You can’t tell from a still image, but the game has frozen on me. For the fourth time.

Neversong froze on me three times. The first time was early on, just after a save point, and the only thing I lost was the minute it took to quit the app and restart. The second time was after I’d explored the village, taking in the beautiful scenery. This time, I probably lost around five minutes of progress. Both times I was playing on the iPad. The third time was after I tried playing on the iPhone instead, picking up from the last save point: as soon as it had finished loading, the game froze. Another forced quit and reboot, and I was able to progress…but for how long?

(Update: a couple of minutes later, it “froze” again. Whatever you do, don’t pull down the control centre or multitask while playing this game. When you return, the game appears to still be running, but the controls don’t work and you have to force quit.)

I’m a game developer. I know that bugs happen. But this seems excessive, especially after playing 117 Apple Arcade games that, for the most part, have been very well-behaved. And, after all, Apple is the publisher, they must have the resources to do proper QA! I don’t have time to troubleshoot or replay games to write a three-paragraph review.

From the little I’ve seen, Neversong looks beautiful and sounds great. The controls work well — it’s another puzzle-platformer, with movement on the left and jumping on the right. You tap on things to interact with them, which sounds good in theory, but on the large iPad it means you constantly have to move your hand, and you obscure whatever it is you’re supposed to tap on. So far, there’s been a couple of easy puzzles, some elevators, and a couple of characters to talk to. The voice-acting is good, but the writing’s a bit of a mixed bag, especially the rhyming in the opening cinematic. (Writers: unless you’re really good at it, avoid writing in rhymes. It’s harder than you think.) I don’t really know what the story is yet, but your character’s in a coma, or he just woke up from a coma, and there’s an asylum and a missing girl. And all the parents are gone? I was confused, but then I didn’t get very far.

This is my final Apple Arcade review, and it’s a bit of a downer. The game froze consistently on two different devices, which doesn’t bode well. I can only hope the developers can get a fix out soon: unfortunately, I probably won’t be going back to it.

Link: https://apps.apple.com/no/app/neversong/id1492757836

Unleash the Light, the Steven Universe RPG, was supposed to be the final game in this series of reviews — mostly because it’s a game my daughter and I have been planning to play together after wrapping up the (really, really good) Steven Universe TV series (and equally good movie). But then yesterday Apple went and released another game, so instead of this being the final review, there will be one more bonus review tomorrow, because I’m a completist and I hate to leave things hanging.

(After that, don’t expect any new Arcade reviews for a while, if ever. This was a project I embarked on to see if I could do it, and I did it, and now it’s done.)

So: Unleash the Light. We held off on playing the game in order to finish the series first and avoid spoilers. Watching Steven Universe with my daughter has been a deeply rewarding experience, and wrapping it all up with the movie a couple of months back was quite emotional. It’s a wonderful show. I’ll miss it, and miss the time spent sharing that experience with her. We’ve yet to watch Future (a limited series that picks up a few years later), but this game is set in, or just after, the original timeline.

The following review has been written in its entirety by my SU mega-fan daughter (with a few notes by me at the end):

I liked this game. It was fun and I liked that they had the original voices of most of the characters, which gives it a more real feel. The graphics were nice, and they had a lighter and more cartoony vibe to them. It had the same bright colours and playfulness as the series.

I think the fact that I’ve watched this series makes it a more personal experience for me, so it might not be the same for those who haven’t. (Although some of the things are hard to understand without watching the series.)

There are a lot of things to read and quite a lot of pop-up battles. It’s still fun but, unlike Nightmare Farm [which she guest reviewed a while back], it’s not as easy to pick up and play for a few minutes. It’s nice to play when you’re in a car or in bed, because you can expect to spend a long time playing the game.

The controls are different from what you might be used to. You don’t have to press the screen and wait valuable seconds for your characters to get to the other room: you just swipe and the characters will run to keep up! That’s made it so much easier to return to the last room and check it you’ve forgotten any loot. Battle is pretty much the same as other games, but again unlike Nightmare Farm it requires a lot more focus, especially in the battles.

