iPhone & iPad Users Can Now Play ‘Star Wars’ HoloChess in Augmented Reality For Free

Disney and Lenovo teamed up last year to produce Star Wars: Jedi Challenges, a sampler of Star Wars games that worked with Lenovo’s smartphone-driven Mirage AR headset and wireless lightsaber. While the app supports both Android and iOS smartphones, now users on recent iPads and iPhones don’t need the headset at all to play one of the most iconic in the lot: Holochess. And it’s free. 

The update comes to iPhone and iPad users running iOS 11 or higher. Thanks to the app’s new ARKit compatibility, the full Holochess game mode is available for free including 18 levels across 6 planets and 8 unlockable creatures with unique special abilities. It doesn’t appear you can play any form of person vs person multiplayer though, which seems kind of like a missed opportunity.

Download Star Wars: Jedi Challenges for iOS here.

Using ARKit, developers tap into the iPhone’s backfacing camera to create apps and games that are overlaid on top of the physical world. This means you won’t need a headset to play, as the iPhone acts as an augmented reality window.

There’s no word on when Android will get a similar ARCore integration. So Android users not so hot on the idea of shelling out $200 for the AR headset and lightsaber will have to wait a little longer, it seems.