**A Review of Apple Arcade: Early Impressions and Thoughts**

I recently had the opportunity to try out Apple Arcade, the new gaming service from Apple that promises a wide range of exclusive games for just $5.00 per month. As someone who's always been skeptical about subscription-based services, I was excited to see if Apple Arcade would live up to its hype.

The first thing that struck me about Apple Arcade is how simple the gameplay mechanics are. The game I played, Wildhearts, has a very straightforward concept: you draw roads for cars to travel from point A to point B. Sounds easy enough, right? But what's surprising is just how much depth and complexity can be added to this simple concept through clever design and level progression. The game is actually quite challenging, requiring you to use your wits to optimize the routes and avoid obstacles.

I also appreciated the attention to detail in Wildhearts' world-building. The game features a variety of colorful characters and buildings that add a lot of personality to the gameplay experience. It's clear that Apple has invested a lot of time and effort into creating a cohesive and engaging environment for players to explore.

One of the things I'll say about Apple Arcade is that it's not your traditional gaming service. Unlike other platforms like Xbox Game Pass or PlayStation Now, which offer a vast library of games across multiple genres, Apple Arcade focuses on exclusives. And while this might limit the number of options available upfront, I believe it's a strategic move that will pay off in the long run.

For example, when I saw that Wildhearts was the only multiplayer game available at launch, I was immediately intrigued. As someone who loves competitive gaming, I was excited to dive into the world of Wildhearts and see if it lived up to its promise. And while I didn't have a chance to play the multiplayer mode just yet, what little I saw had me hooked.

In terms of value, I think Apple Arcade is an absolute steal at $5.00 per month. The game library may be smaller than some other services, but the quality and exclusivity of the games on offer more than make up for it. And let's not forget that Apple has a proven track record when it comes to creating innovative products that people love.

Of course, there are always concerns about subscription fatigue, and whether or not $5 per month is a fair price to pay for something like this. But I believe that Apple Arcade has the potential to be a game-changer in the world of gaming, and at least from where I'm sitting, it's definitely worth checking out.

**A Quick Look at Other Games on Offer**

In addition to Wildhearts, there are several other games available on Apple Arcade that caught my eye. Skate City, for example, is a skating game that promises to deliver fast-paced action and a unique gameplay mechanic where you swipe left or right to perform tricks. I didn't get a chance to play it in depth, but what little I saw looked like it had some potential.

Overall, my experience with Apple Arcade has been overwhelmingly positive. The service may not be perfect, but I think it's definitely worth checking out if you're a gamer looking for something new and exciting. With its focus on exclusives and its commitment to delivering high-quality games at an affordable price, I believe that Apple Arcade is poised to become a major player in the world of gaming.

**The Future of Apple Arcade: What to Expect**

One thing that's clear about Apple Arcade is that it's just the beginning. In addition to the exclusive titles already available, Apple has promised a steady stream of new games and content in the months and years to come. This means that subscribers will always have something new to look forward to, whether they're playing Wildhearts or trying out Skate City for the first time.

In terms of future plans, I think it's likely that Apple Arcade will expand its offerings significantly over the coming months. With a strong lineup of games already available, and more on the way, I believe that this service has the potential to become one of the premier destinations for gamers looking for something new and exciting.

Of course, as with any subscription-based service, there's always the risk of subscriber fatigue. But I think Apple has done a good job of creating an engaging experience that will keep players coming back for more. And at $5 per month, it's hard to argue against the value proposition.

**Conclusion**

My time with Apple Arcade was overwhelmingly positive, and I'm excited to see what the future holds for this service. With its focus on exclusives and its commitment to delivering high-quality games at an affordable price, I believe that Apple Arcade is poised to become a major player in the world of gaming. Whether you're a seasoned gamer or just looking for something new and exciting, I think it's definitely worth checking out.

