Apple Arcade: All you need to know, the best games you can play

The subscription gaming service starts at Rs. 99 per month in India

Apple Arcade

Ali Pardiwala 22 Mar 2024 11:54 AM

Apple Arcade launched in India in 2019, and has been quite the boredom breaker for some of us. It’s also particularly well priced in India, starting at Rs. 99 per month. With a collection of over 200 games that can be played on a variety of Apple devices, Apple Arcade is indeed a great reason to get an iPhone or iPad in itself. If you have an Apple TV, you can connect a game controller and turn your streaming box into a gaming console of sorts, as well.

If you’re still wondering what Apple Arcade is, or even if you’ve got the subscription and the library of games is a bit confusing, read on. Here’s our breakdown of everything you need to know about Apple Arcade, as well as our top picks among the games you can play.

Sneaky Sasquatch

Among Apple Arcade’s earliest games, Sneaky Sasquatch is still one of the best you can play on the platform. The premise of the game is its biggest selling point, with the player taking control of an intelligent and gentle Sasquatch who is tasked with saving his home - a popular national park. You need to ensure you’re fed, and you’ll also need a lot of money to buy things and complete missions.

The corny dialogue, oddball characters, and challenging missions make Sneaky Sasquatch a great game to spend hours on. Even after the main campaign is complete, there’s plenty of stuff to do, side missions to solve, and tasks to complete in the open world environment, which makes the game stretch for much longer. This should be the first game you play on Apple Arcade, as soon as you get the subscription. We recommend playing this on an Apple TV with a controller for the most fun.

Mini Motorways

Perhaps the best casual game on the Apple Arcade platform, Mini Motorways is aesthetically beautiful, suitably challenging, and immensely varied in its different city based levels. Each different city - based on the geography and transit systems of real-world cities - has its own challenges and requirements, and you’re provided with limited resources to connect homes to offices and keep the city running.

Mini Motorways games last about 15-20 minutes on average and have practically infinite replay ability. It’s a problem solving game that even kids will enjoy, and is particularly suitable for playing on your iPhone or iPad.

What The Golf?

Probably the silliest and most unpredictable game on Apple Arcade right now, What The Golf pretends to be a golf game, but very quickly owns up to golf itself being a bit too posh and boring on its own. Instead, you get strange levels featuring odd objects and settings, with the only golf-like element being the idea of getting the ball into the hole. 

With dozens of stages and constantly changing environments, What The Golf is a surprisingly entertaining game that completely defies the expectations that you’d form from reading the title. Play this on a handheld device or on Apple TV - it’s fun either way.

Alto’s Odyssey: The Lost City

There’s no shortage of endless runner games, but you’d be missing out if you dismissed Alto’s Odyssey as just another one of those. You’re a snow and sand boarder in a magical and mysterious world, and you need to make sure you’re always moving. Obstacles, crevices, and more will pop up along the way, and you need to keep yourself moving through all of it.

Backed by a superb soundtrack and with dynamic time-of-day effects as you keep on moving, the goal is to solve objectives while pulling off gravity-defying stunts and grinds. It’s surprisingly calming too, and has none of the freemium add-ons and silly pop-ups that come with most endless runners right now.

Wylde Flowers

Wylde Flowers, at its core, is a farm simulator where you have to maintain and upgrade your farm, sell your produce, and factor in for things such as weather conditions and seasonal crops. However, the game has a lot more to it, thanks to a detailed campaign that centres on the magical nature of the island and its inhabitants. It’s an addictive game that you’ll spend hours obsessing over.

The voice cast, open-world setting, and economics model make this a detailed enjoyable game, and a lot of the messages cover points of diversity and inclusivity within its fictional setting. Play this one on the Apple TV with a big screen, if you can.