According to a post on X (previously Twitter) on Thursday, Google and Taito have introduced a new “indoor mode” to their Space Invaders AR game. In this new mode for Space Invaders: universe Defense, the game will automatically pilot your ship around a previously created universe while you concentrate on shooting aliens with your thumb.
For the few minutes I played about with the new indoor mode, it was kind of entertaining. The game has a cute wireframe-like aesthetic, and slamming the screen to destroy Space Invaders was fun. I like that there is an indoor mode because I don’t want to wave my phone around outside when playing games.
Having said that, the introduction of an indoor mode might not be the best sign for a game that only released a month ago. Outside of Pokémon Go, AR phone games have mostly failed; even Niantic, the company behind Pokémon Go, recently shut down games based on the NBA and Marvel. World Defense now only has 27 reviews on the US App Store and 300 reviews and more over 50,000 downloads on Google Play, indicating that it isn’t particularly popular.