As always, be sure to follow me on Instagram and Twitter for more updates from my adventures with Apple Arcade. And if you have any questions or comments about this service, don't hesitate to reach out.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey it's Chris and I've been trying out the early Apple arcade trial before the full thing becomes available on my iPhone and I got a lot to tell you about I'm gonna break this up into like three categories number one I'm gonna give you my early observations about the service in general and they are interesting so do not miss that number two I'm gonna give you some early impressions on seven games that caught my eye right off the bat that's also gonna be interesting see if there's anything that you like there and number three I'm gonna say is this worth it even early on we can kind of tell already so there's gonna be time stands for everything like you expect down in the description so you can skip around if you want let's get into it all right so early observations just to catch everybody up so we're all up to speed Apple arcade $5.00 a month for a hundred plus games many of which most of which are exclusive to Apple arcade now here at launch there aren't a hundred games available yet but they're coming they're gonna be added but I can already tell you right off the bat there's enough here to dig into and like I don't want to spoil the rest of the video but there's enough to like for $5.00 already because look you can spend $5.00 easily on one game in the App Store in the regular party app store so five dollars a month for a bunch a buffet unlimited that's pretty cool now at this point the preview was only available on my iPhone so I haven't tried it out on my iPads even though I know that's gonna be amazing iPad Mini is gonna be so great for gaming with Apple arcade it already is it's a great game machine but it's just like the perfect can tell held sighs iPad pros obviously super powerful bigger screen better screen that's gonna be great too I haven't tried it on the Apple TV either that's another place I'm really looking forward to I have one of the Apple TV to be a gaming console for the longest time so I got my red dragon Xbox controller ready which is very much overkill but I want to try it out I haven't done anything yet except for the iPhone though now the arcade section of the App Store app on my iPhone is very different it has a different feel than the rest of the app store and I like it because it's more engaging and the reason is because everything's bigger the game icons for the apps those are bigger so you can like get a better feel for it in the previews are bigger it feels like without having to click on stuff and so it really is a more fun and engaging way to shop for your games please pay attention to what I'm about to say because this is one of my big observations as I was browsing through the games in Apple arcade it struck me how different how crazy it was to just be looking for games that I was interested in versus games that where I had to measure do I want to pay for this so instead of thinking is it worth this money to get this game I was thinking does this look fun and that's all I had to think about and it is a complete paradigm shift in fact it was such a paradigm shift that I started downloading games left and right because there's several that caught my eye right off the bat and I quickly ran out of storage on my iPhone and so this is something that you might want to think about if this seems like something you're gonna be really into it may actually influence how much storage you want to get on your next iPhone because man it goes fast and kind of along those same lines if there's so many games to be playing now with Apple arcade something else to factor into your next iPhone buying decision if you're gonna be really into this is the battery life because the new 11-11 Pro are gonna get a lot better battery life than like the 10r or the tennis max from last year for instance like four or five hours of extra battery may be useful or necessary for somebody who's really going to get into Apple arcade so keep it in mind now here's something else this big is huge it's one of the main things that differentiates apple arcade games from just other games you can get in the App Store after a little bit I mentally realized after the fun died down of downloading all these games there's no in-app purchases and there's no ads in games now I knew that heading into it but after a while it hit me like I realized it and all of a sudden I really began to appreciate it as I was going through the different games and started playing them no ads and no in-app purchases is a huge huge deal number one it felt much more relaxing there was like less pressure and it was just more enjoyable I really do think that not having those two things made this early experience for me with apple arcade more fun I'm not joking it was more fun I also want to talk about just the feeling I get about the games the selection of games in Apple arcade because they feel very tailored they feel very curated and there's like these themes running through the kind of games that are appearing early here in Apple arcade number one for the most part the games feel very casual so far so these are meant to appeal to the masses it feels like and not necessarily to the traditional hardcore gamer and I guess what I mean by that is that the game mechanics are often very simple which doesn't mean that they're easy just simple there's not a lot of things you have to memorize