Butter Royale is an isometric Fortnite meets Splatoon, with an art style that reminds me a bit of Steven Universe. That sounds like a great mix! Unfortunately, while it’s not terrible, Butter Royale is nowhere near as good as either of those two games. (And Steven Universe is in a different league altogether.)

The controls are simple. You can basically hold the trigger down and just focus on moving; the game will fire at the closest target. You pick up guns and bandages by standing next to them and waiting for a circle to fill. The user interface is a bit hard to decipher, however, and I was often confused about whether or not I was inside the shrinking boundary.

It was always easy to find players to match up with, though I suspect there may be bots: it’s harder to identify these in Butter Royale than in Fortnite.

Fortnite is free to play, and it’s on iPhone and iPad. It’s a much better game, though Butter Royale might be suitable for younger children. If you’re looking for a battle royale game on your Apple TV, I guess your options are limited and this works. The controls (and frame rate) are clunky on the TV. The frame rate is better on the phone (at least if you have a modern one) though the virtual joysticks are…virtual joysticks. Never a great option.

Link: https://apps.apple.com/no/app/butter-royale/id1464623715

Dead End Job is a twin-stick-shooter take on Ghostbusters, with a 90s Nickelodeon aesthetic; all neon-coloured and cartoonishly grotesque. It’s a manifest mood, thoroughly consistent, from user interface to soundtrack. Whether you like that mood or not is a matter of taste, and the mood colours the rest of the game.

The mechanics are simple, with (ugh) virtual sticks and buttons: left side is movement, right side is shooting, with a separate “vacuum” button. The vacuum’ s your proton pack, in Ghostbusters-speak. You accept jobs from haunted businesses, you fire at the ghosts until they’re stunned, and then you suck ‘em up. Your proto— Your vacuum can overheat, so you need to keep an eye on that. You earn cash from jobs, and you keep a logbook identifying the types of spooks you’ve captured.

The virtual controls are awkward; this game benefits from a real controller. I’m partial to twin-stick shooters, but only if I actually have twin sticks. Your mileage on the 90s mood is a decisive factor. I found it exhausting (much like 90s Nickelodeon itself) and I couldn’t really get into the game because of that.

Link: https://apps.apple.com/no/app/dead-end-job/id1461747354

Over the Alps is a stylish visual novel set in the Swiss Alps in 1939. It’s a spy thriller (and “Alpine adventure”) where you play a British agent on a mission from “Control”. You meet and interact with a cast of well-written characters straight out of a le Carré novel directed by Wes Anderson. The game is presented in the form of pithy letters to a mysterious woman named “Aubrey”. There’s a surprising amount of choices, although I don’t know how much the narrative actually branches, since I have yet to restart my adventure. It doesn’t really matter, though, because I felt like I was in control of the story. The dialogue is sharp and witty, the descriptive text brief and to-the-point, and I enjoyed Over the Alps more than I’ve enjoyed any other visual novel. It never drags, the interface is solid, the art beautiful, and the sound and music perfectly complement the mood. Highly recommended.

Link: https://apps.apple.com/no/app/over-the-alps/id1473114012

Kings of the Castle is basically first person Super Mario where you play the princess. There are mushrooms and power-ups and colourful islands to traverse. The music is relentlessly upbeat.

Unfortunately, there’s no reverse Y-axis setting which makes it extra hard for someone like me. Yes, I know: touch controls ≠ joystick controls, but there’s still something that feels off about moving my thumb up to look up. It’s also relentlessly hectic and quite challenging. There’s a reason why platform games are third-person. You can actually see what’s coming up behind you.

I won’t be returning to it, but: the concept is cool and the execution is good. Longevity is a question, but this is Apple Arcade, it doesn’t matter. If a game provides enough joy to justify the negligible download time, there’s value in it. This is a nice addition to the library, offering a different experience than almost anything else out there.

Note that I didn’t try the multiplayer mode that the developers highlight on the store page. Playing this with friends might elevate the experience quite a bit.

Link: https://apps.apple.com/no/app/kings-of-the-castle/id1247183842

Stranded Sails is an isometric adventure about exploration and discovery. And farming.

