The PlayStation Vita supports augmented reality or AR in games by using the front or back-facing cameras. Now a new prototype game called Miku Miku Hockey looks to possibly give Japanese gamers another reason to buy a PS Vita.
Miku Miku Hockey is a collaboration between Sony Computer Entertainment Japan Asia and Crypton Future Media, the company that created the digital voice synthesizer/character Hatsune Miku. With it, you can use the PS Vita to play a virtual game of air hockey against the digital diva herself or her creepy, super-deformed redesign, Mikudayo. Sony’s Smart AR technology makes all this possible.
Lat and Suzu, who created the character designs for the popular animation program MikuMikuDance, provided the designs for this game as well.
Unfortunately for now, Miku Miku Hockey will only be playable at Niconico Choukaigi 2, a convention held this weekend in the Makuhari Messe by Nico Nico Douga (Japan’s equivalent to YouTube), with no retail release planned. Honestly, MMH has the potential to be more than a tech demo and be a popular downloadable PS Vita game.
Ernest Lin is a US Editor for PSU when he’s not playing Hatsune Miku Project Diva f on his PS Vita. You can follow him on Tumblr & Twitter.