and different configurations of buttons and stuff like you can get into it pretty easily anybody and also there's a big focus on storytelling versus just like action and maybe rethinking what a game can be and bringing something new and inventive to the gaming experience which is pretty cool and kind of along those lines I feel like the games are oftentimes very chill with like one exception so far just like relaxing and there's no pressure and playing the game is not gonna stress you out and I don't know if that's intentional behind Apple and the selection of games in the developers going into this but it kind of seems like it so far just there's a very chill vibe the last thing I want to talk about before we jump into my early impressions of some of the games is multiplayer which there's not a lot of so far in the apple arcade experience now there's a couple of games where I found some multiplayer possibilities one of them was like actual multi-player against other people I'm gonna talk more about that in just a minute and one of them was like local multiplayer you could have a couple people on the same device but for me multiplayer is an important part of gaming I have nothing against like games that solo is like puzzles and figuring stuff out by yourself but I really love competitive online gaming like it for me that almost is gaming because that's the kind of game that I really enjoy there's not a lot of that so far so I hope that more multiplayer experiences come to Apple arcade if if so that would be like a huge upgrade for me personally all right so let's talk about some early game impressions starting with oceanhorn - which by far for me was the most impressive game in terms of like graphics and like an open-world that you can explore this felt like the most traditional game that people might come to expect that would appeal to like more hardcore gamers because it's very Zelda like if you played oceanhorn one you kind of realize that and so you're exploring this world and you got a sword and it's very fun it's very cool it's in-depth so the gameplay is just great and the sound effects are great I was playing with headphones air pods and I'm glad I was because you can really notice all the little details and that really adds to the experience the gameplay was so smooth to just like looking around and seeing everything in this really detailed world it was impressive honestly genuinely this is gonna be my favorite game to start exploring in the coming weeks there's a game called Overland which is a turn-based game that doesn't really feel like a turn-based game because it moves along pretty quickly has an interesting look to it the graphics are very different and it is really entertaining for me that the title screen for this game actually incorporated my iphone knotch Dallas kind of whole areas but this one definitely piqued my interest it's one I'm gonna be exploring more but this was by far the most intense game method it's super intense play was more intense than any of the other games that I tried you got somebody like dying in there like right off and the music is like a little bit creepy it's not creepy but it keeps you on edge it doesn't want you to be super comfortable this is the one game that didn't feel very relaxing that I tried agent intercept is one of the games that I tried and I like it because it's a driving game but it's not a racing game it's a different take on it's like a spy adventure and you're not driving straight you're not driving to the side it's sort of like off caddy corner like diagonal and it's fun like the controls are super easy the graphics are kind of cool and you could do like shoot missiles and there's a boost and you're ramming people but it's not like super intense it feels kind of relaxed even though it's like that in the graphics I like a lot so many motorways was one of my favorite games that I tried so far and I didn't expect to like it as much as I did all you're doing is drawing roads for cars to go from point A to point B but you got to get the colors right like if the blue cars need to go to blue building and orange or whatever it was fun it was relaxing I could play this for a long time in his sitting it's basically a puzzle game but it doesn't really feel like it I don't love puzzle games traditionally but this one I did so sayonara Wildhearts I had to try because it was in all the marketing and I guess I understand why it was once I got in there it was really slow to get started but once you're in there this is the one that I was talking about when I mentioned earlier the gameplay mechanics are pretty simple but at the same time that doesn't mean that it's just super easy either but it's simple to get into once it got started because it took a long time to get through the intro and stuff and the story I could do without wasn't like an amazing story Lego brawls I'm a man in my 30s but I went for a Lego game why because multiplayer this is the one thing that seemed to promise me some multiplayer action kind of like Super Smash Brothers ripoff which I'm okay with because I like Super Smash Brothers and what Legos are cool too yeah yeah and so this is one I'm gonna keep my eye on because I love multiplayer and I expect big things from this for me because it's the only real multiplayer experience I've even found a hint of so far the last game I'll just mention real quick is called skate city which is a skating game and you're scrolling across the screen from left to right there's just a simple control where you're there's shoo button