All in all, it’s a game that might have a complex plot but it has the same story-battle vibe that you’re used to. I recommend it especially to Steven Universe fans who’ve missed the series after it ended.

(And here are my own brief thoughts about the game.)

The game feels like Steven Universe, and that’s important. The writing is good, they’ve used the original actors, and the art looks similar to the show. It’s not quite there, though, and I wish it was, because the show looks great. The dialogue doesn’t work quite as well without the rhythm of linear presentation — you tap to progress, which makes the timing feel off — and not all of it is voiced. In an ideal world, the cut-scenes would have been fully animated by the show’s creative staff. As for the game: we’re talking pretty standard dungeon crawling turn-based combat action, though there’s a decent amount of interaction required, and I did like the quick navigation between rooms. Aside from that, this is a rather basic game. The appeal’s in the characters and universe. My daughter enjoyed that part of it — so did I — but there’s not much else there to keep us interested. I think we’ll start watching Steven Universe Future instead.

A Fold Apart is a neat idea executed technically and mechanically well, with beautiful, Pixar-like art, lovely piano music, and a heartfelt story about long-distance relationships and drifting apart…but I don’t know if I actually enjoyed playing it. I found a lot of the folding puzzles cryptic, requiring trial and error without actually understanding what worked and what didn’t.

This game has received plenty of positive coverage, and rightly so: it’s the sort of game Apple Arcade does incredibly well. Indie, niche, born from a singular vision and with something to say; a game that would struggle on mobile without Apple’s funding and support.

Unfortunately, while I was looking forward to playing it, I’m not sure I’m the target audience for A Fold Apart. Maybe it’s my inability to problem-solve the folding puzzles, or my tolerance for puzzle games in general; regardless, it’s the sort of game you should download and take for a spin. You might like it a lot more than I did, and I’m really happy it exists. Even if it’s not for me.

Link: https://apps.apple.com/no/app/a-fold-apart/id1468317913

This isn’t the first multiplayer Apple Arcade game where I’ve had trouble finding other players. I tried multiple times without a single successful match, and had to resort to playing single-player “horde” mode. How big a problem is this going to be for the service, if their multiplayer games lose the “multi”?

Things That Go Bump is Super Smash Bros. meets Robot Wars with household appliances. You play a disembodied spirit (a poltergeist of some sort, I assume) with the power to possess, and animate, various everyday items. You find a body to inhabit, add legs, eyes, a weapon — and then you battle other mechanical concoctions.

It’s cute and the art’s really nice. You can build some funny characters, but it gets dull rather quickly — especially playing on your own. If I could find multiplayer matches, maybe that would help; even better, play with others in the same room. But that’s a fantasy at this point: as it stands, there’s not much incentive to continue playing TTGB. It’s a decent idea without much substance.

Link: https://apps.apple.com/no/app/things-that-go-bump/id1468921491

Inspired by Blue Planet, the BBC TV series, this is an attractive and chill game about the deep blue sea…and whales. Lots and lots of whales.

I played Beyond Blue on the iPhone, but I really wanted to play it on a big-screen TV, in full surround. It’s that kind of immersive experience, and the game appears to be designed for such a setup. The virtual joysticks are, as ever, a mixed bag. Movement on the left “stick” works okay, but the camera on the right is finicky and lacks precision. I had a difficult time targeting things. Luckily, the game is forgiving and doesn’t require quick responses.

Visually, Beyond Blue mixes beautiful models of fish and whales and nice environmental (oceanic?) effects, with a surprisingly unpolished user interface, some awkward diver animations, and visual bugs. The field of view is also very wide, which is probably a good thing for observing the aquatic life, but stretches your diver so much that she looks almost alien. Overall, though, Beyond Blue is a pretty game, especially on a small screen.

