Endless Traffic

Fun but limited retro-style game

Apple Watch games are something of a mixed bag. Most tend to be a fun diversion when you have a few minutes to spare, but are otherwise a pretty forgettable experience. Endless Traffic makes an admirable attempt at porting an addictive old-school arcade classic to watchOS, but that effort is mostly for naught.

You’ve played this one before: An endless stream of traffic converges on a busy intersection, and it’s up to you to avoid a crash by safely directing automobiles along the safest route. The graphics are a big improvement over the eight-bit retro editions this game was inspired by, and the iPhone takes great advantage of haptic feedback and multitouch to keep things fun.

Unfortunately, Endless Traffic’s gameplay doesn’t translate nearly as well on Apple Watch, where you’re resigned to spinning the Digital Crown in an attempt to stop traffic from piling up on the main intersection. The graphics are cropped for the tiny screen, but otherwise translate as well as can be expected. Just don’t expect much in the way of variety — it’s basically the same gameplay over and over again, which tends to get old quickly.

The biggest limitation here, though, is a complete lack of sound — you’ll miss the satisfying sound effects of cars slamming into each other, which fail to accompany those cute “Crash!” graphics on screen at the moment of impact. There’s no sound of any kind, which feels like a missed opportunity for an otherwise fun and lightweight game such as this.

The bottom line. Despite a welcome bump in graphics quality, the fun you’ll have with the iPhone version doesn’t translate so well to the Apple Watch, where the experience is entirely silent. J.R. Bookwalter