The Robservatory

Today wraps up my deep dive into the Apple Arcade. As a refresher, here's what's in each part of the series:

• Part One: This covers what I look for in games, some general observations on the games in the Arcade, and the lengthy list of games that didn't make my first cut.
• Part Two: A slightly deeper look at the first half of the games I felt merited additional time for playing and testing.
• Part Three: A slightly deeper look at the second half of the games I felt merited additional time for playing and testing.
• Part Four: The first half of my set of definite keeper games.
• Part Five: The part you're reading now; the second half of my set of definite keeper games, including my two favorites.
• Part Six: Wrapping it all up.

And now, the rest of the keepers…

(more…)

Today wraps up my deep dive into the Apple Arcade. When I planned this, one Part Four post was going to cover everything left…but it was way too long. So I'm still publishing it all today, but I've split the last part into three separate posts. So here's the full series:

• Part One: This covers what I look for in games, some general observations on the games in the Arcade, and the lengthy list of games that didn't make my first cut.
• Part Two: A slightly deeper look at the first half of the games I felt merited additional time for playing and testing.
• Part Three: A slightly deeper look at the second half of the games I felt merited additional time for playing and testing.
• Part Four: The part you're reading now; the first half of my set of definite keeper games.
• Part Five: The second half of my set of definite keeper games, including my two favorites.
• Part Six: Wrapping it all up.

Before I get to the keepers, though, there were two more games released while I was working on these posts, so I'll take a quick look at those.

All of You In this unique puzzler, your character is a chicken that needs to collect a number of lost baby chicks. Your chicken walks from left to right across the circles as seen at right. One circle can be animating at a time while the others are still. On some levels, you can rearrange and/or flip the circles, too. (In the level at right, you animate the dynamite circle first, so it explodes before you walk across.)

Higher levels have more circles, so there's not so much empty space…and some of the puzzles get a bit tricky. It's fun, but I'm not sure it's a keeper just yet.

(more…)

My new iPad Air came with a surprise (at least, to me): A three-month trial to Apple Arcade. So I decided to look at all 139 games available in the Apple Arcade.

Here's what's in each part of the series:

• Part One: This post includes what I look for in games, some general observations on the games in the Arcade, and the lengthy list of games that didn't make my first cut.
• Part Two: A slightly deeper look at the first half of the games I felt merited additional time for playing and testing.
• Part Three: The part you're reading now; a slightly deeper look at the second half of the games I felt merited additional time for playing and testing.
• Part Four: The first half of my set of definite keeper games.
• Part Five: The second half of my set of definite keeper games, including my two favorites.
• Part Six: Wrapping it all up.

Here's the second set of nine games that I felt worth more time testing. Obviously these summaries still aren't anything close to a full review, but there's a bit more detail (and screenshots; click for the large version).

No Way Home What starts as a top-down space shoot-em-up turns into more of a mission-focused shooter—collect things for upgrades, take this to that. Lovely graphics and fun gameplay, plus a helpful robot assistant helps you battle. And while it's another dual control, the second control is for firing direction not camera view direction, which is much less of a pain for me.

Operator 41 One of the "sneak about in the dark" games, and the graphics have a nice grainy texture to them. The ground is divided into grid squares, and you move by tapping on a destination grid square. It's a simple concept, but it's well executed here, and some of the moves require impeccable timing—roving guards and rotating security lights make for brief bits of protected space.

(more…)

My new iPad Air came with a surprise (at least, to me): A three-month trial to Apple Arcade. So I decided to look at all 139 141^*Two more games were released during the writeup of this series. games available in the Apple Arcade.

Here's what's in each part of the series:

• Part One: This post includes what I look for in games, some general observations on the games in the Arcade, and the lengthy list of games that didn't make my first cut.
• Part Two: The part you're reading now—a slightly deeper look at the first half of the games I felt merited additional time for playing and testing.
• Part Three: A slightly deeper look at the second half of the games I felt merited additional time for playing and testing.
• Part Four: The first half of my set of definite keeper games.
• Part Five: The second half of my set of definite keeper games, including my two favorites.
• Part Six: Wrapping it all up.

Obviously these summaries still aren't anything close to a full review, but there's a bit more detail (and screenshots; click for the large version).

A Fold Apart This puzzler's unique twist is that the characters are walking around in what is, essentially, a landscape made up of pieces of paper. The paper can be folded and/or flipped over, and solving puzzles involves some combination of flipping and folding in order to complete the path the characters are following. It's colorful and relaxing, yet the puzzles require some creative thinking.

(more…)

My new iPad Air came with a surprise (at least, to me): A three-month trial to Apple Arcade.

I thought if I'm going to trial it, I should really trial it. And what better way to do that than by playing everything they offer? So over the last few days, I have downloaded, launched, played a bit of, taken some very brief notes on, and (in most cases) deleted a total of 139 141^*Two more games were released during the writeup of this series. games.

Here's what's in each part of the series:

• Part One: The part you're reading now, it covers what I look for in games, some general observations on the games in the Arcade, and the lengthy list of games that didn't make my first cut.
• Part Two: A slightly deeper look at the first half of the games I felt merited additional time for playing and testing.
• Part Three: A slightly deeper look at the second half of the games I felt merited additional time for playing and testing.
• Part Four: The first half of my set of definite keeper games.
• Part Five The second half of my set of definite keeper games, including my two favorites.
• Part Six: Wrapping it all up.

I am not going to begin to pretend I will post a full review of each of these games. For most of them, in fact, I can provide only a passing first impression based on my one-time testing of each game.

(more…)