also a burst-fire “rifle”, the Deltaburst, available).
It should be noted that these are not backwards-compatible with previous laser tag products. Fans of older systems will see this as a downside, but the new ecosystem is polished and easy to use.