Unfortunately, the game took a long time to get started, so I never really got to grips with the core farming and exploration mechanics. There’s a lot of busywork in the first half hour, from getting the ship prepared for departure to chatting with the crew. It’s fine to be asked to untie one of the ropes to unmoor the ship: it’s a bit much to have to do all four, even if it takes less than thirty seconds. The amount of dialogue is fine and the dialogue itself is…fine? But it feels a bit generic and bland.

The zoomed out view makes it very hard to see the details in some locations; it works best when you’re outside. The tap to interact controls are also a bit finicky, requiring precise finger-placement on tiny objects. Navigating the environments sometimes requires finding little arrows to tap, and they’re only visible when you’re close. I would prefer to play this with a controller. For some reason, on the iPad, the game defaults to a virtual joystick and button layout. I’m not a fan.

The art is quite pretty. The game wouldn’t look out of place on the Nintendo Switch.

I can’t really speak to the quality of the main game, since I’ve just started exploring the first (of many?) islands, looking for survivors and establishing a community. Unfortunately, the story and characters didn’t pull me in, and I’m not motivated to keep exploring. The concept is sound, combining Stardew Valley with, uh, Lost? More like Swiss Family Robinson. But the execution, at least so far, lacks a strong mood and identity.

I think this game requires a fair bit of investment before it can shine, and if you can make it through the opening hour, the game might hook you. It’s got the ingredients for a tasty muffin. But I found it a bit half-baked.

Link: https://apps.apple.com/no/app/stranded-sails/id1473744957

Here’s another bright, colourful, cartoony game with a rabbit. This rabbit’s name is “Retro Rabbit”. There’s also a frog (“Funky Frog”) and a tiger (“Techno Tiger”, of course) but I’ve only played the rabbit.

The game mechanic is an odd mix between Ridiculous Fishing and Super Mole Escape (both ancient iOS games), with a dance music theme. It’s not as good as either of those games.

It is very polished, very animated, very colourful and very noisy…to the point where it honestly feels a bit soulless. This is definitely a thoroughly market-tested product.

Monomals is honestly a bit too flashy and noisy for me. I’m not the target audience; it’s designed to be eye-(and ear-)catching, but ends up feeling a bit overwhelming.

Link: https://apps.apple.com/no/app/monomals/id1030010370

It takes a while to make sense of Lifelike. I’m not there yet, even after completing a couple of levels. I’m not entirely sure what I’m doing, or what I’m supposed to do.

It’s hypnotically pretty. It sounds good. The simple touch-controls work well. It’s more of a zen experience than a mechanical challenge, and that’s fine. I play games for mood, narrative and immersion. This game definitely has a mood.

I don’t think I’ll get to a point where I understand what Lifelike is all about, but that’s fine. I sort of enjoyed my brief time with it, though primarily as a mental distraction and meditative experience.

Link: https://apps.apple.com/no/app/lifelike-chapter-one/id1455383205

Pilgrims is a beautiful 2D adventure set in a fairy-tale forest that feels very Central European. The art is lovely and full of character. The puzzle mechanics are novel and clever. The music — think brass, accordion, organ — is organic, authentic and very listenable. Even the sound-effects and vocalisations are fun. There’s so much soul in this game; it’s handcrafted with love and attention to detail.

In the game, you acquire playing cards that represent characters and items, and you drag these cards into locations to enable the objects. You solve adventure-type puzzles by picking the right cards in the right order. It’s really easy to get to grips with, but difficult enough to present a decent challenge. Anyone can play this: it’s very visual and logical, yet still magical.

If you’re into classic adventures, this is a really interesting twist on the genre that stands out and stands apart from most other games. Highly recommended. My only possible caveat is that I found it a lot more playable in landscape mode on the iPad than in the (forced) portrait mode on the iPhone.

Link: https://apps.apple.com/no/app/pilgrims/id1296855328

There are a lot of games with artificially retro art, and I’m honestly getting a bit tired of the aesthetic. INMOST (all caps) does manage to stand out, however, with a tightly controlled palette and some impressive lighting effects.

INMOST is at turns beautiful and banal. The music, thankfully, isn’t as Gameboyish as its appearance. The controls aren’t as intuitive as they should be: there’s no virtual joystick, but your left thumb ends up acting as though there is, while your other thumb performs jumping, rolling and interaction duties. It’s quite fiddly, and I sometimes struggled with basic tasks, especially jumping.