and gets you skating and then just how you swipe around is gonna like do different rings left I found this game to be kind of interesting it seemed like it was gonna have a lot of potential but actually I found it too simple almost like there's other tricks that you can do and I didn't go super in-depth to it yes so give it a fair try if you're interested in it at all but I don't know I didn't find it super engaging so far so to wrap things up for this early preview of Apple arcade there are two questions that I want to answer for you number one is they're fun to be had and number two is it going to be worth that $5.00 per month let's tackle the first thing first that makes sense is it fun to be had yeah actually I'm looking through the available titles here at this preview launch and I'm thinking there's several things that I could jump into and that not just that like I'm looking forward when this video is done while my footage is importing going back and exploring further and part of the fun is that I know more titles are coming for that same monthly price it's like Tim Cook said on stage five dollars a month is the price of a movie rental right so it's really not that expensive now obviously we can talk about subscription fatigue and just getting overloaded with all these little subscriptions that when you add up your spending like 200 bucks a month or whatever right so this is gonna be contributing to that which is kind of a bummer and I do wish Apple will come out with some sort of Apple Prime subscription service we can bundle everything and maybe save a little bit of money or whatever but that biggest question then is that $5 worth it and for me I think it's gonna be like this is way more worth it I think than like Apple news because there's a lot here and a lot of it is exclusive whereas Apple News costs more and what I'm really there for is like the news but I'm getting all this magazine content which it don't really love but I do like the Wall Street Journal content you know and a few other things like TechCrunch extra crunchy or whatever but here I feel like the value is just there there's no debating it five dollars a month is a really good deal and already the games that are available at launch there's some fun stuff and some of the stuff that I'd know has been previewed that isn't yet available to try yet looks good too and just to be able to add to that over time yeah apples really onto something here so when you think about Apple and a new services strategy this is something that actually makes a lot of sense so that is it for today's video I hope you liked it leave me some questions down below I'll try to get to those here in the first couple of days and don't forget you can follow ad daily text spell daily tek k on instagram and twitter check out the podcasts check out the clips channel if you haven't already and i'll catch you guys the next video laterhey it's Chris and I've been trying out the early Apple arcade trial before the full thing becomes available on my iPhone and I got a lot to tell you about I'm gonna break this up into like three categories number one I'm gonna give you my early observations about the service in general and they are interesting so do not miss that number two I'm gonna give you some early impressions on seven games that caught my eye right off the bat that's also gonna be interesting see if there's anything that you like there and number three I'm gonna say is this worth it even early on we can kind of tell already so there's gonna be time stands for everything like you expect down in the description so you can skip around if you want let's get into it all right so early observations just to catch everybody up so we're all up to speed Apple arcade $5.00 a month for a hundred plus games many of which most of which are exclusive to Apple arcade now here at launch there aren't a hundred games available yet but they're coming they're gonna be added but I can already tell you right off the bat there's enough here to dig into and like I don't want to spoil the rest of the video but there's enough to like for $5.00 already because look you can spend $5.00 easily on one game in the App Store in the regular party app store so five dollars a month for a bunch a buffet unlimited that's pretty cool now at this point the preview was only available on my iPhone so I haven't tried it out on my iPads even though I know that's gonna be amazing iPad Mini is gonna be so great for gaming with Apple arcade it already is it's a great game machine but it's just like the perfect can tell held sighs iPad pros obviously super powerful bigger screen better screen that's gonna be great too I haven't tried it on the Apple TV either that's another place I'm really looking forward to I have one of the Apple TV to be a gaming console for the longest time so I got my red dragon Xbox controller ready which is very much overkill but I want to try it out I haven't done anything yet except for the iPhone though now the arcade section of the App Store app on my iPhone is very different it has a different feel than the rest of the app store and I like it because it's more engaging and the reason is because everything's bigger the game icons for the apps those are bigger so you can like get a better feel for it in the previews are bigger it feels like without having to click on stuff and so it really is a more fun and engaging way to shop for your games please pay attention to what I'm about to say because this is one of my big observations as I was browsing through the games in