Apple Arcade: Обзор Outlanders, Takeshi and Hiroshi и Legend of the Skyfish

Apple Arcade has been adding to its catalog for several years now, with both big exclusive games for mobile gamers and smaller hits from the past. A subscription to the service costs 200 rubles a month, and for that Apple  offers hundreds of games with no ads or in-app purchases, but with high-quality and enjoyable play. Many games even support controllers. At this point, the service is already well worth its price tag if you like to play on iOS devices.

And it’s a great deal.

But from experience, it turns out that not all of the tittles are up to the high standards. In this column, I’ll be looking at a small selection of games to determine whether or not they’re worthy of attention. In the fourth article in this column, we’ll talk about Outlanders, Takeshi and Hiroshi, and Legend of the Skyfish 2.

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Apple Arcade: Outlanders

A combat-free city builder that I’d love to play constantly before I get bored

The atmosphere in the game is wonderful, from Untitled Goose Game’s sprites and changing lighting to the soothing clatter and clang as you build houses and fell trees. And I applaud the fact that each level feels self-contained, with specific goals and (really challenging) objectives, something you can’t always achieve in strategy games of this type.

I have few complaints, but I must add that the motion recognition system is sometimes overkill, leading to frequent slips when moving around the map. And the nighttime sections are boring because your people are asleep — but thankfully their time can be sped up to 20 times.

Apple Arcade: Takeshi and Hiroshi

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Takeshi — a game designer; Hiroshi — his younger brother and a big fan. Your job — to cheer Hiroshi up with a game he can play in the hospital…but it’s not finished yet.

Apple Arcade.

As Hiroshi progresses, you have to design the game on the fly, deciding which monsters will attack in this or that order, and later — when the friendly wizard decides to use healing or buff spells. The idea, which mirrors the actual design of the game, is to push the teenager as hard as possible without killing his character. Essentially, it’s a math puzzle of sorts.

The game is a math puzzle of sorts.

But that’s just understating the fun of the concept, which rewards ingenuity and penalizes safe play. Plus, the game has some really beautiful graphics, split between nifty 2D game screens and cute Fireman Sam animations in scenes.

And it’s a really nice game, too.

Apple Arcade: Legend of the Skyfish 2

A bright, charming action-RPG created by a man who loved Zelda but wished it had more hooks.

Your weapon —s a fishing rod, and with this versatile tool you can pull yourself across chasms, activate long-range switches, pull enemies toward you (while briefly stunning them), or simply bash them. These options, combined with the dodge/throw button, make combat hectic and fun, though it can sometimes be frustrating when a monster gets in the way of the strategy next to the target of the grab.

Fans of RPGs have an abundance of games on Apple Arcade. However, if you want to relive Zelda’s glory days in 2D, this is the game to start with.