PulzAR is a small scale title that tasks players with the monumental task of saving the world by using the six AR cards that come bundled with every PlayStation Vita. Your mission is to logically guide laser beams in order to activate the missile defense systems to destroy a giant meteor that threatens to wipe out the planet. The only way to accomplish this task is to play with the angle of reflective surfaces. You play the game by placing the cards within the play area, at which point the game generates all of the component pieces that constitute the level. You can then choose the piece you want to control by pressing the R shoulder button. From here you can delete, rotate, or replace each node using the touchscreen and analog stick. Completing each level will fire a missile that destroys 1/5 of the massive meteor. Only once you have completed all of the puzzles will the threat of a meteoric collision be fully avoided.

PulzAR is broken down into five different parts of escalating difficulty: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon. The first three sections introduce new components and game mechanics to play around with in training sessions before you are allowed to try your hand at a real level. The introduction of these elements, which include different colored lasers, and nodes that refract beams of light in two directions at once, feels natural and prevents things from getting stale too early on. That being said, I think with a little imagination there is potential for a lot more components and different interactions between them. The learning curve is manageable; more than anything the game seeks to test your visual-spatial reasoning, not bombard you with overly complex mechanics.

In addition to activating the missile launches, your secondary goal is to collect coins. Each level has three coins spread some distance apart from each other. You can collect these coins by passing a beam of light through them as long as you are still reaching the activation nodes. This challenge is simple enough to begin with but later on you may have to sacrifice a coin or two for the sake of completing a level within the time limit. Overall there are 75 coins to collect in the game, which require an insane amount of ingenuity to gather and provide incentive to replay some levels. Other elements that factor into your score are the amount of time elapsed and whether you were able to complete the level without playing all of the items at your disposal.

The biggest issue with the game has to do with the technical limitations of the AR technology. The game requires ample lighting and a flat and undisturbed surface to play on (ideally the top of a table). I did my best to create these conditions at all times but still encountered annoying interruptions of gameplay. In certain cases the Vita’s camera would fail to recognize when I placed a new AR card and would not place a much-needed piece even as time continued to wind down. Other times a small disturbance in the position of any of the on field cards was enough to disrupt the carefully guided path of my lasers, forcing me to rearrange everything in an attempt to implement that strategy again. PulzAR claims that you are in control and encourages you to move around with your Vita (as long as it’s aimed at the play area) to get a better view of things, but at times even minor involuntary movements were enough for the game to claim to be out of range.

PulzAR has a minimalist but nonetheless sleek look to it. Whatever environment you happen to be playing in becomes the backdrop for the game itself, courtesy of the Vita’s rear camera. If you point the device upwards, the sky becomes starry and you can catch a glimpse of the massive meteor hovering overhead. Once you have laid out all of the cards and have the beams directed exactly where you want them to go, it's actually a visually impressive sight, with intricate patterns resulting from the criss-crossing beams of light. However, other than the three primary colors for the lasers - red, blue, and yellow - most of the other objects are different shades of white and grey.

The game sounds great too. All of the mechanisms come with their own convincing sound effects, like the sizzle of a laser as it bounces off a reflective surface, or the sound of meteors hailing down from above, leaving behind small craters. The soundtrack repeats itself often but the tunes are sterile (I mean that as a compliment) and fit the game well. At the beginning of a level the music starts off calm and relaxed and gradually grows louder and more frenzied as time wears on, until ultimately a full-on alarm sounds off, warning of impending impact. This change of tempo caused my pulse to rise on several occasions as I desperately made last minute adjustments to try and clear a level.

PulzAR is available for download from the PlayStation Store for only $1.99, making it one of the cheapest games available on the Vita. The game is comprised of 25 puzzling levels, which took me several hours to clear because I had to retry many of the more difficult challenges before succeeding. There are also online leaderboards, as well as Trophy support, so you can compare your completion times and level scores with players from all over the world.

PulzAR is cleverly engaging but it’s held back by the limitations of the very technology it is built around. It's not the most exciting use of augmented reality you'll ever see, but at least it's something to tide you over for a few hours and make you think. While not exactly out-of-this-world incredible, PulzAR is much more satisfying than any of the free AR games available for download on the system. Considering its low price point, PulzAR offers a low-risk and novel way to make the most out of the Vita’s AR capabilities. 

This review is based on a copy of PulzAR for the PlayStation Vita, downloaded from the PlayStation Store.