Apple arcade it struck me how different how crazy it was to just be looking for games that I was interested in versus games that where I had to measure do I want to pay for this so instead of thinking is it worth this money to get this game I was thinking does this look fun and that's all I had to think about and it is a complete paradigm shift in fact it was such a paradigm shift that I started downloading games left and right because there's several that caught my eye right off the bat and I quickly ran out of storage on my iPhone and so this is something that you might want to think about if this seems like something you're gonna be really into it may actually influence how much storage you want to get on your next iPhone because man it goes fast and kind of along those same lines if there's so many games to be playing now with Apple arcade something else to factor into your next iPhone buying decision if you're gonna be really into this is the battery life because the new 11-11 Pro are gonna get a lot better battery life than like the 10r or the tennis max from last year for instance like four or five hours of extra battery may be useful or necessary for somebody who's really going to get into Apple arcade so keep it in mind now here's something else this big is huge it's one of the main things that differentiates apple arcade games from just other games you can get in the App Store after a little bit I mentally realized after the fun died down of downloading all these games there's no in-app purchases and there's no ads in games now I knew that heading into it but after a while it hit me like I realized it and all of a sudden I really began to appreciate it as I was going through the different games and started playing them no ads and no in-app purchases is a huge huge deal number one it felt much more relaxing there was like less pressure and it was just more enjoyable I really do think that not having those two things made this early experience for me with apple arcade more fun I'm not joking it was more fun I also want to talk about just the feeling I get about the games the selection of games in Apple arcade because they feel very tailored they feel very curated and there's like these themes running through the kind of games that are appearing early here in Apple arcade number one for the most part the games feel very casual so far so these are meant to appeal to the masses it feels like and not necessarily to the traditional hardcore gamer and I guess what I mean by that is that the game mechanics are often very simple which doesn't mean that they're easy just simple there's not a lot of things you have to memorize and different configurations of buttons and stuff like you can get into it pretty easily anybody and also there's a big focus on storytelling versus just like action and maybe rethinking what a game can be and bringing something new and inventive to the gaming experience which is pretty cool and kind of along those lines I feel like the games are oftentimes very chill with like one exception so far just like relaxing and there's no pressure and playing the game is not gonna stress you out and I don't know if that's intentional behind Apple and the selection of games in the developers going into this but it kind of seems like it so far just there's a very chill vibe the last thing I want to talk about before we jump into my early impressions of some of the games is multiplayer which there's not a lot of so far in the apple arcade experience now there's a couple of games where I found some multiplayer possibilities one of them was like actual multi-player against other people I'm gonna talk more about that in just a minute and one of them was like local multiplayer you could have a couple people on the same device but for me multiplayer is an important part of gaming I have nothing against like games that solo is like puzzles and figuring stuff out by yourself but I really love competitive online gaming like it for me that almost is gaming because that's the kind of game that I really enjoy there's not a lot of that so far so I hope that more multiplayer experiences come to Apple arcade if if so that would be like a huge upgrade for me personally all right so let's talk about some early game impressions starting with oceanhorn - which by far for me was the most impressive game in terms of like graphics and like an open-world that you can explore this felt like the most traditional game that people might come to expect that would appeal to like more hardcore gamers because it's very Zelda like if you played oceanhorn one you kind of realize that and so you're exploring this world and you got a sword and it's very fun it's very cool it's in-depth so the gameplay is just great and the sound effects are great I was playing with headphones air pods and I'm glad I was because you can really notice all the little details and that really adds to the experience the gameplay was so smooth to just like looking around and seeing everything in this really detailed world it was impressive honestly genuinely this is gonna be my favorite game to start exploring in the coming weeks there's a game called Overland which is a turn-based game that doesn't really feel like a turn-based game because it moves along pretty quickly has an interesting look to it the graphics are very different and it is really entertaining for me that the title screen for this game actually incorporated my iphone knotch Dallas kind of whole areas but this one definitely piqued my interest it's one I'm gonna be