The same cannot be said for the Apple TV version. The frame-rate (on the most recent 4K box) is subpar, and the environments lack detail. What looked great on a phone screen doesn’t look half as attractive on a 65” TV, though the animals still look great and are beautifully animated. Xbox controller support is pretty solid, but there are issues: sensitivity has to be adjusted, and for the life of me I couldn’t figure out how to swim faster. Again, there’s a lack of polish here that detracts from the overall impression.

Beyond Blue is educational and relaxing, and the kind of game that would integrate well with school courses about the ocean and preservation. I want to play more, on a big screen, but I’ll hold out for the Xbox or PlayStation versions.

Link: https://apps.apple.com/no/app/beyond-blue/id1466830738

Skyfish is an attractive and competent Zelda clone, with polished game mechanics and some lovely touches.

I’ve never played, or even heard of, the first Skyfish game, but I had no trouble getting into the story. It’s appropriately simple stuff, and Little Red Link appears to be a new sequel character.

The virtual controls are about as good as can be expected. They’re not great — it’s impossible to hit the buttons without looking at them — but they’re mostly okay. Again, and I feel I’ve written this sentence a dozen times by now, this is a game that should be played with an actual game controller…which is a shame, because the art looks good on the phone screen: bright, colourful, easy to decipher. Even the text and icons, while small, are readable.

There’s nothing groundbreaking about this charming action-RPG. We’ve seen it all before, many times, but I still found it instantly appealing, eminently playable, and (virtual sticks-and-buttons aside) quite enjoyable. If you don’t have a Nintendo device, this is not a bad way to play a lightweight Zelda game.

Link: https://apps.apple.com/no/app/legend-of-the-skyfish-2/id1358468246

I’d been looking forward to playing this one, since the trailers were intriguing. Having played it for the better part of an hour on the iPhone, however, I’ve come to the conclusion that first-person games are not particularly well suited to a small screen with touch controls.

The interface is not great. Movement works fine, but I immediately had to increase the sensitivity of the camera to the maximum setting. Unfortunately, the non-adjustable dampening makes looking around incredibly frustrating and motion-sickness-inducing, and trying to precisely position the reticule on an object is an abject lesson in patience. You constantly overshoot the target, and on more than one occasion I wanted to throw my non-existent controller at the wall.

The game looks pretty good, but there’s a lot of visual detail in the scenes, including numerous posters and computer screens, which does not come across well on the small screen. To read the tiny text you have to adjust your position, and the camera, carefully…and that’s not always an easy task.

Flawed controls and graphics aside, I found the item replication game mechanic to be difficult to get to grips with, and the associated puzzles were a chore. The photography feature — where you take snapshots of items and locations to send to your unseen partner for feedback — was hit and miss: I never knew exactly what the game wanted me to take pictures of, or what would receive a response. I did want to learn more about the world and the story, but the finicky puzzle-solving got in the way of that.

I might still continue playing, since I want to understand more of what’s going on, but not on the phone, and not with touch controls.

Link: https://apps.apple.com/no/app/the-bradwell-conspiracy/id1458000142

Stela is a strikingly beautiful 2D platform puzzle game that reminds me of Playdead’s Limbo and Inside, both aesthetically and mechanically.

This game is best played with a controller, though the touch controls aren’t terrible. I did end up dying on a couple of occasions where I knew what I was supposed to be doing, but the controls failed me; given the generous save points, however, this didn’t feel too punishing, but it does get in the way of immersion.

Since both Limbo and Inside are available on iOS, it’s worth checking out those games before playing Stela, but the latter has its own charms. The swarms of deadly beetles are unnerving, and some of the locations are very pretty, in a nightmarish sort of way.

Stela doesn’t offer anything new, but it’s well made and, as part of the Arcade subscription, certainly worth downloading and playing.

Link: https://apps.apple.com/no/app/stela/id1466149452

Manifold Garden is a beautiful mind-trip that reminds me of Portal. It’s a first-person puzzle game that plays with space and gravity and has lots of crates in it. What Manifold Garden lacks is a narrative, characters, and a sense of place. It’s a very attractive game, and uses its sparse environments and minimalistic art style to full effect, but this also makes it hard to form any emotional attachment to the game world. It’s like being trapped inside a cold and brightly lit modern art museum.

