Over the years, mobile games have skyrocketed in popularity, heavily contributing to the rise of games such as Minecraft, Fortnite, and Roblox. With mobile games consistently yielding high revenue and attracting users from young children to adults, Apple recently released Apple Arcade, the technology company’s personally curated gaming subscription service. Launched in the fall of 2019, the service publishes select games from a variety of different game developers. These games are either duplicates of paid games already on the App Store reuploaded with several tweaks, or are exclusive to the service and can only be accessed on most Apple devices including the iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, or Mac computer through a monthly subscription of $4.99, a 7-day free trial, or certain tiers of Apple One (an all-in-one subscription plan). 

Although Apple Arcade can be judged on the basis of its pricing, accessibility, and relative convenience, taking a deeper dive into the actual games available on the platform seems most sensible when deciding whether it is a worthy investment. After giving two of the games added on Apple Arcade a try, here are my thoughts on the true worth of Apple Arcade.

Alto’s Odyssey – Remastered

Alto’s Odyssey – Remastered brings the popular Alto’s Adventure to the desert, replacing the snowboard with a sandboard. Featuring several new game mechanics including sandstorms that raise your character into the air and hot air balloons that act as a trampoline both of which elevate the core gaming experience, Alto’s Odyssey – Remastered still stays true to its predecessor, providing a relaxing experience with serene settings, simple game design, and an original soundtrack with thrilling yet peaceful tunes. For these reasons I found Alto’s Odyssey – Remastered to be a great game to play when winding down or just taking a break from reality. 

Furthermore, much of the objectives and game concepts of Alto’s Adventure is carried into Alto’s Odyssey – Remastered, including the goal system, in which completing certain tasks unlocks levels that allow for character customization, and the coin system, which allows for coins to be collected across the landscape for special power-ups. In order to use these coins, you would first have to unlock high levels, which can be a little disappointing if you plan on making your character your own from the very initial stages of the game. I found the first customization item, an upgraded sandboard, to be unlocked after about 30-60 minutes of consistently playing the game. On the technological side of the game, the Remastered version is essentially a duplicate of Alto’s Odyssey, save for several tweaks that make saving progress across devices more seamless. For those who have never played the first game in Alto’s repertoire, Alto’s Odyssey – Remastered is definitely worth giving a try, especially if you are looking for a calming game that lets you backflip across a never-ending desert.

Mini Motorways

Mini Motorways is by far my favorite game available on Apple Arcade. From the same developers as Mini Metro (of which there is a renewed version for Apple Arcade subscribers), Mini Motorways is an entirely new game centered around building roads that connect homes of a certain color to businesses of the same color. Maps based on real-life locations are used to provide a sense of familiarity and challenge. For example, the Nile River snakes through the center of the Cairo map while mountain ranges surround the playable area in the Mexico City map. With the limited numbers of roads, bridges, tunnels, round-a-bouts, traffic lights, and highways, players can strategically decrease traffic in their ever-growing cities. After many hours of playing Mini Motorways over the course of a year, I found traffic lights to be among the least important additions to the game, while placing a motorway can single-handedly save your city. A single home and business will quickly spread to become an overwhelming entanglement of roads that lead to mass traffic and the closure of businesses. A single round can take anywhere from 10-20 minutes of serious concentration. Once one building is closed when not enough cars reach it in time, the game is over. Points are tallied by the number of cars that can reach a business from a home, and points unlock new maps. Similar to Alto’s Odyssey, Mini Motorways is (initially) extremely calming with its own soundtrack and unique art style.

Verdict

All in all, Apple Arcade contains nearly every type of game imaginable, from NBA 2K basketball games to a remastered version of Angry Birds, and there is a game in the service that caters to every audience. Every game tested feels extremely polished having little to no glitches or errors, which cannot be said for most games on the Apple App Store. Additionally, most games on the App Store do not feature saved cross-play between devices nor consistent updates that add new features, both of which are staples of Apple Arcade games. With the library of games on Apple Arcade publicly available to everyone, I would recommend searching through the list of games, finding several that you find interesting, and then starting a trial. If you find that the games are not quite worth the monthly cost, there is an opportunity to end the trial as you please with no charges.