Hottest new games coming to Apple Arcade

Apple Arcade promises more than 100 premium games, but which are the best? We reveal our favourites. David Price reports

Apple Arcade lets users play more than 100 titles as much as they like for a set monthly fee. But which ones make it worth your while signing up for the service? It’s early days, and nobody outside the companies involved has played any of these new games just yet. But we’ve seen gameplay footage and screenshots, and formed some strong hunches about which titles are going to be the standouts. We round up the coolest-looking games on Apple Arcade.

Beyond A Steel Sky

This sequel to the beloved 1994 classic Beneath A Steel Sky looks very promising. It’s a puzzler that has you fighting against the AI system which was activated at the end of the original game, and exploring issues of privacy and corporate power. As in 1994, the team worked with the comics artist Dave Gibbons (veteran of

2000AD and Watchmen) to create a characterful look, and the world design is highly ambitious in scope – it’s described as a full console game on mobile. The setting, Union City, looks incredible.

Fantasian

Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of Final Fantasy as well as this intriguing title, says Fantasian is a game “that shouldn’t exist”. Fascinatingly – and impractically, one would imagine – the developers physically built a set for each scene and then digitally animated 3D characters on top, resulting in a unique look. And based on Sakaguchi’s pedigree, we’d expect the game to be masses of fun.

Hot Lava

If you ever played ‘the floor is lava’ as a child – which is maybe more of a US than British thing – then this game will press all sorts of jolly nostalgia buttons in your brain. In this case, of course, there’s no need to use the wonderful power of a child’s imagination because the floor is literally lava, and it’s up to you to navigate around the rooms and levels via furniture, hanging brackets and pipes and so on. It’s done via a first-person 3D perspective, something which usually results in wildly inaccurate jumping, so we look forward to experimenting with that. The cartoonish aesthetic is rather nice too, with traces of a Team Fortress influence, possibly

Lego Brawls

You can’t go wrong with a bit of Lego, and this cheery number offers a pleasing contrast to some of the more introspective and mature fare we’re seeing elsewhere. It’s a 2D platformer with bright, colourful graphics, laser guns, mechs and what looks like plenty of customization options for your sprite.

Lifelike

“I’m not aware of another game that uses swarm behaviour as its main game mechanic,” says Lifelike mastermind Denis Mikan. The game is based on patterns and behaviours observed in nature (fish, birds, microbes), and the resultant gameplay looks both beautiful and calming.

Oceanhorn 2: Knights of the Lost Realm Oceanhorn is a popular Zelda-like RPG (sure, it’s not as good as Zelda itself, but what is?), and we have high hopes for this prequel, set 1,000 years before the original. This timeshift means there’s rather more on the knights-in-armour front than before, but fantasy fans will get a kick out of that. The visuals are beautiful, and there was a cool octopus baddy in the trailer at Apple’s event.

Overland

This turn-based ‘post-apocalyptic road trip strategy game’ (we bet you’re sick of that genre, right?) uses procedurally generated events, locations and scenarios so that it plays out differently each time. We’re getting a bit of a ‘Banner Saga meets truck stop Americana’ vibe, but don’t ask us why.

The Pathless

You’re a masked hunter with a bow and an eagle, stalking through a forested island and trying to lift a curse, in a game that looks to walk a handy line between slow-burn awe and speedy action sequences. It seems to share some of Shadow of the Colossus’s mythic mysticism and the baddies look incredible.

Projection: First Light

This stunning-looking platformer is distinctly reminiscent of Limbo, which is no bad thing; but whereas that game used shadows to conjure an atmosphere of dread, Projection feels more magical. It’s set in a world of shadow puppets. The central character, Greta, must explore a series of cultures in search of enlightenment, seeking help from the mythical heroes she meets.

Where Cards Fall

Look, we know pretty much nothing about this game – the makers didn’t even specify a genre, as most did in their cryptic Twitter announcements. But the mere fact that it’s by ustwo games, who are on a hot streak after producing the two Monument Valley games, gives us a good feeling. Whatever it is, we’ll give it a try

Winding Worlds

Another game that remains almost entirely a mystery following the launch (it’s “a colourful and dreamy puzzle-adventure about exploration, friendship, and acceptance”), but this press image is super-cute. Please tell us more, KO-OP.