Mechanically, the game is solid. Virtual joysticks work well for first-person controls, especially when they’re simple. Camera and movement are mapped to the left and right sides of the screen, a coloured button changes gravity between surfaces, and you interact with objects in the world by tapping on them. It’s easy to get to grips with and well implemented.

Manifold Garden quickly becomes quite challenging, and the complexity of the game world — both visually and mechanically — means it’s also mentally taxing to play. I’m not sure how far I’ll get, but I intend to keep playing the game for a while…on the Apple TV. The game functions well on the phone and iPad, but it’s also tiring to play with a handheld device and touch controls; a proper controller would help a lot. As would a game world with more colour and variety — but it’s still an interesting and original game that’s worth checking out.

Link: https://apps.apple.com/no/app/manifold-garden/id1468951050

Tales of Memo is a super-cute and super polished memory puzzle game, and I just realised why it’s called Tales of “Memo”. Because memory! Clever girl.

The artwork and animations are top notch, giving this very simple number-matching game a sheen of quality that is immediately appealing.

At the end of the day, though, this is a game based on a mechanic that’s been used in a hundred other games. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with it, and if you enjoy these types of puzzlers, Memo’s a pretty good one. It’s great for children, and for mindless distraction while waiting in queues (remember those?) or traveling on public transportation (remember that?) or, you know, quality (toilet) time.

Just don’t expect a hugely original or mind-blowing experience.

Link: https://apps.apple.com/no/app/tales-of-memo/id1465626707

Decoherence is a mix between twin-stick shooter, tactical arena fighter, and strategy game. It’s mechanically complex and challenging, and difficult to play on a small screen. The text and icons are minuscule, and the controls require tiny fingers and pinpoint accuracy. Your little soldier and her various bots are also incredibly small. It’s hard to form any attachment to them, or with any of the enemies, when they’re barely visible. Worst of all, trying to read the descriptive text for any of the units require holding the phone right up to your face.

I don’t think Decoherence works on the phone. On the iPad the controls become unwieldy; the larger device can’t easily be held by the edges with your thumbs on the two sticks. The only way to properly play this game is on a big screen with a controller, and at that point other flaws become obvious. Blown up to TV size, the game becomes visually noisy and unattractive, and the hardware controls don’t feel well designed.

My biggest issue is that I don’t understand Decoherence. I didn’t understand it, it was hard to play, hard to decipher, difficult to control and I didn’t feel any incentive to stick with it.

Link: https://apps.apple.com/no/app/decoherence/id1469225525

I love the look of Takeshi and Hiroshi. The interactive cut-scenes use what looks like stop-motion claymation or puppets, while the in-game game features clean and attractive 2D art. The story is also pretty great, and well written. The relationship between the two brothers feels real. Even the hand drawn menu art is wonderful.

I am, unfortunately, not as enamoured with the game mechanics. It could be that it takes a while to get into — more than the half hour I allot myself for most of these reviews — or simply that I’m not a big fan of tactical 2D combat or stats management.

You play the older brother and digital dungeon master. You decide on which monsters your little brother will encounter as he plays your in-development tablet game (cheekily, the tablet and laptop look a lot like Apple devices). You have to keep him entertained and engaged, represented in the UI by “stress” and “joy” bars. The challenge lies in picking the right enemies in the right order, keeping the tension up without killing him. Turns out, this is very, very hard! Who knew that balancing a video game was a real skill.

It’s a wonderful premise, executed well — but I didn’t enjoy playing the gamey bits, even though I’m sure a lot of people will. Me, I just wanted more of the story and the sibling relationship, and less of the dungeon-mastering.

