Top 5 Apple Arcade Games for iPad & iPad Pro! By Andru Edwards

- This episode is sponsored by Skillshare. I'm Andru Edwards, and you're watching "Gear Live. " (intense music) I'm been using the Apple iPad Pro 2020 version for about a month now, and one of the things I've really been enjoying on this device is diving into the Apple Arcade library of games. In this episode, I tell you about five of the games that I've been playing recently that really shine on the iPad Pro. What is going on, Tech Squad? Andru Edwards here, Editor in Chief of GearLive. com, and as I mentioned, today, we are checking out the iPad Pro 2020, and in particular, we are checking out Apple Arcade games that I've been playing while I've been isolating myself and my family here at home.

Now, in case you're unaware or haven't heard about it, Apple Arcade is Apple's gaming service, which includes over 100 different playable games. And games are playable on your iPhone, on your iPad, on your Mac, and even on the Apple TV as well. Now I mentioned there are over 100 games available to play on Apple Arcade, but the other thing you should know is that these games are exclusive to Apple Arcade when it comes to mobile. In other words, you're not gonna find any of these over 100 titles on any other mobile platform. And the best part of Apple Arcade, at least in my own personal opinion, is the price.

After a one-month free trial, Apple Arcade costs $5 per month or $50 per year, and that cost gives you unlimited access to every single game on the Apple Arcade service. Every game can be played offline, and since progress saves to iCloud, number one, you can pick up where you left off no matter what device you're using, and number two, every family member can continue their game and their progress separate from everyone else. And by the way, that five bucks a month allows you and up to five family members to access Apple Arcade at no additional cost. Now, of course, while I'm talking about playing these games on the newest iPad Pro with increased graphics performance thanks to the A12Z Bionic processor, just one more quick reminder that Apple Arcade games are playable on the iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, and Mac. So if you see anything you like and want to try but don't have the iPad Pro in particular, don't worry, as long as you have any of those devices, you can give these games a shot.

Now, let's jump into the five games I've been playing here at home during self-isolation and self-quarantine, starting with Guildlings. Guildlings draws inspiration from classic RPGs, point-and-click puzzlers, and visual novel games, and it tells a lighthearted coming-of-age fantasy story with a mobile game framework. Guildlings is actually brought to you by the same team that brought you the game Threes, that game where you take different threes and line them up and add them together. I'll just put something for you all here 'cause it's hard to explain that game. But, if you know, you know.

And the game nails the balance between fantasy and modern life in an offbeat and entertaining RPG that exists in a world of both wizards and wifi, kinda like the movie "Onward," if you will. The script works great for teens and adults alike, and conversations fly by like text messages packed with jokes. Exploration is fast and precise, and battles, carefully balanced, how challenging they are, with a little bit of a forgiving nature. It's all very fun, with success often depending on keeping characters happy, and fights are mostly focused on defense and tiring foes out, rather than killing and maiming. The first chapter of this game will take you about four or five hours to complete, and I think once you do, you will absolutely want to play more.

All right, up next, the second game I've been playing here at home on Apple Arcade on the new iPad Pro 2020 is Pac-Man Party Royale. Now, obviously, being a Pac-Man game, this is a classic, and I was actually surprised to see something like Pac-Man, an established franchise, appear on Apple Arcade, but I'm glad he's there, because this game is fantastic, not just alone, but especially when playing with others. The basics of Pac-Man are still at play here. You're traveling along a maze, eating dots and avoiding ghosts. However, you're also playing against friends, and if you're not playing with friends, there will be other computer-controlled Pac-Men all in the same maze, trying to accomplish the same goal.

As you eat up the dots, you speed up, increasing your chances of catching a moving super pellet that temporarily transforms you into an unstoppable ghost-eating machine. In order to win a round, you have to be the last Pac-Man standing, but if at some point you do happen to get eaten, you're not just down and out; you actually become a ghost yourself, and then you can attack the rest of the players who are still alive and kicking. This brings a competitive nature to Pac-Man, which, again, is super fun, and I highly recommend this one. Okay, before we move on to the next game on the list, let me tell you about this video's sponsor, Skillshare. Skillshare is an online learning community for creatives, where millions of people come together to take the next step in their creative journey.

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All right, next up, let's talk about one of my favorite games on Apple Arcade, a game I would've paid 10 or $15 for on its own if it wasn't a part of Apple Arcade, and that is Oceanhorn 2: Knights of the Lost Realm. Oceanhorn 2 is not only one of the best-looking adventure games out there, but it also builds a unique experience on the shoulders of classic video games. You collect powerful items, wield the Caster Gun, solve mysterious puzzles, and discover all that the Arcadia land and its neighboring kingdoms have to offer. Now I know some people are gonna roll their eyes at this comment, but it's true. Oceanhorn 2 is the closest you're gonna get to playing a Zelda game on Apple Arcade or the App Store in general.

