Apple’s game subscription service isn’t the most high-profile out there, but since its inception in 2019, Apple Arcade has built up an impressively varied library of games that are free of all the annoying in-app purchase guff that plagues mobile gaming.
New games don’t arrive weekly, but there’s a curated element to Apple Arcade that ensures there’s usually something worth trying when there’s a drop. Sometimes that’s a brand new game, others it’s a classic iOS title that joins the service and reminds you why it was so popular in the first place.
I spend a lot of time dipping into Apple Arcade when I have five minutes spare. These are three games that have really hooked me recently.
Skate City: New York
The latest in a now impressively long line of supremely playable 2D board sports games from indie developer Snowman, Skate City: New York is an Apple Arcade gem that anyone with a passing interest in skateboarding simulations should download.
Imagine EA’s Skate games but 2.5D, and instead of using a real analogue stick to do tricks, you flick a virtual one in the corner of the touchscreen.
That might sound potentially imprecise and clunky, but Snowman has nailed intuitive touch controls at this point, and you’ll be surprised at how natural it feels to kickflip your way through iconic real-world New York skate spots on your iPhone.
There’s a career mode that throws all kinds of challenges at you, from high scores to specific trick call-outs and even chase sequences, but if you’re looking for a more relaxing experience, the Free Skate mode removes all the pressure and just lets you skate.
The original Skate City is also on Apple Arcade, and that one has a more international selection of levels, but as a New York lover, the sequel is my pick here.
Vampire Survivors
The first time I played Vampire Survivors it was on PC, specifically the Steam Deck version, and my immediate thought after a few sessions was “it’s over for my productivity when I can play this on my phone.”
Sure enough, a mobile version did arrive, and that eventually made its way to Apple Arcade, at which point my prediction proved to be entirely accurate.
If you’ve somehow avoided Vampire Survivors until now, it’s an ingeniously simple but deceptively deep roguelike shoot ‘em up in which you have to survive for 30 minutes as increasingly large hordes of monsters fill the screen and attempt to kill you.
You do this by gradually building up your character’s abilities and weapons by levelling up within a run, and then using accumulated coins to unlock new characters and permanent upgrades.
In Vampire Survivors you attack automatically, so all you have to worry about is controlling your character and putting together the kind of broken build that will eventually obliterate entire waves of enemies in seconds.
The limited inputs make it a perfect game to play on your phone, even if the touchscreen lacks the precision of a proper controller when a run inevitably descends into mayhem. But one-handed Vampire Survivors is just too good to resist.
What The Clash?
By its own admission, Danish studio Triband makes weird games.
And after its decidedly unique takes on golf, baseball and racing, the studio came up with What The Clash?, a 1v1 multiplayer game in which you compete in hundreds of minigames that are constantly getting remixed.
It starts simple enough, with a game of fairly traditional table tennis. But then What The Clash? introduces its card system, modifiers that might add a fan to the middle of a table, or triple the number of balls in play. One card ditches balls altogether in favour of a fish. Anything goes here.
Every game is tailored to the touchscreen, and no matter how absurd they can get, they’re always fun to play. And with most only asking for a minute or two of your time, What The Clash? is the perfect game to load up on the bus or, dare I say it, when you’re sitting on the loo.
It’s a brilliantly silly mashup of everything Triband has made before it, and easily one of the best games on Apple Arcade right now.