exploring more but this was by far the most intense game method it's super intense play was more intense than any of the other games that I tried you got somebody like dying in there like right off and the music is like a little bit creepy it's not creepy but it keeps you on edge it doesn't want you to be super comfortable this is the one game that didn't feel very relaxing that I tried agent intercept is one of the games that I tried and I like it because it's a driving game but it's not a racing game it's a different take on it's like a spy adventure and you're not driving straight you're not driving to the side it's sort of like off caddy corner like diagonal and it's fun like the controls are super easy the graphics are kind of cool and you could do like shoot missiles and there's a boost and you're ramming people but it's not like super intense it feels kind of relaxed even though it's like that in the graphics I like a lot so many motorways was one of my favorite games that I tried so far and I didn't expect to like it as much as I did all you're doing is drawing roads for cars to go from point A to point B but you got to get the colors right like if the blue cars need to go to blue building and orange or whatever it was fun it was relaxing I could play this for a long time in his sitting it's basically a puzzle game but it doesn't really feel like it I don't love puzzle games traditionally but this one I did so sayonara Wildhearts I had to try because it was in all the marketing and I guess I understand why it was once I got in there it was really slow to get started but once you're in there this is the one that I was talking about when I mentioned earlier the gameplay mechanics are pretty simple but at the same time that doesn't mean that it's just super easy either but it's simple to get into once it got started because it took a long time to get through the intro and stuff and the story I could do without wasn't like an amazing story Lego brawls I'm a man in my 30s but I went for a Lego game why because multiplayer this is the one thing that seemed to promise me some multiplayer action kind of like Super Smash Brothers ripoff which I'm okay with because I like Super Smash Brothers and what Legos are cool too yeah yeah and so this is one I'm gonna keep my eye on because I love multiplayer and I expect big things from this for me because it's the only real multiplayer experience I've even found a hint of so far the last game I'll just mention real quick is called skate city which is a skating game and you're scrolling across the screen from left to right there's just a simple control where you're there's shoo button and gets you skating and then just how you swipe around is gonna like do different rings left I found this game to be kind of interesting it seemed like it was gonna have a lot of potential but actually I found it too simple almost like there's other tricks that you can do and I didn't go super in-depth to it yes so give it a fair try if you're interested in it at all but I don't know I didn't find it super engaging so far so to wrap things up for this early preview of Apple arcade there are two questions that I want to answer for you number one is they're fun to be had and number two is it going to be worth that $5.00 per month let's tackle the first thing first that makes sense is it fun to be had yeah actually I'm looking through the available titles here at this preview launch and I'm thinking there's several things that I could jump into and that not just that like I'm looking forward when this video is done while my footage is importing going back and exploring further and part of the fun is that I know more titles are coming for that same monthly price it's like Tim Cook said on stage five dollars a month is the price of a movie rental right so it's really not that expensive now obviously we can talk about subscription fatigue and just getting overloaded with all these little subscriptions that when you add up your spending like 200 bucks a month or whatever right so this is gonna be contributing to that which is kind of a bummer and I do wish Apple will come out with some sort of Apple Prime subscription service we can bundle everything and maybe save a little bit of money or whatever but that biggest question then is that $5 worth it and for me I think it's gonna be like this is way more worth it I think than like Apple news because there's a lot here and a lot of it is exclusive whereas Apple News costs more and what I'm really there for is like the news but I'm getting all this magazine content which it don't really love but I do like the Wall Street Journal content you know and a few other things like TechCrunch extra crunchy or whatever but here I feel like the value is just there there's no debating it five dollars a month is a really good deal and already the games that are available at launch there's some fun stuff and some of the stuff that I'd know has been previewed that isn't yet available to try yet looks good too and just to be able to add to that over time yeah apples really onto something here so when you think about Apple and a new services strategy this is something that actually makes a lot of sense so that is it for today's video I hope you liked it leave me some questions down below I'll try to get to those here in the first couple of days and don't forget you can follow ad daily text spell daily tek k on instagram and twitter check out the podcasts check out the clips channel if you haven't already and i'll catch you guys the next video later\n"