Alexis Kestler
Apple Arcade has quickly become one of the best destinations for iOS gaming, offering an extensive catalog of high-quality titles across various genres. With over 200 games and more added regularly, there‘s something for everyone.
From thrilling racers and intense action platformers to thoughtful puzzles and family-friendly adventures, Apple Arcade provides an excellent value for only $4.99 per month. The service removes ads and in-app purchases, allowing you to fully immerse yourself in these fantastic experiences.
In this guide, we highlight some of the most popular and highly acclaimed Apple Arcade games that are worth checking out.
Asphalt 8: Airborne is a visually stunning arcade racer that takes you on a high-speed tour across real-world locations. With over 300 events across 9 seasons and 47 tracks, there‘s no shortage of content.
You can drive some of the world‘s most exotic performance cars from brands like Lamborghini, Ferrari, Porsche, and more. Using tilt or touch controls, you‘ll hit jumps, barrel rolls, and boost your way through races packed with over-the-top action.
The game features a career mode where you‘ll upgrade your garage of cars but also has online multiplayer to compete against others. With its realistic physics and detailed graphics, Asphalt 8: Airborne is regarded as one of the best arcade racing games on mobile.
Join the beloved blue hedgehog in this fast and frantic endless runner. In Sonic Dash, you‘ll sprint across gorgeous 3D environments picking up rings and avoiding obstacles.
Signature moves like jumping, dashing, and spin attacking give you stylish ways to maintain momentum. There are also power-ups like shields, magnets, and boosters to aid your survival.
You can play as Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, Amy, Blaze, and other characters from the Sonic universe. Daily and weekly challenges give you opportunities to earn more rewards as you aim for the top of the leaderboards.
With colorful graphics and smooth animations, Sonic Dash nails that classic Sonic feel while adding a new level of intensity through its breakneck pace.
If you want to experience skateboarding in beautiful real-world locations, Skate City is a must-play. It offers three expansive cities to explore: Los Angeles, Oslo, and Barcelona.
Each city provides dozens of challenges across various skate spots that will test your skills. From busy plazas to empty swimming pools, you‘ll find plenty of urban terrain to master.
An arcade-style scoring system rewards chaining tricks together and hitting skill shots. A slow-motion mode lets you admire those buttery smooth animations even more.
With its chill vibe and open-ended structure, Skate City encourages you to carve your line through these iconic cities however you see fit.
This faithful adaptation brings the classic educational adventure game to Apple Arcade. In The Oregon Trail, you‘ll lead a group of settlers on the arduous journey out west, facing tough decisions and moments of peril along the way.
You‘ll have to hunt for food, trade supplies, make critical choices, and most importantly, avoid dying from disease or injury. It‘s a true test of survival and resource management.
With its simple graphics and text-based prompts, The Oregon Trail retains its old-school style while adding some modern polish through new visuals and music. Relive this influential piece of gaming history on the go.
Blurring the lines between game and interactive music video, Sayonara Wild Hearts takes you on a euphoric ride across stunning landscapes.
You’ll bike, skate, wield swords, and more while taking down enemies and overcoming challenges perfectly in sync with the catchy pop soundtrack.
With its mesmerizing visuals and unique premise, Sayonara Wild Hearts delivers an experience unlike anything else. Each level provides exhilarating moments fueled by creative style and energetic music.
If you love food and cooking games, Cooking Mama: Cuisine is sure to satisfy. This casual simulator has you preparing over 70 recipes across 5 world cuisines.
Following Cooking Mama‘s instructions, you‘ll chop, grill, bake, blend, decorate, and cook tons of mouth-watering dishes. The charming graphics and addictive gameplay loop make even the simplest recipes engaging.
With regularly updated seasonal recipes and cooking mini-games that test your skills, Cooking Mama: Cuisine is a rewarding game for chefs of all skill levels. Slice, dice, saute and serve up some fun with Mama!
This action RPG prequel to Oceanhorn delivers a sweeping fantasy adventure reminiscent of Zelda games. You‘ll battle creatures, explore dungeons, acquire new gear and abilities, and uncover the secrets of Arcadia across 20-30 hours of gameplay.
Detailed graphics, impressive lighting, and a stirring orchestral score immerse you in this rich world. The intuitive touch or controller-based combat allows you to hack down enemies and utilize magic with ease.
Few mobile games capture that classic adventure feel as well as Oceanhorn 2. Its grand scale provides an epic quest sure to satisfy RPG fans.
Blending strategy, survival, and road trip themes, Overland is a unique squad-based adventure set during an alien invasion.
You‘ll guide a group of travelers across procedurally generated levels filled with dangers, scavenging supplies and fending off insect-like creatures.
With permadeath, it‘s a tense, slow-paced experience where every decision matters. Do you sneak by enemies or engage them? Search for more gas or get back on the road?
Overland‘s minimalist but evocative visuals and emergent narrative create memorable stories. You‘ll have to use every tool at your disposal to make it across the country.
