Apple Arcade Review
Apple Arcade Review - with Best Games

Apple Arcade Review and Top 10 Games It has in the Store

April 10, 2020
by Arunyuvaraj
12 min read
9,859 Comments

This is my Apple Arcade review and WOOOW is the right word to start with this fantastic subscription. If you have asked me about this before the Apple Arcade Review, I would have not answered at all. But now, I’m sure after this detailed Apple Arcade Review that it is worth the time spending on it.

Now, I’m not a gamer as most of my time was dwindled with content creation. I have to accept that I have played some mortal Kombats and some other stuff here and there but not to lie with you all and the fact is I’m not a gamer. Yeah I do get to play PubG with my friends online but most of my mobile gaming was stopped with candy crush or Chess, kinda boring isn’t it? Let’s jumpinto the Apple Arcade review first and then we will check out the top ten Apple Arcade Games.

Apple Arcade Review

The games are curated by Apple and it is visible because you will not find a crappy one here. The biggest piece of the puzzle here is there will not be any microtransactions for anything else inside the subscription and it is completely adfree. You can play it on all the devices across the Apple ecosystem – iphone, ipad, mac and Apple TV; Without any fuss around, you can just skip from one device to another and just continue the game from where you have left earlier. 

All the games (at least the ones that we have captured) have an Indie spirit and polish running in them. After all my time with the Apple Arcade subscription service,  I have never come across a game that is a cheap or throwaway type of game, that you play for a bit and get irritated and never use again. And if you didn’t like one, guess what? You can always discard them and start playing the next game, as there are 100 plus of them. Apple Arcade multiplayer games are a total surprise though which lets you to share the gameplay with your friends or any other gamer who is online. I wont say these are the greatest mobile games you have ever played but I didn’t feel that there is a single piece of trash in there either. You got 100s of them to play and they were all in the ‘Good to Great’ category. The dashboard has a variety of games in it which can be found inside the categories as well – family, role playing, platformer, sports, strategy, adventure, action, multiplayer, puzzle, and also for beginners. Each game has their own kind of charm in them and additionally, in iOS 13, you can pair it via bluetooth with an xbox one or ps4 controller which can actually help you play and control the games a whole lot better. Along with your iPad, you can take your controller and play on the go when you are travelling in a metro or in an airplane for that matter 

The best way to think about Apple Arcade is that it works like an Xbox live Arcade but this time from Apple. There are properties you might recognise like sonic racing, and you got chu-chu rocket from dreamcast which alone is worth the fee Apple is charging because if you go and check out for mario kart in the iOS, it is somewhere around $4.99 just to access its gold tier items and its faster 200 cc engine. If you compare Arcade with such individual games, this is more than what it is worth. 

Apple Arcade Review
Apple Arcade Review with Best Games

Competition

Google has already launched its Arcade competitor Google Play Pass(only in the US though) and it is worth it if you are on android but Apple Arcade is in a completely different league. All these games are of high quality and exclusive to iOS, you can’t get these anywhere else. 

After hanging out with Apple Arcade for sometime now, I thought “Oh!! Should we start gaming again?” The quality level here is insane guys. It will be a nice add-on to boost Apple’s services. I can tell you this that if someone who used to be a gamer but now  does not have as much time anymore, Apple Arcade is absolutely a killer deal here. It is Rs.99 a month in India ($4.99 in the US & the fee depends on your country), you will get a month’s free trial and the membership could be shared with 5 of your family members. 

Top 10 Apple Arcade Games 

I’ve gone through about 20 plus out of the 100s of games in there and listed the most favorite, top ten Apple Arcade games here. These are the ones you have to check out at least in the free first month trial period and then go ahead for the subscription. Well before starting the list, I have a few other honorable mentions like sociable soccer, pac man, super impossible road, bleak sword and overland which are very much deserved to be on the top but it is just the level of competition is heavy. 

  1. Sayanora Wild Hearts 

First up is Sayanora Wild Hearts which easily can be your favorite out of the bunch. This is a high energy, Euro pop music adventure where you are collecting hearts. It is just a non-stop ride with a story and it has a crazy minimalist neon space aesthetic. Rather than playing this with your hands, try it with a controller on your Apple TV or a mac kinda big screen which is unarguably the best visual feast. 

  1. Assemble with CARE

If we completely turn pages to the puzzle games section, you will find a game called Assemble with CARE. It is this combo of problem solving and then taking apart and repairing devices in 3d but there is a story around it. There is a narrative and  it is one of those games that accesses that part of your brain that just tinkers and you can think about in a relaxed manner. This is what makes the Apple Arcade really interesting.  There are games like these that have a chance to shine that you normally wouldn’t hear about them and they are not covered up in ads or not buying extra bonuses a lot but I’m pretty sure that you will dig this game a whole lot. 

  1. Oceanhorn 2 – knights of the lost realm

Next up is the Oceanhorn 2 – knights of the lost realm; this is an rpg(Role Playing Game) where you fight enemies to collect items and you solve problems. Some argue that this is the best looking game on Apple Arcade right now and such is the familiarity of this game. When you look at this game’s entirety and if you are into the style of this game, it is already worth the whole price of the subscription alone. This is the storytelling rpg where you play a boy who is the hero of course. The art style and the music complements each other very well. There is a bit of puzzle solving into this game and this is a fantastic game RPG altogether.  