Link: https://apps.apple.com/no/app/takeshi-and-hiroshi/id1471596310

Scrappers is a refreshingly novel side-scrolling action game that looks great. You play a robot garbage collector and your job is to pick up as much trash as possible while fighting off thugs, rivals and robot varmints. The game is surprisingly complex, with multiple unlockable characters and weapons, as you balance garbage collection with combat, and try to rack up bonuses. The game is designed for multiplayer. I’ve only played it single-player, but this probably makes for a great party-game.

I liked Scrappers. The touch controls work really well, there’s not a virtual button in sight, and the art is striking. I also liked the world they’ve built: it’s cyberpunky and brutal (you toss defeated robot enemies into the garbage compressor!) but also fun and colourful. It’s suitable for both children and adults.

I’m excited to try this with multiple players, since it’s quite difficult to play on your own. That’s really the only caveat I have: it’s surprisingly challenging to efficiently pick up garbage, aim and toss it into your truck, and to catch garbage tossed by your compatriobots. The learning curve is steep. But it’s definitely worth sticking with Scrappers.

Link: https://apps.apple.com/no/app/scrappers/id1464109659

I’ve been wanting to review Yaga for a while, but for several weeks it consistently crashed when loading. Turns out the game wasn’t compatible with a recent iOS update. It was eventually fixed, but how diligent will Apple be about keeping these games updated and running? How many of the Arcade games will fail to work with future OS updates? And is Apple paying developers to update their games?

I was really looking forward to playing Yaga, because from the promotional art it looked beautiful and seemed to offer an interesting Eastern European twist on the traditional action RPG. It is and it does, but it also has a number of issues that prevents it from being a very good game.

The music is emblematic of my feelings about Yaga. It’s well produced and often quite stirring, but it’s also tonally off. When you’re wandering about the village, for example, the music is intense and action-packed, with a contemporary sound to it. The voice acting is generally of a high quality, but the writing is awkward, and the direction broad, which again affects tone. The art is beautiful, no question about it, but some textures and characters are weirdly blurry when the game zooms in for a conversation or cut-scene. On their own, these elements are solid, but they don’t necessarily fit together.

The virtual joystick and buttons are…virtual. I’ve made it clear how I feel about those in general. In Yaga, they work, but they also make combat unnecessarily difficult. A controller is definitely recommended — as is playing the game on a bigger screen, since the iPhone makes the UI very hard to read and tap targets difficult to hit.

In terms of game mechanics, Yaga is like an old-school Zelda game. You wander around the 2D world solving quests and fighting numerous enemies. Monsters are well-designed and artistically quite beautiful, but combat often ended up being a slog. The hammer mechanic is cool; like Thor, you toss your hammer and it comes back to you, but it’s hard to pull off accurately using touch controls.

I wanted to like Yaga, and I tried my best, but at the end of the day it wasn’t clear what game the developers wanted to make. The world, story and characters didn’t grab me — something that’s critical in a roleplaying folktale. It’s not a bad game, and most of the elements are of a very high standard, but they don’t come together into a coherent whole.

Link: https://apps.apple.com/no/app/yaga-the-roleplaying-folktale/id1455514508

Mind Symphony feels like an idea that hasn’t been fully developed. It’s unpolished and broken — I could never get the Apple Music connection to work, which is one of the game’s unique selling points, and very odd, given it’s an Apple-published title — and it also feels unbalanced and untested.

There are two modes: “Release” and “Calm”. The latter appears to be completely non-interactive; a ship flies itself into the screen, picking up orbs, while your chosen music track plays. Okay. Why? The former is a shoot-em-up that provides some enjoyment when bonuses rack up and the pyrotechnics kick in. The problem is that once lots of things happen on screen, it’s impossible to see your ship or survive more than a few seconds. All of this is “timed” to the music, although I couldn’t really see how the music influenced the game, and since I couldn’t pick my own tracks, I was locked into the bundled tracks.

If you can get the Apple Music connection to work, and if the game fundamentally changes based on that music, and if you’re better able to survive the mayhem than me, then maybe there’s a point to this game — maybe. But I don’t really get it.