From industry legend Hironobu Sakaguchi and artist Kazuko Shibuya, Fantasian combines beautiful dioramas and thrilling JRPG combat.
In this grand adventure, you‘ll explore hand-crafted environments across distinct realms, taking on resourceful enemies in turn-based battles requiring tactical thinking.
With its thoughtful worldbuilding and rich storylines, Fantasian harkens back to classic JRPGs while standing out through stunning art direction and music from Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu.
Billed as a ‘RogueVania‘ action-platformer, Dead Cells seamlessly blends the intensity of a Souls-like with the progression of Metroidvanias through impressively fluid combat, brilliant level design, and endless build variety.
As a failed alchemical experiment trying to escape an ever-changing prison, you‘ll slash and cast spells against fierce enemies that put up a serious fight. With each death, randomized levels and new paths unlock.
Dead Cells‘ addictive loop will have you playing ‘just one more run‘ thanks to the wide range of weapons and synergistic skills to experiment with. A modern classic of the genre.
If you like addictive puzzle games, Mini Motorways offers a wonderfully chill experience. Your job is to draw and upgrade roads to build an efficient traffic system as a bustling metropolis grows.
It starts simple but the increasing complexity keeps you on your toes. With calming music and a minimal art style, it‘s a very zen game that stimulates your problem-solving skills.
Star of Ubisoft‘s classic platforming series, the limbless Rayman returns in this fast-paced auto-runner. Rayman Mini captures that signature cartoon style while amping up the challenge.
Rayman sprints automatically as you time jumps over hazards, defeat enemies, and activate power-ups. Daily and weekly challenges drive competition on the leaderboards.
It‘s an appealing modern take on Rayman that provides quick burst-style challenges for newcomers and franchise fans alike.
This narrative-focused adventure shines a light on the mysteries of the ocean. In Beyond Blue, you play as a scientist researching the lives of dolphins, whales, and other marine wildlife.
The story touches on conservation themes as you deploy tools from your submersible to photograph, tag, and analyze sea creatures. Its relaxing pace lets you bask in the tranquility of the underwater environment.
Beyond Blue brings the ocean to life through heartfelt storytelling and an immersive setting few games capture. Its message of protecting the planet‘s waters makes a lasting impact.
Playing as a clever Sasquatch, you‘ll stealthily steal food from campers while exploring a quirky world full of mini-games and side activities.
With its goofy humor and fun sandbox-style hijinks, Sneaky Sasquatch is sure to put a smile on your face.
Driving golf carts, purchasing disguises, Completing challenges for the raccoon mob…you‘ll get into all sorts of mischief across 100+ hours of content. Customizable hideouts add to the playground-like appeal.
Don‘t let the charming cartoon aesthetic fool you – Sneaky Sasquatch offers plenty of depth through its wealth of mechanics and secrets.
This narrative-driven puzzle adventure will take you on an emotional journey as you reflect on memories and build card houses to cross dreamlike levels.
Using spatial reasoning and a gentle physics system, you‘ll construct paths across abstract environments representing formative life events. It‘s equal parts beautiful and reflective.
With hand-drawn art and impactful storytelling Where Cards Fall delivers a poignant experience about growing up,perfect for fans of narrative-focused indie games.
If you enjoy intense fighting games like Street Fighter, Punch Planet delivers that competitive experience in bite-sized rounds ideal for mobile.
It has tight touch controls and fighting game staples – combos, counters, special moves, and super attacks that require timing and dexterity to execute. Online multiplayer and ranked matches provide motivation to keep improving.
With a roster of unique characters and plenty of personality, Punch Planet is easily among the best traditional fighting games on Apple Arcade.
This puzzle adventure combines card-based combat and evolving dungeons as you stack, arrange, and combo your deck to clear enemy encounters.
By playing cards in sequences, you can slash, freeze, and smash through the hand-drawn levels. It feels great racking up overkill bonuses through strategic play.
With a campy story narrated by a fireplace poker, Card of Darkness delivers challenging gameplay and charming writing sure to delight fans of puzzle RPGs.
Grindstone combines match-3 puzzles and dungeon crawling in a gory, addictive experience. By drawing a path to group enemies of the same color, you‘ll slice through hundreds of creeps while acquiring new gear.
With 200 distinct puzzle levels across multiple mountain biomes, Grindstone keeps the hack-and-slash gameplay fresh with new enemies, items, and obstacles.
Approach each level with a plan to maximize your combos and become the ultimate monster slayer. It’s equal parts strategic and visceral.
For brutal, high-stakes combat in a minimalist fantasy world, Bleak Sword puts your battle skills to the test.
With precise swipe-based swordplay, you’ll outmaneuver and take down imposing enemy knights, ogres, wizards, and other foes out for blood.
The stark lighting and landscapes paired with challenging combat capture a somber, haunting mood. If you crave tense duels, Bleak Sword delivers.
This artistic take on LEGO games has you assembling brick creations to progress a father and child through wordless yet impactful story scenes.
