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So many mobile games are hardly games at all
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They're full of intrusive ads, dark patterns designed to get you to spend money
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and push notifications that keep reeling you back in. And some apps like Monopoly Go do all of the above
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Apple Arcade, on the other hand, flips the business model over. With a small upfront subscription fee, you have access to a bunch of titles
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all of which are totally free to play and totally fun. But with so many games on the service, if you don't know where to start
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here are all the best games on Apple Arcade. Let's start with Cityscape's SimBuilder
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If you miss playing SimCity 2000, or you're upset that Cities Skylines 2 isn't coming to the Mac
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this game is your consolation prize. Like any classic city-building game, you need to balance the needs of your citizens as you
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build transportation, housing, industry, public services, all while staying within your budget
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It's not really as hard as the classic games in the genre. There's a lot of tapping around to upgrade different parts of your city in turn
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and the tutorial levels are pretty railroaded, but it can still scratch the city-building itch
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And don't worry if you don't have a giant screen to play it on, like a Mac or an iPad
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Cityscapes plays just as well on an iPhone. Next, we have Cooking Mama Cuisine
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To start, you just pick an ingredient and a tool. But to actually prepare the dish in this cooking simulator, you need to act fast
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because seasoning with salt and pepper, cooking meat on both sides, chopping up onions, rolling
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out dough, all of these have their own unique game mechanics that you need to learn and use
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in a matter of seconds. What is it that you're even cooking? You won't know until the very end when you're presented with the results of your fine work
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This game is not only fun, it can legitimately teach you the basics of how to cook
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Next up is Corn Sweeper. As the name implies, this is a popcorn-themed reimagining of the classic Minesweeper game
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for Windows. The game's story mode has a bunch of pre-made levels that you advance through, the store
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has upgrades that add new game mechanics, and you can marvel at your achievements in the
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Hall of Grain. The popcorn-based humor is a constant throughout the game
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Jelly Car Worlds. In this game, you drive a car through a world of puzzles, blocks, ramps, moving balls, and more
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Except everything is a little bit squishy, so you can squeeze your car through tight
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gaps and crevices you might not normally expect, but you also might need to rush over a ramp
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before it buckles under your weight. Two people can play Jelly Car Worlds at once through local multiplayer
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If you have connected controllers. And you can even draw your own artwork on your car and record your own sounds
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It's a lot of fun. Sayonara Wild Hearts. This musical rhythm game takes the neon cyberpunk style and runs with it
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Literally. The custom soundtrack is amazing, the story is really weird and surreal, and just when
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you think you've got a hang of it, a completely different level will shake things up to keep
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it fresh. Don't let the simple controls fool you into thinking that the game is going to be easy
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or for that matter, boring. It's described on the App Store as a dreamy arcade game about riding motorcycles, skateboarding
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dance battling, shooting lasers, wielding swords, and breaking hearts at 200 miles per hour
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Shovel Knight Dig. This is a classic 2D platformer game with fittingly retro graphics
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You play as a knight wielding a shovel as you dig your way through these cavernous levels
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and at the end of your perilous journey full of pixelated monsters, you will get back your
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stolen loot. Shovel Knight Dig is a game you'll really want to play with a connected controller
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Now if you already have a PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch controller, you can connect
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to that over Bluetooth, or you can check out our list of the best controllers made just
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for iPhone. Squiggle Drop is a one-of-a-kind puzzle game that has you drawing a specific shape that
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will be released as an object to solve a puzzle or complete a task
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Can you draw one shape that simultaneously pops three different bubbles, or drops an
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anchor out of a boat, or flips a pancake, or turns a screw to just the right angle
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This game will simultaneously have you feeling like a mastermind engineer, and also like
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an idiot artist with stupid hot dog fingers that can't draw. It's really fun
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Now do you want to play a magical, monster-murdering, dungeon-crawling game? Or do you want to play pinball
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Finally, thanks to the pinball wizard, you no longer have to choose
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This game is incredibly creative and fun. Like any Atari game, it's really easy to learn, but hard to master, and I keep coming
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back to it. What the Car? Made by the same developers who made What the Golf
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This is a silly, zany parody of racing games. Every level is going to hit you with a completely different, wacky game mechanic
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What the Car is going to keep you on your toes, just like the car you play, which inexplicably
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runs around on legs. Word Web is a twist on the crossword game, where instead of trying to guess the word
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you're trying to build the puzzle. In the daily challenge, you get points for as many words as you can fit on a single board
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getting more points for more words, or for using longer words. And in other challenges, you need to try and build a web that connects to the end square
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on the board. It's also a little bit like Scrabble, except there's no pressure to come up with the words yourself
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If you hit the right tiles on the board, you get extra points and more words added to your
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word list that you can use. Now, in addition to all of those original titles, Apple Arcade also comes with what
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are called App Store Greats. These are all-time classic iPhone games that have been re-released for Apple Arcade, with
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all of their in-app purchases removed. My personal favorite example of this is Asphalt 8 Airborne
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This racing game takes you through a selection of real locations around the world, driving
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real-life supercars. Unlike the original version, there's no pay-to-win. You unlock new vehicles by having fun and playing the game
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And in my opinion, it's balanced really well, unlocking new classes, demands you learn new
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tricks, and up your skill at a pretty reasonable pace. It's a great game to play while you're listening to podcasts or unwinding with music
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Bridge Constructor. This game puts you in charge as civil engineer, as you need to design bridges that can cross
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chasms, rivers, ravines, that can still take the heaviest vehicles on a tight budget
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So you have an idea in your head and you immediately find that you don't have the budget to build
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it whatsoever. Then you try again with a different design, only to find that it immediately crumbles
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under its own weight. Then you think you finally got it right and there's this nail-biting tension as the vehicles
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slowly cross and the bridge gets redder and redder like it's about to collapse
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And when they finally make it over, you immediately want to do it all over again
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Ridiculous Fishing EX. In this classic fishing simulator game, you throw your line off the boat
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You try to get it as deep as possible. You try to hook as many fish as you can on its way back up
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And then just like real life, you throw all the fish in the air and shoot them with a shotgun
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Ridiculous Fishing EX is a remake of the 2013 original with all new gorgeous 3D graphics
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new game modes, new levels, and an in-game fish-based parody of TikTok
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Snake.io is a game where you play as a snake eating bits to grow bigger and longer
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If any other snakes crash into you, you can eat their dotty remains to grow bigger
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Or if you crash into any of the snakes, you're immediately out. It's a lot like Shark Shark for the Intellivision, except live and online multiplayer
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and just as addictive. On the Apple Arcade version, you get no ads and free restores
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So those are all the best games on Apple Arcade. Links to all of them will be in the video description, where you can also click to
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sign up if you're not yet a subscriber. I'm Dekerfin Jones with Cult of Mac
