Hasbro’s new augmented reality ‘Twister’ lets you play the game by yourself

You know about Twister. The famous party game asks 2-3 players to balance their limbs on a series of colored dots, dictated by an increasingly absurd set of instructions. Right hand red. Left foot green. Repeat until multiple people fall on the floor in presumed hilarity. Now, Hasbro is changing the game: Twister Air is a music-focused, augmented reality alternative to the game that has no floor mat and less risk of falling down that you can play by yourself.

Specifically, Twister Air is a standing version of the classic game that uses a phone or tablet’s camera to track player movements, tasking them to match colored Twisters Air ankle and wrist bands with colored dots on the device’s screen. The game comes with 8 colored bands, but users will have to download a free iOS or Android app to play it.

At a glance, the game looks a little more like Dance Central than the original Twister. Players do rack up points by striking and holding weird poses, but they do so while listening to one of 16 included music tracks, including a new original song called “Twist in the air.” That shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who grew up watching commercials of the game: Twister ads have featured original bops that reflected the tone of multiple eras, from the 1960s, the 1980s, the 1990s and even the 2010s.

Perhaps the biggest departure from the original game, however, is the player count. Twister Air is played in either a solo or two player mode. The days of collapsing into a pile of unbalanced limbs are over.

Twister Air is up for pre-order on Amazon and will be available in stores on August 1st.

All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. All prices are correct at the time of publishing.

You know about Twister. The famous party game asks 2-3 players to balance their limbs on a series of colored dots, dictated by an increasingly absurd set of instructions. Right hand red. Left foot green. Repeat until multiple people fall on the floor in presumed hilarity. Now, Hasbro is changing the game: Twister Air is a music-focused, augmented reality alternative to the game that has no floor mat and less risk of falling down that you can play by yourself.

Specifically, Twister Air is a standing version of the classic game that uses a phone or tablet’s camera to track player movements, tasking them to match colored Twisters Air ankle and wrist bands with colored dots on the device’s screen. The game comes with 8 colored bands, but users will have to download a free iOS or Android app to play it.

At a glance, the game looks a little more like Dance Central than the original Twister. Players do rack up points by striking and holding weird poses, but they do so while listening to one of 16 included music tracks, including a new original song called “Twist in the air.” That shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who grew up watching commercials of the game: Twister ads have featured original bops that reflected the tone of multiple eras, from the 1960s, the 1980s, the 1990s and even the 2010s.

Perhaps the biggest departure from the original game, however, is the player count. Twister Air is played in either a solo or two player mode. The days of collapsing into a pile of unbalanced limbs are over.

Twister Air is up for pre-order on Amazon and will be available in stores on August 1st.

All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. All prices are correct at the time of publishing.