They Made An IRL 3D Chess From 'Star Wars' With NBA Players

We did it gang. We made it to the future. No there’s no stupid flying cars or dumb universal healthcare, there’s something much, much better: the 3D chess from Star Wars. But with basketball players. The mad geniuses at Sequoia games have patented their gameplay and use “Flexagon” technology to make a trading card game that comes to life right before your eyes. It’s called Flex NBA. 

Instead of cardboard cards, you have Flexagons, hexagonally shaped pieces each representing an NBA player. You array your team on a basketball court board that comes with the set you purchase and then players use their special abilities and attacks not to chip away at each other’s health, but their opponent’s “confidence points”. Using your phone, you can view the board and AR brings the tiles to life. Put two of the tiles together and players from the same real life team will interact with each other in friendly ways, high fiving, even running plays. Rivals will act less friendly, throwing out thumbs downs when they see each other. The sets are available online and in limited stores in California… for now. They’ve got plans to be in a lot of major retailers soon and to expand to other sports as well. 

The art on the tiles is awesome, some players look stylized, some hyper realistic, and each Flexagon has a unique code registered to the owner. You can keep track of your roster digitally and trade with other players IRL by deregistering that tile’s code. During the course of the game, players accrue status effects and engage in strategic gameplay to take down the opposing team. A specialized D20 gives you options for what you can do on your turn. There’s also an easy, math-free mode for kids under eight. It’s baller fun for the whole family. Even when you’re not playing, you can use your phone’s AR to bring the NBA players into your home, shrinking them down to the size of a waste basket, or scaling them up to their full height to take a selfie with you. For Magic: The Gathering heads like me, it’s a dream come true and I hope we see this technology brought to other TCGs soon. For now, you can register for the Flex NBA tournament Sequoia Games is throwing in October and try to snag the ten thousand dollar prize or check out the game trailer here.