I also struggled at first with escaping the first room in the game; not a promising start. When I returned to the game on the iPad, I progressed quickly. At least until I didn’t. I kept dying without completely understanding why, and my patience eventually wore thin, but I can see the appeal of this game. If the aesthetic appeals to you and the 2D platform-adventuring isn’t a turn-off, then give it a go. The game has plenty of atmosphere and a unique point of view, and it’s telling a potentially interesting story.

Link: https://apps.apple.com/no/app/inmost/id1465235144

I love the look of this game. It’s beautifully minimalistic, but still rich with detail. Scenery, colours, design and animations all contribute to a coherent whole. This is a game with soul. It even sounds great.

I haven’t progressed very far in this point-and-click adventure yet, but what I have seen so far is promising. Text-heavy, there’s some branching in dialogues, but it appears to mostly be for flavour. Which is fine, because the writing is good and the characters have emotional complexity.

On top of all that, the world is interesting and the story shows promise. Combined with the unique look, this is a winner. I’ll definitely keep playing Mutazione, although it’s the sort of game that requires attention, isolation, headphones. And preferably a larger screen. I played it on the big iPad Pro in a dark room, and that was ideal. Smaller screens will have issues with readability — and the art won’t have room to shine. I might even give this a spin on the Apple TV.

(Update: I gave it a spin on the Apple TV, and it works great with a controller. In fact, this is now my preferred way of playing the game.)

I can heartily recommend Mutazione.

Link: https://apps.apple.com/no/app/mutazione/id1466920014

They really went to town with that name.

“BattleSky Brigade”, colon, deep breath, “Harpooner” is a shoot’em up and, uh, reel’em in with cartoony and colourful graphics, aggressively jolly music, and simple controls. Your intrepid harpooner-rabbit auto-fires their gun when you’re not moving, and you move the rabbit around with your finger. After a while, you get reeled in. Stuff happens! I could have described all of that better.

I was confused to begin with, but there isn’t that much to it. You collect gold coins (sorry, “koins”) and upgrade your dinky barrel-ship with better stuff.

BattleSky can be played in short spurts and it looks pretty nice. There’s even some well-written, and blessedly brief, text-only dialogue. The game didn’t grab me but there’s also nothing wrong with it. It looks and feels like many other cartoony mobile shooters I’ve played, but at least there’s no free-to-play bullshit or timers or ads in this one, so that’s a bonus. It’s a quick distraction, good for a bus trip or boring meeting. Kids may like it. It may even keep you playing. The rabbit is cool. And the name is very long.

Link: https://apps.apple.com/no/app/battlesky-brigade-harpooner/id1465210637

From time to time during this endless, Sisyphean task of reviewing every single Apple Arcade game, there will be times when I just have to admit defeat and move on.

Various Daylife is a traditional JRPG from Square Enix that looks and plays like a Nintendo 3DS game. There’s not necessarily anything wrong with that: the user interface isn’t very attractive or polished, but it does look like a “proper” old school 3DS JRPG. I’m guessing that’s what they were going for, and they succeeded. To a point.

The whole game appears to have been designed for the 3DS: the top half of the vertical screen shows your character in the world. Below that is the “control area”, where you can slide and tap your finger to move left or right. And below that again (on what would be the 3DS’ second screen) there’s the map.

It honestly feels like a half-hearted, maybe even lazy, implementation for a high-resolution touch screen, and it didn’t make we want to continue playing. The uninspired art and the countless text screens didn’t help. Again, there’s nothing wrong with reading lots of text, but the generic setting and story didn’t grab me.

Look, the moment I booted up Various Daylife I realised I couldn’t give this game a fair shake. It requires a level of investment that I’m not ready to make, and there’s absolutely nothing about it that appealed to me. That may be unfair, I know, but no one’s paying me to write these reviews, and I only have so much time left on this planet.

There’s probably an audience for Various Daylife, one that’s eager to dig into a “classic JRPG” on their phone. That audience isn’t me. I’ve barely scratched the surface of the game, so if you’re potentially in that audience, you should probably seek out more informed (and more in-depth) reviews than this one.

Sorry.

Link: https://apps.apple.com/no/app/various-daylife/id1439754817

I enjoy word-based puzzle games. Bookworm was one of the first iOS games I got addicted to. I played it on lots of long flights. Hey, I’m a writer. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that I like words.

