I have two game consoles at home, but I never found interesting team games for them. Getting together three or four of us online is not a problem, for this there are many even free games, but getting together and playing something in one apartment is difficult. Something suitable can be found, but holding three or four gamepads for this is too expensive.
So once I discovered the AirConsole service – a set of simple mini-games that run on a TV or computer, and instead of ordinary gamepads, you can use any smartphone.
AirConsole consists of two parts – the service runs on a TV, computer, laptop or tablet directly in a browser or a special application, and players connect to the session from their smartphones. The main thing is that all devices are on the same local network. To connect, you just need to enter a special code, which will appear in the application.
The number of participants is limited only by games – most often it is a maximum of 4 people, but some may have up to 8 or even up to 16 players. All modern smartphones on Android and iOS are supported, for control it is not even necessary to download the application, you can connect through a browser. The games themselves run on any computer in a browser or in a special application for Windows. There is a service for TVs, but only with Android TV, you can simply connect a laptop via HDMI to other models, even the weakest computer will do.
The AirConsole service itself is, of course, paid. There is a free mode in which there are 11 games available with a 2-player limit – that’s enough to give you a try and see if you need it. The service works without restrictions by subscription – it costs 329 ₽ per month. An annual subscription is now being sold at a discount, cheaper than a thousand dollars.
For example, I don’t use AirConsole all the time, I just subscribe and turn it off immediately until I need it next time.
A more important problem for some may be the translation, which is not in the games – they are all in English. In most games, this is not so important, everything will be clear without translation, but the service has good word games that will not be available without knowing the language, this should be taken into account.
What to play
For me, the beauty of AirConsole is that it has a variety of games that are both fun and very simple to keep everyone interested. There are more than 160 games in total, but there are only about 20 really good ones among them. This should be enough for a few fun evenings with friends.
On my own I want to recommend a few games. The most beloved among friends is The Neighborhood – it’s a cross between Worms and Angry Birds, only much simpler. The game has two teams, each with its own tower and a set of characters with various weapons. The goal is to eliminate all opponents by adjusting the trajectory of the shot.
Conclusion
You should be aware that AirConsole provide simple games that, in terms of quality, cannot even get close to modern projects for consoles and PCs. Usually one AirConsole game lasts for half an hour or an hour, but they can be constantly changed. So this set will last for a long time – it turns out to be an ideal option if you are not ready to pay tens of thousands for the console and several thousand for games.