POGs: The Mobile Game sends you back to the 1990s with an AR take on collectable cardboard discs

Nostalgia’s strange. You get excited on recalling a slice of your youth, only to relive it and realise it was rubbish. On this basis, Stuff isn’t entirely convinced we need POGs to return – colourful cardboard discs you stack and whack with a heavy ‘slammer’ to try and flip them over – but POGs: The Mobile Game (from $20) is having a go nonetheless. Because it’s 2018 and Pokémon GO battered the world into submission, this new take has of course headed to AR. So no longer do you need to interact with human beings in real-life – now you can scan POGs into your phone, trade them with complete strangers, and then battle the entire world. Just remember it’s virtual POGs you’re supposed to be flipping, and not your expensive smartphone.

Craig Grannell Contributor

About

I’m a regular contributor to Stuff magazine and Stuff.tv, covering apps, games, Apple kit, Android, Lego, retro gaming and other interesting oddities. I also pen opinion pieces when the editor lets me, getting all serious about accessibility and predicting when sentient AI smart cookware will take over the world, in a terrifying mix of Bake Off and Terminator.

Areas of expertise

Mobile apps and games, Macs, iOS and tvOS devices, Android, retro games, crowdfunding, design, how to fight off an enraged smart saucepan with a massive stick.