Word Laces isn’t a great word puzzle game. It’s too simple. It’s got a decent interface and feels responsive enough, but it’s also rather bland and unpolished. The game shows you an image and you have to connect letters (with shoelace) to form multiple words based on the image. It quickly gets dull for grown-ups with a decent vocabulary, although it does ramp up the challenge.

This review probably sounds dismissive: I’m sure the game has its fans. This could be a good one to get your kids into, if you want to teach them spelling. But there are better word games out there, and the user interface and art direction diminishes the experience. I can’t really recommend Word Laces.

Link: https://apps.apple.com/no/app/word-laces/id1442515267

Bleak Sword got a lot of attention at the launch of Apple Arcade, and for good reason: it’s a visually distinct game with a clear vision and identity. The bleak, black-and-white(-and-red) aesthetic is eye-catching and appealing. And the swipe-based control scheme got lots of people excited, critics in particular.

This was one of the first Arcade games I played, and I found it very difficult to control. I never got to grips with it, and consequently struggled with even the most basic fights. It’s clearly a smartly designed game from talented developers who put a lot of thought into every part of the game. I feel bad for not being able to enjoy it, but the touch controls didn’t work for me.

It looks and sounds great, though. The pseudo 2D/3D retro style is perfect for the small screen, and the stark pixel art is distinctly indie…in a good way. It feels like an artistic decision, not simply a financial one.

This is one of those Apple Arcade games that makes the service so interesting and rewarding, even if I personally bounced off Bleak Sword.

Link: https://apps.apple.com/no/app/bleak-sword/id1403554793

I’m a bit unclear about what this game is actually called. The app name is “Enchanted”, but in the App Store and on the title screen it says “The Enchanted World”. Which, to be honest, is the better name.

Enchanted is an odd but attractive, and rather charming, 3D sliding puzzle game. You guide your little wizard/sorceress along a path in an enchanted world where you can also tap on flowers, trees and bunnies to enchant them. That tapping doesn’t actually do anything beyond triggering cute animations, like flowers popping up on the trees, but it brings me joy, and that’s definitely not nothing.

The sliding mechanic isn’t too complicated but the puzzles can still be quite challenging. The game appears to target very young players with its fairytale stylings and the magical (sorry, “enchanted”) world, so I’m not entirely sure who the intended audience is. I also found the touch controls to be a bit fiddly at times; the enchantress often refuses to walk to where I’m tapping or respond to my actions. It’s clearly an interface designed for a phone or tablet, however, and everything is well thought through. No virtual joysticks or buttons to be found, thankfully.

This is a personable and pretty game with a perfectly decent core mechanic. Sliding puzzles can be fun, and the implementation here is top notch.

Link: https://apps.apple.com/no/app/the-enchanted-world/id1459917958

Was there a Cat Quest 1? I must’ve missed it.

Cat Quest is an adorable dungeon crawler featuring a little cat and, in a surprising twist, a dog. Dogs aren’t the enemy! The enemy is a creepy looking ancient evil, and our odd couple has been awoken (from death? Or just a curse?) to fight this evil. It’s actually quite challenging, even though the controls and quests are simple. You traverse a cartoon world and tap on monsters to fight them. Some monsters require more strategy. There are tons of loot chests and gear. It’s a mini-RPG! For children!

It’s twee, but likeable; I don’t really have anything bad to say about this, even if I don’t pick it up again. It doesn’t offer anything new, but what it does, it does pretty well. There might be more complexity along the way, and it’s addictive enough to keep you going for another level. If I was on a plane and I played games on planes (I don’t, I read, listen to music and podcasts, and sleep, because I’m better than you) I could see myself playing this for a while, because it’s light and happy and goes down easy.

As I was copying the link, I noticed they use the log line “The Ultimutt Catventure” in the App Store, and for that crime alone I condemn them to eternal torment.

Link: https://apps.apple.com/no/app/cat-quest-ii/id1368471814

Down in Bermuda is a 3D puzzle game, or puzzle box, where you have to jump from island to island and solve a bunch of different puzzles to progress. Puzzles include finding orbs by searching the island through rotating and zooming the camera and panning around; sliding tile puzzles; and other mechanical logic puzzles where you push buttons and pull levers.