Unless Nintendo does an about-face and decides, hey, we're throwing The Legend of Zelda on mobile, which I don't see happening, Oceanhorn 2, again, is the closest you're gonna get, and I do not use the Z word lightly. I'm a huge fan of the Legend of Zelda series, start to finish. I cannot wait for Breath of the Wild 2 to drop. In the meantime, Oceanhorn 2 is giving me that Zelda-ish vibe, that Zelda fix, that I've been looking for. If I have to ding the game for anything, it's that it makes a lot of assumptions that you've played the original and that you understand all the game mechanics right out of the gate.

For example, it will assume you already know how to perform a certain action before it's ever told you how to perform the action, because it told you how to perform the action in Oceanhorn 1, but if you've never played Oceanhorn 1, what the heck? That said, the game looks fantastic, and once you get to grips with the controls, you'll forgive those early hiccups. This is a great Apple Arcade title to play on your iPad with a controller, either a PS4 controller or an Xbox One controller. And in addition, this is also one of those games that's really good on the Apple TV as well. Again, grab a controller, connect to the Apple TV, sit back and play this game on your big screen. You will not regret it.

Up next on my list, of my favorite Apple Arcade games, at least right now as we speak, is tint. Now this is a game for those of you who aren't necessarily gamers, or maybe you are a gamer, but you're not looking for a game that is fast-paced, high-adrenaline, or you just want to chill. tint. is the game that you play when you want to chill, whether you're a gamer or not. This is a game about painting and seems appropriate to include here, not just because it's a great game for relaxing while you're cooped up in the house, but also because it's definitely enhanced by the Apple Pencil, and obviously, the Apple Pencil only works on the iPads.

Whether you're using Apple Pencil with a non-Pro iPad or the Apple Pencil 2 with the Pro series iPad, playing tint. on the iPad in particular is a unique and I say the best way to play this game. Each level begins with one or more origami shapes sitting on a page, and your goal is draw an unbroken line of watercolor paint to each shape in the corresponding color. For example, a red paper frog might need you to draw a straight red line somewhere in order to connect it to something else. Now the challenge is gonna be sometimes there'll be shape that's a different color than what's offered, because you only have the primary colors on your palette.

So you might have purple, and you're gonna need to mix blue and red together in order to get the color you need in order to do that level properly. They've also just added a quarantine-friendly Zen Mode. Zen Mode is a full new book inside of tint. , featuring an endless loop of easy levels. Just use your imagination to paint the most beautiful solution, or skip a level anytime if you don't like it.

tint. has 220 levels built in, and they are always adding more. There's even a colorblind version and a vision-impaired version as well, to allow as many people as possible to play the game, and it even has a great and fun ambient sound soundtrack. Now, going from low adrenaline back up to high adrenaline, the last game on my list is Speed Demons. In Speed Demons, you take control of a car racing along a busy highway filled with other cars and trucks that are mostly minding their business.

The problem is that your accelerator is in pedal-to-the-metal mode, and you've gotta weave in and out of traffic. The game features 25 upgradable vehicles, whether you want to try your hand a tiny hatchback or a supercar or even something like a semi-truck. You've got over 200 unique events that are customized to the different vehicles and eight different game modes, all wrapped into a high-speed, physics-based game, with up to 100 individual vehicles onscreen at a single time. This game really shines on the iPad and looks great on the iPad. The iPad Pro in particular is powerful enough to provide all of that graphics power that a game like Speed Demons demands.

Oh, and by the way, most games like this are endless racers, or endless runners, where you just keep going until you die. This is not what Speed Demons is. It's actually level-based. As I said, 200 unique events built into this game. So there you have it, guys.

Those are the five games that I've been playing on Apple Arcade using the iPad Pro 2020 in particular as my gaming device. Again, the iPad Pro is fantastic for gaming, because number one, the display is incredible; number two, you can use the Apple Pencil, which you can't do on iPhone, can't do on Mac, and can't do on the Apple TV, and there are games optimized for using the Apple Pencil for more precise touch input; and number three, for games like Oceanhorn 2 or Sayonara Wild Hearts, which I did not include in my top five list, but it is an honorable mention, Sayonara Wild Hearts is fantastic, games like those work great with a controller, and now that Apple allows you to pair a Bluetooth controller like the Xbox One controller or the PlayStation 4 DualShock, gaming on an iPad Pro has gotten so much better. So again, Apple Arcade has over 100 titles. These are just five titles, with that sixth honorable mention of Sayonara Wild Hearts. Let me know in the comments below which Apple Arcade games are your favorites to play.

What games did I miss? What games should I check out? 'Cause I have not played all 100 plus games yet. So as I gave you my advice, hit me with your advice on what I need to check out on Apple Arcade as well. Now if you want to hear even more Apple Arcade games I would recommend, be sure to check out the "Geared Up" podcast. If you weren't aware, "Geared Up" is a show I do each week with Jon Rettinger, where we take a look at the latest news in tech, gadgets, and games. Just head to your favorite podcast player and search for "Geared Up," two words, not one, and you'll find us there.

Until next time, thank you so much for watching. As always, guys, stay safe out there, stay indoors, and enjoy playing games. I'm Andru Edwards, and I will catch you in the next video. (intense music).

Source : Andru Edwards