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The Best Apple Arcade Games for 2021

Apple Arcade bundles fun, premium mobile games in one low-cost, monthly subscription. If you’re ready to explore the top titles, check out these 25 games that will make you kick free-to-play cash grabs to the curb.

Over the past decade, mobile devices became gaming platforms on par with dedicated consoles. Modern phones and tablets pack enough power to deliver beautiful, complex gaming experiences, and not simply the causal fare that’s dominated the space. Though, there’s nothing wrong with casual gaming!

Unfortunately, the mobile gaming market has slowly devolved to the point where now only exploitative, free-to-play (F2P) games that extract your cash via psychological traps and microtransactions can thrive. Maybe it’s because audiences don’t want to pay money upfront. Maybe publishers realize this model lets them earn more profit with less work. Whatever the reason, we’re now at the sad point where you can spend more money on the mediocre Mario Kart Tour than the proper (portable!) Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

That’s why, as someone who believes in mobile gaming’s potential, Apple Arcade’s launch was so exciting. For $5 per month, Apple gives you access to a fast-growing library of nearly 200 premium games to enjoy on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV with a real controller connected. None of these games compromise their design with garbage F2P mechanics, and that’s so refreshing to see in this space. It harkens back to mobile gaming’s promising and exciting early days. For the same price, Apple Arcade arguably offers more exclusive, high-quality original content to gamers than Apple TV+ offers to movie and TV fans. That streaming video service’s best show, Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet, happens to be about video games, anyway.

A new update recently expanded the types of games you’ll find on Apple Arcade. Alongside exclusive originals from famous developers, you can now play App Store Greats (remastered versions of past acclaimed App Store games) and Timeless Classics (new versions of old favorites, such as chess and sudoku). Along with GameClub, Apple Arcade helps mobile gaming take its history seriously.

Here are the Apple Arcade titles worth playing right now. Note that while you won’t find these games on other mobile devices, or available for purchase on the App Store outside of Apple Arcade, some are available on other dedicated gaming consoles and PC stores. Still, Apple Arcade is the only place you can play them all in one convenient, affordable, Apple One bundle.

Assemble With Care

Assemble With Care takes tasks as mundane as unpacking a suitcase or fixing a tape recorder and fills them with the gentle, intimate puzzle-solving fun you’d expect from the makers of Monument Valley. Few developers are as skilled at harnessing the touch screen’s expressive interface capabilities.

Card of Darkness

Card of Darkness has pleasing aesthetics (courtesy of Adventure Time creator Pendleton Ward), unexpected remixes of familiar but elegant strategy systems, and number-based card game mechanics. It’s what we’ve come to expect from Zach Gage, creator of other mobile masterpieces, such as Really Bad Chess and SpellTower.

Cat Quest II

The original Cat Quest claimed to be “Skyrim With Cats” and somehow delivered on that promise. Cat Quest II is more of the same: an accessible, yet surprisingly deep and addictive action-RPG starring cats. This time you can play with a friend.

ChuChu Rocket! Universe

ChuChu Rocket! Universe puts a new spin on the clever 3D, spatial puzzles of the original Sega Dreamcast game. It doesn’t change my lukewarm opinions of Sega’s final home console all the way back from 1999, but I’m glad this series made a comeback.

Crossy Road Castle

Crossy Road asked “What if Frogger was about a chicken crossing the road?” and wound up becoming one of our all-time favorite mobile games for kids or anyone else who wanted in on the action. Crossy Road Castle tries something different. Instead of crossing endless roads, you control a chicken who traverses platforming levels in an endless tower. Change in genre aside, Crossy Road Castle’s challenge is still fun. The Crossy Road franchise is mobile gaming royalty, after all.

EarthNight

EarthNight is essentially an automatic runner, one of the most common mobile gaming genres, occasionally broken up by bits where you fall from the sky. But the art is so distinct, the music so fresh, and the motion so freeing and fluid, that you can’t help but get swept up into it. Plus, you stab a dragon in the eye with a sword.

Exit the Gungeon

Exit the Gungeon is more than just a great name for a sequel to Enter the Gungeon. It maintains the original’s ability to marry simple 2D arenas with surprisingly nuanced and action-packed gunfight mechanics. In this case, the touch screen actually makes firefights a lot easier.

Fantasian

Final Fantasy’s creator doesn’t work for Square Enix anymore, but doesn’t mean he’s done making high-quality JRPGs. Fantasian is the latest project from Hironobu Sakaguchi’s Mistwalker studio. The turn-based gameplay may harken back to the past, but the gorgeous, shining visuals feel straight from the future.

Grindstone

Grindstone is already cool enough as a block-matching puzzle game where you sometimes worry about the blocks biting back. But it’s the satisfying carnage that happens when your beefy fantasy hero chops through those monsters that put this game over the top. If you’ve heard of any Apple Arcade title, it’s probably this one, for good reason.

Manifold Garden

Manifold Garden has been in the works for years and years. When you play the puzzle game, you’ll understand why. Traveling through its impossible geometry feels like an effortless dream, but designing these trippy challenges was surely a stressful nightmare.

