The Apple Arcade subscription service released months ago with tons of games, and in November we looked at a few of the games that were worth playing and then again in January, February and March – but are there any more that are worth your time? Let’s find out.
It’s worth keeping the same disclaimer in mind once again – in the interests of fairness to the mobile market, I’ve played each of these games using the touchpad without an external controller. Many Apple Arcade games include controller support, but if you’re like me you probably don’t carry a controller everywhere you go.
If you have an Apple Arcade account, you can play any of these without paying anything extra.
CROSSY ROAD CASTLE
Want something that has no ending and can therefore, theoretically, be played forever? Well then Crossy Road Castle may be for you. In it, you play as one of several cute, little pixelated creatures, like a cat or a chicken, as you make your way up an endless tower filled with environmental traps, like spikes and pits, and a whole load of platforms.
The game is simple, you only have three buttons – left, right, and jump. But that’s all you need, and you’ll never have to be in a particularly intense rush for anything, so the controls don’t feel restricted by the touchscreen as is often the case with mobile games. You make your way through each 2D pixel art floor as you rise ever higher up the tower, attempting to beat your previous high score.
If that isn’t enough for you to enjoy a game then this won’t be for you, because the only real reward is the ability to try again, but maybe with a new little character model, and maybe he’ll be wearing a different hat this time around. The floors, while they do repeat, manage to remain diverse enough that you’ll probably seldom notice them repeating unless you get properly hooked on the game and play it a lot.
The game is cute, it’s got a whole lot of charm, and it’s just a fun little thing to play around with while you do something else. It doesn’t take up much of your cognitive needs and so it’s great for mindlessly playing through while you watch something you’re only half paying attention to, or in the usual places like queues. In addition, the short level structure is perfect for when you need to put it down in a hurry!
ROUNDGUARD
Alright, this is a fun one. Roundguard is an action-RPG roguelite game mixed with Peggle. You have your little adventurer, who can be a warrior, mage or rogue (and each have unique starting stats and abilities), and then you lob them from a ballista on the ceiling and try to take out as many enemies as you can while collecting mana potions, health, and treasure along the way.
The game is presented as a theatrical production in which you need to do your best performance each time. You see, in typical roguelite fashion, you start every run with a few starting stats and abilities (although you can unlock certain permanent upgrades along the way) and then you try to get as far as you can. You make your way down each level until you go up against a boss and then try the next level. Your purpose is to get as far as you can while unlocking everything you can along the way, and so in that sense it’s fairly typical of the genre.
However, the part luck-based approach, because you’re flinging your character as if they were a ball around a colourful puzzle-like arena and hoping they don’t hit anything that hurts them (such as the pit of spikes at the bottom of every stage), changes things up enough to produce quite a unique little experience. It also auto-saves your run so you can return to it at any time.
The levels are relatively short, and there’s, theoretically, infinite replayability seeing as you’re never really meant to “finish” the game. Once you get tired of one character there are two others to try out after all! They don’t differ all that much, but if you’re looking for a fun gameplay loop that’ll fill that engaging casual puzzle game niche in your mobile game library, well you can do a lot worse than Roundguard. It’s also pretty adorable. So there’s that too.
STRANDED SAILS – EXPLORERS OF THE CURSED ISLANDS
In Stranded Sails, you play as the daughter or son of a ship’s captain whose ship, along with all the passengers, was hit by a storm and then crashed into a tropical island. As one of the survivors of this shipwreck you must now figure out how to survive alongside the various other survivors who’ve been scattered throughout the main island and the islands that surround it. You’re in charge, seeing as your father’s been hurt in the storm, and so you have to set up camp and ensure that everyone makes the most out of the situation.
Your primary duty, at the beginning of the game, is to find all the survivors and to set up camp. This camp starts to take the shape of a tiny village as you set up your farm (with a variety of seeds to choose from, but far fewer than you’d find in more comprehensive farming games like Stardew Valley), start building up beachside shacks for the survivors, and ensure that everyone is happy and well fed.
You can learn to cook, go fishing, harvest resources, the usual stuff you find in similar games like Harvest Moon. However, Stranded Sails is definitely a Harvest Moon-lite experience. It will never become as complicated, but as a humble phone game that can keep you busy for a few hours you could do a lot worse. It’s cutesy, long enough that you won’t have to find another game in a hurry, and it’ll serve nicely for those who want something a bit more long-form to play. It’s not really made for short play, but a lengthy toilet visit or bank queue may be just the place for it.
SPYDER
Enjoy espionage action? Ever wanted to be a spider? Well if those two thoughts have ever crossed your mind then Spyder is for you. You play Agent Spyder, he’s a spy and a… spider. See what they did there? Anyway, in this game you play as a tiny robotic spider spyder who has to get into enemy facilities and foil the plots of the bad guys by destroying them from the inside! Because you’re really small and all that jazz.
As Agent Spyder, you have full 3D movement. You can walk on walls, upside down, and on just regular surfaces. Some surfaces can’t be used, because they have to throw some restrictions at you, and you have no jump function so many of the environmental puzzles involve getting over gaps in the world. You may need to get yourself from one pipe to another or up a briefcase and onto a cupboard. And you get through much of this by using a whole load of gadgets (which are, sadly, very much contextual).
You may need to shoot a button that extends a little bridge (you just push the button and he shoots a web thing), for example, or you may need to get through a grate (and you just push a button to have him bring out the laser), but despite it being very simplistic, it’s still entertaining. The puzzles won’t stump you, because it’s essentially about going through a linear world until something tells you to push a button, but traversing the world by walking on the ceiling and dodging cameras is still pretty damn fun.
It does come with its drawbacks, such as the fact that the camera can struggle because of the nature of your movement and it can become difficult to keep the correction direction in mind when you’re on the ceiling and the controls suddenly feel inverted, and this can screw with precise movements (such as getting through timed hazards), but if you want a fun espionage game with a spy spider then give it a try. The levels aren’t particularly long but they’re also not short, so it’s good for a few minutes of chilling and waiting around.
SNEAKY SASQUATCH
Sneak, sneak, sneak, that’s what you’ll be doing in the aptly named Sneaky Sasquatch. In the game, you take on the role of a sasquatch (surprise!) who lives near a park and you must lead him into that park to steal food from people. That’s the main aim of the game, but it goes several layers deeper as more of the relatively small map opens up to you as more abilities are unlocked that reveal new activities that are perfect for stealing those pesky humans’ food and bothering them in a variety of ways.
Your basic task may be getting food, and then eating it in the most adorable way possible by picking up pieces and shoving it in your sasquatch’s mouth to watch him munch away at whatever you give him, but there are various other things you can do too. You often come across animals, such as foxes and ducks, who ask you to complete a task of some kind, such as scaring a few humans or retrieving something for them. These tasks generally entail doing something that might get the park rangers involved, and you need to run away from those guys because they like to throw you out the park.
The game is delivered from a top-down perspective where you can control the sasquatch by holding the screen in a direction to make him run, and, rather ingeniously, you tap the screen repeatedly when you want him to sneak. You use sneaking to get around rangers and people. And if that doesn’t work you can always hide in a toilet or some bushes.
Every day you return home with all the food you’ve stolen, eat some, maybe go shopping at the local racoon’s place (he sells things like a human disguise that allows you to chat to people and a fishing rod to allow you to go fishing), and then you go to sleep and repeat the process the next day. The game is pretty calming and never expects you to rush with anything or to be in a particularly difficult situation. It’s a nice chilled out experience, perfect for lounging on a couch, half-watching something and just vegging out a bit.