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