Mutazione

Mutazione is a story-heavy, melancholic adventure through an otherworldly mutated natural environment. It’s as if the game Night in the Woods was also a chill version of the movie Annihilation. If you get those those references, you’ll dig this game.

NBA 2K21 Arcade Edition

Don’t let “Arcade Edition” fool you. While 2K’s beloved basketball sim is a bit simplified on Apple Arcade, you’ll still need technical skill to achieve your hoop dreams. Maintain a strong defense. Properly time your shots on the touch screen. It feels like serious basketball, and the game’s high production value means NBA 2K21 Arcade Edition looks like serious basketball, too.

Neo Cab

Neo Cab presents a barely futuristic world where you are the last human driver competing against automated rideshare services, while trying to find your missing friend. It’s really engrossing. That said, I just can’t get behind being a taxi driver that talks to customers this much, something I never want in real life.

Oceanhorn 2

Whereas the original Oceanhorn ripped off The Wind Waker for its Legend of Zelda influences, Oceanhorn 2 has its hungry eyes set on Breath of the Wild. However, the overall structure is still closer to a traditional 3D Legend of Zelda game. It remains quite ambitious and beautiful for a mobile adventure.

Overland 2

It’s easy to say that Overland was inspired by Into the Breach, but the game has been in development so long that it’s definitely not the case. Still, both are turn-based roguelikes that emphasize desperate tactics in the face of random odds rather than grand, overarching strategy. As you travel across the small grids that make up the wasteland, you need to make tough decisions such as how to quietly look for precious gas, when to heal your dog, and whether you should just bail. The interface is designed to make the famously dense strategy genre more accessible to, say, tabletop players, and it looks clean as a result. At least, as clean as a post-apocalyptic interface can look.

Pinball Wizard

In a world where pinball-inspired games are becoming increasingly abstract (Creature in the Well, Yoku’s Island Express) Pinball Wizard is relatively straightforward. Each dungeon floor is a relatively traditional table, but they’re full of monsters that you defeat by bouncing the adorable wizard into them.

Really Bad Chess+

Developer Zach Gage is the absolute king of taking familiar casual games and turning them into innovative, approachable art. Really Bad Chess is chess where all of your pieces are random. Sometimes you’re blessed with five queens. Other times, you’ll need to wrangle an entire herd of knights. With so much of traditional chess dominated by the need to memorize specific strategies, this twist adds exciting unpredictability for both players and viewers, alike.

Sayonara Wild Hearts

Sayonara Wild Hearts is a synesthesia synthesis of visuals and music that render word-based descriptions almost useless. It’s a vaporwave/blur/pop art album of a video game that’s like the musician Saint Pepsi made a new Rhythm Heaven game. Or, if Thumper’s industrial beats didn’t hate you. Or, if Persona 5 was made in the West, but was also Tetris Effect. Or, if that Daft Punk animated movie got a sequel. Does that make any sense? Who cares? Queen Latifah is in this.

Shantae and the Seven Sirens

Shantae and the Seven Sirens continues the journey of the half-genie hero and her cheesecake friends, finally combining modern illustrated graphics with the classic nonlinear structure for the exploratory action-adventure platforming. Just make sure to play this one with a controller.

Shinsekai: Into the Depths

Shinsekai is one of the most traditionally AAA Apple Arcade games. It’s a beautiful Metroidvania from Capcom about exploring and surviving an essentially wordless undersea world. Everything is made to look like sculptures, and trudging through the depths feels as weighty and as floaty as it should. Your air supply is both your health and your means to propel yourself. Use your melee weapon to club enemies or send out sonar pulses to spot new treasures. Craft spears to shoot from your gun. Fight huge bosses. Enter the depths.

Sneaky Sasquatch

As the Sneaky Sasquatch, you don’t just dig through trash to find food to live. You also have fun ruining race car competitions or invading posh golf clubs. The low-stakes life-sim reminds me of Animal Crossing or Stardew Valley. There’s some light stealth, too, as you’ll need to move quietly or wear a disguise to infiltrate human spaces, Octodad-style. Or, tell the park ranger to shove it and openly be Sasquatch.

Threes!+

Threes! remains one of the best puzzle games of the past decade. No amount of 2048 rip-offs will ever change that. On Apple Arcade you can play the original game, ad-free, in all of its adorable, number-sliding glory.

Ultimate Rivals

Ultimate Rivals lets you build an all-star team from a selection of famous athletes, and get funky with what they play. Wayne Gretzky kicks a soccer ball. Megan Rapinoe throws an American football. LeBron James swings a baseball bat. This is the Super Smash Bros. of arcade sports games, and it’s a lot of fun.

What The Golf?

What The Golf? makes you question the limits of what constitutes a golf game. Is it just about hitting a ball into a hole? What about hitting a hole into another hole? Hitting your club with another club? The answers to these questions, and more, are waiting.

World of Demons

When you see the PlatinumGames logo, you expect stylish, high-flying action and deceptively deep combat. World of Demons delivers. Dodging and executing sword combos on the touch screen feels surprisingly fluid, while the ability to summon powerful slain monster souls expands your attack options. The cel-shaded, Japanese art style looks like a painting come to life.