Link: https://apps.apple.com/no/app/mind-symphony/id1465854303

It’s a requirement for Apple Arcade games to work across all devices, support screen sizes from five to fifty inches, and work with touch controls on the iPhone and iPad. It’s a challenge that will always demand some compromises, whether that’s on the phone or, most likely, on the TV and Mac. The iPhone is the most used device, and naturally the primary focus for many developers.

Hyperbrawl Tournament, a multiplayer arcade sports game, does not play well with the iPhone. Everything is tiny: the user interface, the character models, the terrible virtual buttons. It’s hard to see what’s going on and really hard to perform even the basic functions, like throwing the ball into the goal. I often found it difficult to perform even the simplest actions.

On the TV with an Xbox controller, things are better, but unfortunately this is where the game’s other flaws come into focus. It’s not a very attractive game; the players slide around the court, looking like blobs, and animations are rudimentary at best. The mechanics are basic and the controls feel stiff and joyless. Speedball on the Amiga offered a better take on a brutal, futuristic sport, and that was thirty years ago.

I’m not sure which platform the developers were primarily targeting, but it feels like Hyperbrawl was a victim of compromises made for the game to work on everything. I hope Apple changes this requirement over time: asking developers to design their games for phones, tablets, computers and TV screens means some games will suffer, and some games will never get made.

Link: https://apps.apple.com/no/app/hyperbrawl-tournament/id1466782466

This is actually my second attempt at reviewing Guildlings. The first time around, a week or two after starting this project, I wasn’t able to get into the game, and I felt it was unfair to review it. After all, it’s a nice game, a friendly game. It’s pretty and well-written with a distinct personality, obviously made by developers who cared a lot, and I didn’t want to write anything negative based on first impressions. So I left it for later, and now it’s much, much later, and I tried picking it up again, and—

No. No, I’m really sorry, but I don’t like playing Guildlings. I don’t know if it’s the combat system, which I found tedious, or the walking around tapping on things to see if they’ll do something, or sometimes holding my finger on something to see if that will do something, or the endless tasks I have to cross off a list like I’m running errands, and for each item I cross off another is added to the list, or the hunting for objects which are sometimes obscured by my finger as I guide my little guy around.

I haven’t gotten very far — just getting out of the house at the start of the game took a long time and was a bit of an ordeal — so I don’t know if the game changes and opens up, but I decided I’m not going to give it more time.

And I feel terrible about that! Because it is in so many ways a nice game. It’s got quirky characters and funny dialogue, and everything fits nicely together. But it’s just not enjoyable to play.

Sorry, Guildlings: I gave it a shot, two shots!, but this relationship was just not meant to be.

Link: https://apps.apple.com/no/app/guildlings/id1114224350

Spyder, a game about a spying spider, has a ton of potential. It looks and sounds great, the touch controls are, for the most part, pretty good, and it’s a fun concept. It’s let down, however, by the camera, which managed to make me seasick, and by a few other usability issues.

The camera is generally well-behaved, but when you start climbing up, over and under surfaces (which, it has to be said, looks and feels great, as your spider is able to traverse all surfaces in every dimension), the camera readjusts itself, making your spy-spider change direction, which makes the camera readjust again, which affects the spider’s direction, repeat literally ad nauseam. It ruined the experience for me.

As for the controls, as virtual joysticks go, it’s not bad. You can tap anywhere to bring up a joystick to control the spider. However, the inconsistencies in how interactions work — sometimes you tap and hold on whatever you want to interact with, sometimes you tap a virtual button — never gelled. I kept doing the wrong thing. Sticking with the tap-and-hold to interact with something would have been a better option than the dynamic virtual buttons, in my opinion.

I also found mission markers to be obtuse, and combined with the awkward camera controls — two fingers to look around, which means letting go of one side of the phone — made it hard to figure out where to go next.