I’m not a fan of puzzle games, but if you’re into that, this is very polished and pretty. I am, however, puzzled by the narrative. You’re playing a pilot who crashed in this archipelago (in the Bermudas, I presume) thirty years ago. But when you meet the old pilot, he’s still trying to figure out a pretty simple sliding puzzle on the tiny island where his aeroplane crashed, and he also seems to not have noticed any of the other structures on the island, even though he’s been there for THIRTY YEARS. What was he doing this whole time? And there’s a big, friendly, talking turtle inside one of the stone buildings, so if the pilot had actually bothered to do a bit of exploring in the THREE DECADES on the island, he could have enjoyed some good company. It’s honestly quite annoying.

All in all: puzzles. If you like ‘em, go for it. There wasn’t much here for me, except for the burning desire to rewrite the plot and provide some explanation for why that idiot pilot just sat around for THIRTY DAMN YEARS doing absolutely nothing at all.

Link: https://apps.apple.com/no/app/down-in-bermuda/id1446828836

LEGO® Brawls® is Nintendo® Super Smash Bros.® with LEGO® Minifigures®.

Now that joke’s out of my system, here’s the real opener: No, really, Brawls is Super Smash Bros. with Minifigs. You pick your plastic avatar and wait for seven other players to join in the platform brawling. The virtual joystick touch controls are unavoidably clunky, and the performance of the Apple TV makes it less than ideal, so the best solution here is an iPad paired with an Xbox game pad.

It’s still sort of dull, though, with none of SSB’s charms. And since you can’t play local multiplayer on one device, there’s none of the fun playing Nintendo’s game on the couch with a bunch of friends. (You can host a local party with everyone on their own phone, which is better than playing with random people on the internet, but still. Not as much fun.)

Rather than download this for free, I suggest buying a Switch with five extra controllers, a big screen TV, and inviting a bunch of friends over to your beautifully decorated and spacious home. It really is the better option.

So, yeah, in that context, I guess give it a shot? But the Apple Arcade player base is still limited, and you may have trouble finding other players: this is a challenge with all Arcade multiplayers, and I wonder how this will play out over time, as there are more games and the audience is spread even thinner.

Link: https://apps.apple.com/no/app/lego-brawls/id1466964862

This weekends reviews are almost companion pieces, and if it wasn’t cheating, I’d review them together. But more on LEGO Brawls tomorrow.

Hogwash is a multiplayer game about pigs and farmers. You can either play the pig, and roll around in mud to charge up your, uh, your mud levels, before you go spray the farmer’s house in what I assume is a mix of cow dung and pig droppings. Or you play the farmer, and you try to hose the pigs down before they can do their dark business on your house.

I know. I know.

This is a multiplayer game, so of course I started off in single-player mode, playing one round as the pig (good guys, of course) and one round as the farmer (evil). So far, so blah. Each round felt interminable, with little variety or strategy to the proceedings. I then tried to connect to multiplayer. I tried three times before giving up: there was no one else playing Hogwash anywhere in the world. Or Europe. Or Norway. Wherever the server is located. No one. Not a great sign.

So I didn’t get to test the multiplayer, because I wasn’t going to ask a friend to come “be the pig” for me. Too weird.

I don’t know if I can judge Hogwash fairly, but I tried. It’s really dull in single-player. Maybe it’s fun with other people? I doubt it, but I don’t usually enjoy doing things with other people. Also, the touch controls are not great, and I didn’t give this a spin on the Apple TV. I don’t think a controller would have helped much.

Sorry, cute pig. I hope you eventually win your forever war against that jerk farmer! #TeamHog

Link: https://apps.apple.com/no/app/hogwash/id1453537891

Patterned is a nice game, a friendly game. The sort of game you bring home to meet your mum. It’s pretty and personable, and you can spend hours getting lost in its patterns and this is where the analogy breaks down.

I do not like jigsaw puzzles. The first time I tried Patterned I spent half an hour placing jigsaw pieces on a cosy map of mountains and small towns, accompanied by perfectly nice and friendly music. I honestly don’t know what happened. I was cosied into a stupor.

The first puzzle is the best: many of the others are strangely colourless, but there are dozens to pick from, so you won’t quickly run out. If you like jigsaw puzzles, you’ll probably like this. If you don’t…give it a try: it might work its subtle, friendly magics on you, too.

Link: https://apps.apple.com/no/app/patterned/id1451427298