Play More Games

You may not get them all in one sweet mobile subscription deal, but there are plenty of other games out there worth playing, too.

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7 лучших игр в Apple Arcade. Можно ставить, скучно не будет

Каталог игр сервиса Apple Arcade растет и увеличивается каждый месяц. Не все игры по подписке способны затянуть надолго, однако, годные приложения появляются регулярно.

Мы нашли несколько стоящих игр, как среди недавних новинок, так и среди “старожилов” аркадного каталога.

1. Решаем проблемы растущего города в Mini Motorways

Разработчик: Dinosaur Polo Club
Категория: стратегии, аркады

Несколько лет назад в Steam, а затем и в App Store, появилась занимательная игрушка Mini Metro. Приложение покорило миллионы пользователей на разных платформах, а с появлением Apple Arcade разработчики выпустили новую “залипалочку” Mini Motorways.

Вам предстоит строить дороги в развивающемся городе. Главная задача – обеспечить проезд для машин определенного цвета к соответствующим зданиям. Когда цветов всего два, а зданий меньше десятка, проблем не возникает, но в любой момент может появиться новая постройка, что приводит к пробкам и коллапсу всей системы.

С новыми уровнями появляются туннели, мосты, кольцевые развязки и надземные магистрали. Играется в Mini Motorways быстро и легко, приложение способно затянуть от нескольких часов до нескольких дней.

2. Учимся играть в баскетбол с NBA 2K22 Arcade Edition

Разработчик: 2K
Категория: спортивные симуляторы

Хоть баскетбол не является достаточно популярным видом спорта в нашей стране, но всем подписчикам Apple Arcade обязательно стоит попробовать новую игру в каталоге игр – NBA 2K22. На данный момент это один из лучших спортивных симуляторов для iPhone и iPad. Пока футбольные “симы” вроде FIFA или PES скатились в постоянный донат и рандомный сбор карточек, NBA 2K22 остается классическим спортивным симулятором для мобильной платформы.

Есть режим карьеры с прокачкой своего баскетболиста, быстрая игра, сезон, уличный баскетбол и сетевые сражения.

Можно играть вдвоем на одном устройстве, для более комфортного управления рекомендуем обзавестись совместимым геймпадом. Приложение доступно на всех платформах, играть можно на iPhone, iPad, Mac и даже Apple TV.

3. Разгадываем головоломки в подземном мире Creaks

Разработчик: Amanita Design s.r.o.
Категория: платформеры, аркады

Красивый и завораживающий платформер от создателей Machinarium и Botanicula.

Вам предстоит пройти десятки сложных уровней в волшебном подземном городе. Каждая локация набита ловушками, врагами и головоломками. В процессе игры предстоит не только поломать голову над решением разных задачек, но и продемонстрировать хорошую реакцию, чтобы оказаться в нужном месте в нужное время.

📱 Скачать Creaks – бесплатно в App Store (с подпиской Apple Arcade)

4. Возвращаем цвета в черно-белую вселенную Discolored

Разработчик: Shifty Eye
Категория: аркады, головоломки

По сюжеты вашему герою предстоит вернуть цвета в мрачный черно-белый мир. Для этого придется исследовать несколько небольших локаций, найти нужные предметы и решить разнообразные головоломки.

В приложении приятная графика и успокаивающая музыка. Отсутствие сюжета и ролевых диалогов настраивают на неспешное медитативное прохождение.

📱 Скачать Discolored – бесплатно в App Store (с подпиской Apple Arcade)

5. Выживаем в геометрическом мире SP!NG

Разработчик: SMG Studio
Категория: платформеры, аркады

Это игра про приключения замысловатой геометрической фигуры в мире полном опасностей и сокровищ.

Прохождение потребует хорошей реакции и умения вовремя попадать в тайминг. Без этих качеств собрать все бонусы на уровне и при этом не угодить в ловушку у вас точно не получится.

📱 Скачать SP!NG – бесплатно в App Store (с подпиской Apple Arcade)

6. Летаем на бумажном самолетике в Lifeslide

Разработчик: Block Zero
Категория: инди, аркады

Весь игровой процесс построен вокруг управления простым бумажным самолетиком. Это не мешает Lifeslide затягивать игроков легкой атмосферой, динамически меняющимися локациями и классным звуковым сопровождением.

Разнообразят игру бонусы, бусты и улучшения, без сбора которых далеко на кусочке бумаги не улетишь.

📱 Скачать Lifeslide – бесплатно в App Store (с подпиской Apple Arcade)

7. Сражаемся командой на команду с героями LEGO® Brawls

Разработчик: LEGO
Категория: сетевые, аркады

Забавные командные сетевые сражения в милом и знакомом мире конструктора LEGO. Каждая битва начинается в небольшой симметричной локации с бонусами и местами для перестрелок.

За время сражения нужно копить кубики и собирать более действенные виды оружия, чтобы быстрее сокрушать своих врагов.

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