The best Apple Arcade games for an instant gaming hit | Stuff

The best new Apple Arcade games

Get an instant fix with the Apple Arcade games tickling our fancy right now.

Shovel Knight Dig

The latest Shovel Knight spin-off has you use your trusty shovel to dig down through randomly generated 2D levels in a quest for loot – and whack enemies you meet along the way. You’ll meet a lot. Fortunately, funds gathered during each run can be used to purchase permanent upgrades that make things easier next time. The lead’s signature pogo-like shovel jump never stops being fun either, and the game pops on an OLED-toting iPhone. In short, you’ll dig it.

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Lego Star Wars: Castaways

Think Lost with Lego, Star Wars, less sinister mystery and more island dance parties, and that’s Lego Star Wars: Castaways. You create your own minifigure and spend time getting to know fellow castaways, exploring the long-forgotten island you now call home, and hopping into simulations to relive iconic Star Wars moments. It’s simpler than the long-running Travellers Tales Lego series, but you’ll return for the variety – and extensive customisation options that let you mould the Star Warsweirdo you’ve always dreamed of. 

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Horizon Chase 2

Like the original Horizon Chase, this follow-up is a blazing-fast arcade racer, where you barrel along roads where everyone is suspiciously all driving in the same direction. Aside from spangly revamped visuals, the sequel adds a bunch of new challenges and the welcome addition of multiplayer. In all, it’s like having 90% of an OutRun 2 on your phone – or a modern remake of Amiga classic Lotus 3 or Top Gear. In short, it’s vrooming great.

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Gibbon: Beyond the Trees

There aren’t enough games that let you play as a monkey, so we’re especially grateful for this thought-provoking 2D effort from Broken Rules, in which you play as a gibbon simply trying to survive the myriad (but mostly human) threats to the forest it calls home. There’s a serious message here, but the game is also extremely fun to play, with some of the best swinging mechanics you’ll find outside of a Spider-Man game. 

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Skate City

There’s no shortage of excellent skateboarding games to play, but Skate City is one we’ve returned to since the early days of Apple Arcade. It’s a relatively minimalist 2.5D affair, with tricks executed using smartly implemented touch controls – if you don’t have a physical controller handy. There’s an objective-based career mode of sorts, but we prefer to chill out in the virtual recreations of real-life cities in ‘Free Skate’, which just lets you keep skating along until you lose interest. 

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Stuff’s Apple Arcade favourites

All our previous entries, from the latest Arcade Originals to top-notch Timeless Classics and App Store Greats.

Zen Pinball Party

Zen’s approach to smacking a metal ball around with flippers has long been to dispense with reality and make pinball tables come alive through animation and dynamic characters. That’s the case here, whether battling it out in Adventure Land, Kung Fu Panda or a surprisingly vicious Snoopy table. Prefer traditional fare? Top takes on Williams classics Theatre of Magic, Medieval Madness and Attack from Mars will get your thumbs twitching.

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Alto’s Odyssey: The Lost City

The original Alto’s Odyssey was the most gorgeous one-thumb leapy game around, featuring a daredevil soaring above dunes, grinding along canyon walls, bouncing on balloons, and trying to not get monstered by a lemur or fall down a ravine. This add-on has you find pieces of a map that unlock the titular Lost City, a vibrant, living biome that neatly contrasts with the lonely ruins elsewhere in the game. 

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SP!NG

Despite the minimalist visuals, the exhilarating one-thumb action in SP!NG makes you feel like Spider-Man as you swing through side-on levels, getting into the flow and scooping up diamonds. Right up until you impale yourself on a spike, that is. Fortunately, levels are short and possible to memorise – just as well when aiming for bling-collection perfection.

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Taiko no Tatsujin Pop Tap Bea‪t

Guitar Hero? Pah! Drumming rhythm action games are where it’s at. In Taiko no Tatsujin Pop Tap Bea‪t, it’s you and your thumbs against everything from J-pop to the William Tell Overture. The entire thing is gloriously demented tappy fun – although you won’t see much of the on-screen madness when zeroed in on the note markers!

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Clap Hanz Golf

In everything but name, Clap Hanz Golf is an Everybody’s Golf game for Apple Arcade, marking the end of developer Clap Hanz’s long exclusivity deal with PlayStation. But don’t expect an inferior knockoff. Like its predecessors, the infectiously cheerful Clap Hanz Golf hits that perfect sweet spot between arcade and simulation golf, while the new touch controls arguably make hitting a great shot even more satisfying.

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Fantasian

When it comes to RPGs, names don’t come much bigger than Hironobu Sakaguchi, best known for being the man who created Final Fantasy. His latest game, Fantasian, is an unashamedly old-school JRPG (you’d better believe there are random battles), but stands out from the crowd thanks to its wholly unique visual style, which uses stunning handcrafted dioramas to form its game world.

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