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
Numerical
Sacred
Pop!
Engrossing
Rips
Timeless
Goofy
Fantastic
( Deceptive)
( Deceptive)
Godlike
Frustrating
Chesslike
Antiquated
Mind-melting
Chill
Meow
Touching
Uninteresting
Soulslike
Standard
Empty
Waldo
Vibes
Bog-Standard
Clever
Calming
swoooosh
Underdeveloped
Good
Disappointment
Gorgeous
Tasteful
Neat
Throwbacky
Stylish
Kiddy
Cruddy
Newgroundsian (in a good way)
Plinko
Nostalgic
Interesting
Unappealing
vrooom
Derpy
Fine
Trippy
Hygge
Hmmmm
Juicy
Spyhunterlike
Pitterpatter
Bangin’
Shiftless
Old-School
Exhausting
Breezy
Hamfisted
Zzzz
Wack
Well-Polished
Nah
Imprecise
Stressfree
Pointless
Dime-a-dozen
Fishing
Newgroundsian (in a bad way)
Ungamelike
Headache
Basic
Atrocious
Traditional
Substandard
Low-Effort