  1. Speed demons

Speed demons – bold name isn’t it? It is just the cars on a freeway and all you have to do is race. The physics are pretty impressive here and everything seems to be pretty much destructible. The cars all fly out of the way and you would love the gameplay. This is an all new bite-sized game which lets you play for 2-3 min at a time and get back to your routine. 

  1. Earthnight

Next is earth knight, this is a throwback of an 8-bit platformer game where you are jumping around and aliens whom you are avoiding by flying and bouncing off from. You are gliding down with an 8-bit soundtrack to amp up this nostalgia as you try to conquer a dragon by riding up its entire body. 

  1. Shinsekai into the depths

Then you have Shinsekai into the depths. This is another great looking role playing game made by CapCOM. In this, you are an aquanaut exploring the ocean, collecting resources, battling creatures and crafting resources to build up your character with a mysterious like underwater vibe, throughout it. This is a really cool game and will get your attention right away, you will end up spending your time here a lot. 

  1. Hot LAVA

You might have heard this about this game because it is also there in some other platforms as well. This is one of the best platformers available on this subscription. Hot lava is a tense and exciting platformer, you jump around on different objects trying to avoid the floor which is of course filled with hot lava. The main objective is to jump around and collect the green crystals as much as you possibly can while also trying to  do it in the quickest possible time to get as many points as possible. I would highly recommend this game as I’ve personally done hours of entertainment out of it. It is surprisingly detailed and you would get used to the controls over time but getting a gaming controller is very much recommended. It has motion control to an extent and this is pretty good, certainly different out of everything. 

  1. Skate City

Next on the list is skate city. This is kind of pretty as it has a real smooth feel and flow to it. Remember, this will kinda scratch your old school pro skater gaming days from your timeline. You can go ahead and do some tricks like ollies, slide on rails, and curves. You can customise the character with different skateboards, dresses and hairstyles for which you have to win and earn points. Here you do skateboard tricks with the simple trick system which only has a few cities right now but we hope a lot more will be updated in the coming days. 

This offers you a laid back vibe that this relaxes you by the end of a bad day. 

  1. tint.

There is another puzzle game which will surprise you with its Zen-like approach is a game called tint. This can be that one game where you can share with the kids and grown-ups as well.  You use brush strokes to solve puzzles by mixing watercolors and then getting really from one point to another with these mix colors. It is really relaxing and there is no way that you would have found a game through the noise of the app store. That’s what, Apple Arcade does here. Brings on this cool stuff to the surface. 

  1. Where Cards Fall

And then we have, Where Cards Fall. This is the puzzle game where you are navigating a character through obstacles but then you have to use touch and pinch gestures with a deck of cards and different mechanics to pop up the cards to create a platform, you can spread them out really slowly so it becomes a larger space and then you try to move this character from one door or portal to another. I just loved it because they basically throw you into it and let you figure it out. It is great looking and so charming that it captures the ultimate essence of Apple Arcade. 

Should I buy Apple Arcade?

So it all boils down to this one question. Honestly, yes. I mean why not because you get a free one month trial. Try it out, play as many as you can and if you are someone who uses the metro or someone travels often and sits tight by staring at a stranger, you would enjoy this service from Apple. If you are a game hat and if you tend to subscribe to a lot of games in the Apple app store, this is the right place for you to get them all for free(of course with a monthly fee). Speaking of the money you have to spend, Apple Arcade price in India is Rs.99 and $4.99 in the US. If you happen to purchase any new Apple devices like iPhone, iPad, Mac, after September 10, 2019, you will be offered one year of free subscription. Don’t miss it. 

Apple Arcade Gaming Verdict

When you look at all the games mentioned in the list, they all are so different from each other but they all work great as well. Even Though it remembers us of the Xbox days, most of these games are made for mobile audiences with their charm and sticky mechanics that just work fantastically. I absolutely recommend investing in a bluetooth controller if you have not because it really helps out for many of the games. Yes you can control them with the touch on your iPhone or iPad or use the keys on your mac but a controller will offer you a much more immersive feel and lets you enjoy the experience that Apple Arcade offers. 

So as far as the review is considered, the Apple Arcade is an absolute win for me. It seems like Apple knows what they are doing this time around. It is already receiving an overwhelming response and once the number of Apple Arcade Games go up, it will be fascinating. If you are a mobile gamer, this is almost a must have no brainer especially if you love sharing your membership and playtime with your friends and family. I hope that you loved the crisp Apple Arcade review. 

Now I would love to hear what games on Apple Arcade are your go-tos or standouts and write them down in the comment section below. Maybe I might have missed some; you can tell me which ones are cool to check out. Or you might agree or disagree with the stuff I showed off here. Put them in the comments because you know I read them all. 

About the author

Arunyuvaraj

I'm Arunyuvaraj, a techno freak, fascinated about the world of science. I would love to share my knowledge about new gadgets, tech products and automobiles with my friends. Through this blog, I aspire to help more friends.

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