Manipulating the world to provide new paths makes Builder‘s Journey feel like a chill physics puzzle adventure. Creative setpieces like a LEGO bicycle give it universal appeal.
Without any dialogue, Builder‘s Journey conveys heartfelt moments solely through its LEGO model designs and charming soundtrack. A short but sweet experience.
This fast-paced spin-off to the popular roguelike shooter Gungeon is filled with bullet hell chaos. You’ll platform and shoot your way up an ever-changing series of floors to escape certain death as the dungeon crumbles.
Race against collapsing floors, explosives, deadly traps and enemies – the odds are stacked against you. Dodge rolling is key to survival but incredibly fun once you get the hang of it.
With tons of unique guns and items to cause carnage with, Exit the Gungeon delivers intense action and laughs in equal measure.
If you want to chill out and slide through abstract, soothing worlds, check out Lifeslide‘s dreamlike isometric levels.
By swiping the screen, you control the sliding protagonists as they ride ribbons collecting memories represented by friendly creatures.
Paired with an ethereal soundtrack and stylized visuals, it‘s the perfect casual game to lose yourself in without any stress or difficulty spikes interrupting the flow.
This narrative adventure plants you in the strange rural community of Mutazione. Making friends and helping townsfolk while exploring the lush hand-painted environments feels like a relaxing vacation.
Through dialog choices and mini-games, you‘ll get embroiled in small town drama and uncover mysteries surrounding Mutazione‘s origins.
With interesting characters and great writing, Mutazione tells an impactful eco-fiction story Never feels too preachy given the chill vibes.
Embark on a mythic adventure as an archer traversing gorgeous forests, misty mountain peaks, and forgotten ruins in this open-world action game.
Alongside your eagle companion, you‘ll track elusive spirits while mastering unique archery mechanics. Fluid traversal and puzzle-filled dungeons round out the experience.
The Pathless delivers a stirring journey and clever gameplay fusing stealth, aerial mobility, and archery. Take in its massive world at your own pace.
A fun platformer spin on the popular Crossy Road game, Castle expands the concept with local multiplayer and an endless tower climb.
Work cooperatively by holding buttons to alter the environment so your friends can progress. Or play competitively to grab the most coins and reach new floors.
With its bright, blocky graphics and chicken mascots, Crossy Road Castle is a family-friendly party game perfect for all ages to enjoy together.
Two beloved franchises unite in this competitive battle arena game. You‘ll collect and upgrade LEGO Star Wars characters like Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, and more to deploy in energetic tower defense-style battles.
It combines card-based strategy with reflex-dependent tactics when defending against troop and hero rushes. Online multiplayer and themed events add replay value.
LEGO Star Wars Battles delivers plenty of fan service through painstaking LEGO recreations of iconic vehicles, locations, and sounds. The strategic gameplay satisfies as well.
Though no longer updated, Gameloft‘s endless runner perfectly captures the joy of web-swinging through NYC as everyone‘s favorite Marvel hero.
With 60+ Spidey suits from comics and films, you‘ll wall-crawl, web strike, and swing across familiar landmarks fighting supervillains and gathering collectibles.
The acrobatic animations and fan service delivering a rollercoaster of Spidey action that holds up incredibly well years later. It remains a must-play.
This stunning sequel returns players to the gorgeous, optical illusion-filled world of impossible architecture.
New mother and daughter protagonists guide you through Monument Valley 2‘s minimalist-yet-atmospheric levels by manipulating the abstract structures.
With deeply human themes and sparse but powerful storytelling, the follow-up provides an emotional journey that stands on its own. The elegant puzzles are icing on the cake.
Design ridiculous vehicles and test their mettle in this delightfully over-the-top physics battler. With axes, drills, rockets, and hazards galore, you‘ll build surprising machines together with friends.
Battle 1v1 or in teams to push, flip and wreck opponents while climbing the rankings. Regular events and new parts offer exciting reasons to keep engineering.
CATS embraces creativity and chaos in equal measure for multiplayer mayhem everyone can enjoy. Just be prepared for some hilariously catastrophic failures.
The classic physics puzzle game returns with 120 new levels continuing the adorable saga of feeding candy to an insatiable monster.
With precise swipes, you‘ll cut ropes and manipulate objects to guide sweets into the monster‘s mouth. It starts simply then quickly ramps up.
Cut the Rope Remastered polishes an already winning formula to a shine through lively animations, expressive characters, and tight touch controls. A perfect pick-up-and-play experience.
Drawing inspiration from Slavic folklore, Yaga weaves an engrossing narrative with tactical, dice-based combat and meaningful choices.
Playing as a one-handed blacksmith, you‘ll endeavor to break a curse upon you by the Tsar while making decisions that impact your morality, reputation, and romantic relationships.
Charming writing and hand-illustrated visuals bring the mythical setting to life. Yaga proves story-rich RPGs can thrive on mobile through excellent adaptation.