It’s a shame that Spyder has these issues, because it’s a really fun and personable concept that’s artistically well-executed, and controlling the spider itself feels great. But playing on the iPhone became a chore, and after watching the camera drunkenly swoop around as I tried to make my way around a table, I had to put the game down: I felt queasy.

Before posting this review, I did give it a go on the TV with a controller, and…it’s better? But there’s still something off about the way the camera behaves, which doesn’t sit well with me. I didn’t feel in control, and it made climbing and moving an annoyance when it could have been, should have been, and almost was, pure joy. Also, on the TV, the art looks flatter and less detailed, and the frame rate (on the Apple TV 4K) wasn’t great.

Link: https://apps.apple.com/no/app/spyder/id1443839718

When I began this silly project, my goal was to make it to a hundred Apple Arcade game reviews. It was, to say the least, an unlikely goal. The idea of spending upwards of thirty minutes every day playing a new game, sometimes on multiple devices, and then writing about it in a blog and on Twitter — it was daunting. I fully expected to have to take a break at some point, or perhaps even abandon the project altogether.

Well.

We’ve reached the one hundredth review in one hundred days, through some really strange days, and this is a special review. Mosaic is a Norwegian game made by our friends at Krillbite. I’m happy (and relieved!) to say it’s also a good game. No, I haven’t finished it, because I rarely finish any games, ever, but it’s also not a very long game, and I expect I’ll make it to the end sooner rather than later.

Mosaic got more attention at launch than most Apple Arcade games, and there are several in-depth reviews of Mosaic that speak to the game’s qualities better than I can. But, in short: this is a point-and-tap adventure about how the drudgery and monotony of everyday life as an office worker grinds you down, and how there’s beauty to be found even in the most starkly oppressive and colourless urban environment. It’s not a lightweight game, and you need to be in the right frame of mind to enjoy it, but it’s worth it for the mood, the beautiful art and audio, the obvious care and polish, and a story that isn’t afraid to go to some dark (and weird) places.

I do have a few issues: I wish they’d implemented tap-to-walk rather than forcing you to hold your finger down all the time, which often gets in the way of seeing where you’re going, and the job mini-game quickly gets tedious (which, I guess, is sort of the point). But the game has so many moments of wonderful magical realism and stark beauty, you forget about the annoyances. This is a piece of art, and it may not be for everyone, but I found it touching.

Mosaic is available for every device, including Windows, PlayStation, Xbox and Switch, so if you don’t have Apple Arcade (or an Apple device) there’s still no excuse. And if you do have Apple Arcade, you’re certainly getting your money’s worth with this game and all the other wonderful and interesting and quirky games on the service.

This isn’t my final Arcade review. I’m seeing the project through to the end, but reviewing Mosaic, and writing my one hundredth review, was an important milestone — one I’m quite proud of. Thanks for joining me this far. And do give Mosaic a spin!

Link (App Store): https://apps.apple.com/no/app/the-mosaic/id1454782852
Link (Steam): https://store.steampowered.com/app/349270/Mosaic/

This is not the type of game I enjoy playing. The idea of managing a team of fighters, training them and sending them on dungeon crawls where they automatically fight the opposing team (with some manual tactical input) and participate in league battles against other teams sounds…not great. I prefer action to strategy, direct control to auto play, and lots of micro-management is typically a turn-off.

Surprise! I enjoyed playing King’s League II. It’s beautiful, the art is colourful and cute and quirky (just look at it! It’s adorable!), the music and sound is tolerably cheerful, and it’s incredibly polished. It’s easy to learn, easy to get into, easy to like. I’m still not a fan of the genre, but I wouldn’t mind spending more time with this game. I think the user interface is too cramped and small for even a big iPhone, with tiny touch targets, and it wasn’t entirely obvious what I needed to do in the early stages of the game (owing a lot, no doubt, to my inexperience with the genre) but that’s nitpicking. King’s League II is an appealing game, and probably one of the best in its class on Apple Arcade.

Link: https://apps.apple.com/no/app/kings-league-ii/id1383687342