Apple Arcade ranked
Back in the ‘90s, when I was first getting into PC games, you could buy these $20 discs from the bargain software rack in places like Office Depot, with names like “100-in-1 Games!” They were generally collections of shareware games (demos, basically), as many as the publisher could jam onto one 600MB CD-ROM. I used to loooove these. Some of the games would barely work, some would be forgettable clones of better games, but then some would be interesting never-to-be-seen-again experiments, and the occasional few would be absolute bangers like Jazz Jackrabbit, Operation: Innerspace, or Doom. A lot of the fun was just in digging through the pile and pressing play.
Apple Arcade has that same vibe for me. The main difference is that they’re all complete games and Apple’s curation is way way better than some random, bootsy CD-ROM maker. (Being able to play them all in bed on my iPad is a plus, too.)
Would I buy or even seek out any one of these games as individual purchases? Probably not. Would I spend $60 once in awhile for a curated 100-in-1 package of Great New iOS Games? Absolutely.
And I can, and so I do. That’s kinda the whole deal.
Anyway, I thought it’d be fun to make a ranked list of these, just to keep track of what I’ve played and maybe shine a tiny spotlight on the ones I liked the most.
(The one-word description thing was just a bit that I started on the first few entries and decided to keep going.)
Apple Arcade has that same vibe for me. The main difference is that they’re all complete games and Apple’s curation is way way better than some random, bootsy CD-ROM maker. (Being able to play them all in bed on my iPad is a plus, too.)
Would I buy or even seek out any one of these games as individual purchases? Probably not. Would I spend $60 once in awhile for a curated 100-in-1 package of Great New iOS Games? Absolutely.
And I can, and so I do. That’s kinda the whole deal.
Anyway, I thought it’d be fun to make a ranked list of these, just to keep track of what I’ve played and maybe shine a tiny spotlight on the ones I liked the most.
(The one-word description thing was just a bit that I started on the first few entries and decided to keep going.)
76 Games
Pop!
Hmmmm
Juicy
Newgroundsian (in a good way)
Breezy
Rips
Mind-melting
Nah
Goofy
Engrossing
Touching
Waldo
vrooom
Meow
Timeless
Godlike
Vibes
Disappointment
Old-School
Gorgeous
Bog-Standard
Good
Numerical
Calming
Soulslike
Plinko
Frustrating
Standard
Clever
Interesting
Sacred
Shiftless
Headache
Pitterpatter
Hygge
Fantastic
( Deceptive)
( Deceptive)
Neat
Derpy
Spyhunterlike
swoooosh
Exhausting
Unappealing
Chill
Uninteresting
Nostalgic
Imprecise
Bangin’
Underdeveloped
Throwbacky
Trippy
Empty
Hamfisted
Antiquated
Ungamelike
Dime-a-dozen
Basic
Stressfree
Wack
Kiddy
Fine
Tasteful
Chesslike
Cruddy
Well-Polished
Zzzz
Pointless
Stylish
Newgroundsian (in a bad way)
Atrocious
Traditional
Substandard
Fishing
Low-Effort