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Monatabo Arcade tried: This is good for Apple's new game flat rate

2019-09-19T06:19:33.313Z


Apple now has a monthly games subscription, including exclusive productions. But worth it for five euros a month? We played through the new package - and recommend ten particularly good titles.



Under the name of Arcade Apple has since this Thursday, a new game flat rate on offer. The company works together with renowned game studios such as Konami and Capcom. For a fixed monthly price, customers can play dozens of games as long as they want. Whether the games from the game package are worth anything at all, how much the service costs and what alternatives there are, we explain below.

What is Apple Arcade?

Apple Arcade is a subscription service similar to the Xbox Game Pass or EA Access: for a monthly fee, you can download and play games optimized for Apple devices - some games are only about 150 MB in size, while for others over 3 GB of storage space will be needed. The games can be controlled via touch screen control or, in many cases, well via a gamepad.

Apple

Game selection at Apple Arcade

A streaming service like Google Stadia, where the games run in the cloud, is not Apple Arcade. An internet connection is usually only needed to download the games. If the monthly subscription ends, access to the games from the package is denied again - regardless of whether they have been downloaded once or not.

In our test were good 50 games via Apple Arcade available, but the offer is to be expanded steadily - the website is of 100 games in the fall the speech. The offer can be used from September 19th on the iPhone, from September 30th on the iPad and Apple TV and from October on the Mac. At least iOS 13 must be installed on the iPhone.

How much does Apple Arcade cost?

First, Apple Arcade can be tested in a free trial month. But beware: If you cancel this Probemonat, the access to the games ends immediately. A rather unusual and annoying for customers regulation. After the test month must be paid to continue playing 4.99 euros a month.

The own account can - here again Apple is customer-friendly - to be shared with up to five family members. For example, one person can play on the iPad while another uses Apple TV. Memory levels are compatible between the devices: So you can, for example, continue playing on the iPhone where you left off on the iPad - provided you are logged in with the same Apple ID.

What are the games worth?

What's eye-catching: Apple put a lot of emphasis on the style when it came to choosing games, looking cool. For the most part, the games have an impressive graphic style that is in part strongly aestheticized, as in "Sayonara Wild Hearts". Also, the sound often plays a major role, so that the games, especially with headphones to develop their effect.

However, most games are not exhausted in aesthetics, they often also have substance - and fortunately are free of annoying in-app purchases, as they are common in many mobile games. If you play at Apple, you do not have to worry about whether to exchange real money for example into any virtual currency.

Right at the start of the game, fans of Apple Arcarde have quite a few different genres at their disposal: puzzle, survival and action games, as well as role-playing games. The bandwidth of the download games ranges from entertaining in between to an intense, longer-lasting game experience with an interesting story.

Which start titles are outstanding?

Our photo series presents ten games that left a very good impression at the first test:

Ten awesome Apple Arcade games

Assemble With Care , ustwo Games

A young woman, a restorer, enters a strange city. Here she wants to settle down and make her money repairing things to other people. This fix is ​​the content of the game. For example, at the beginning it is necessary to repair the tape recorder of a girl. This means: first rewind the tape of the cassette, then open the battery compartment and supply the device with power again. The player must use different tools or sometimes apply glue to a broken figure. The tasks become more and more complex in the course of the game and are connected with little stories of the owners of the objects to be repaired. "Assemble With Care" is calm, almost meditative. But at the same time it demands the combination of the player.

"Oceanhorn 2" , Cornfox & Brothers

A bit of "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild" is reminiscent of "Oceanhorn 2". It's a classic role-playing game in which you have to do missions, experience a story, and do all kinds of monsters on the way. In the touch control, the character is controlled on the left side of the screen, on the right side, the camera is aimed. The sword is swung with a simple touch, if you carry it out longer, the blow loads up. "Oceanhorn 2" convinces above all by high production standards: Above all, the graphics are really very handsome and lets you forget that you are holding a smartphone in your hand.

"Overland" , Finji, LLC

Escape, even if it means that our friend is left behind: "Overland" begins, and so it goes on. In the turn-based tactic game, it is important to be able to move skillfully in isometric screen clippings. So it is about to get out of a car, to reach a gas can, to refuel the car and to escape. Dangerous become one while opponents who move one round per round. If they reach the pawns, they lose an energy bar. Overland is a post-apocalyptic game with a threatening atmosphere. Does the player manage to keep alive the pawns he collects throughout the story?

"Rayman Mini" , Ubisoft

Jumping, sliding, hitting, picking up Lums. Also in "Rayman Mini" this is the main part of the game. But unlike in the older "Rayman" games, the main character runs by himself. The player can concentrate on collecting as many lums as possible. And that's what makes "Rayman Mini" so special: trying to complete each level perfectly, collecting everything you need to collect. But with the fact that Rayman is constantly running, the reflexes are in demand. If levels are completed with a perfect score, the points can be exchanged for new costumes. "Rayman Mini" is an ideal game in between, if you want to break a record on the track again.

"Hot Lava" , Klei Entertainment

"The floor is lava" is a popular breeze. If the sentence is pronounced, you must no longer touch the ground and must find security on chairs and tables. This is how "Hot Lava" works. The player controls a boy who fancies that the floor is lava. Now it's time to reach the end of the levels, playing in a gym or basement, without touching the ground. In first-person perspective, the player jumps on boxes, over railings and hangs on chandeliers, just not to burn. The game can be operated with gyro control, touchpad or gamepad. With the Touchpad control one should adjust however necessarily the sensitivity in the attitudes, otherwise it becomes the agony.

"Frogger in Toy Town," Konami

Frog stays Frog: If hit by the car, he is flat. In "Frogger in Toy Town" these cars are toys, but no less dangerous. As the screen slowly moves up, the player must move a frog through levels using touch controls, Apple Remote, or Keyboard, without being flattened by cars. It is about collecting all sorts of things: balls, for example, with which Bauklotz buildings can be brought to collapse. Also in "Frogger in Toy Town" it is all about the high score. If you have not collected all the mini-frogs, the ambition soon comes up: It works better too.

Over the Alps , Stave Studios

Here are agents on the run from Mussolini. The player finds himself in Switzerland again and has actually only one task: to find the right answers. In the game staged as postcard traffic, the player must gain the trust of contact persons while misleading enemy spies. For this he chooses different answer options. The look is reminiscent of Wes Anderson films, so it is charming and rather quirky. "Over the Alps" is a visual novel with an interesting setting and a story to follow.

"Sayonara Wild Hearts" , Annapurna Interactive

Is it a racing game? Is it a beat 'em up? Is it a rhythm game? Is it a fever dream? Yes, that's it, everything! One should definitely play "Sayonara Wild Hearts" with headphones, because each level is here a piece of music, to whose beat the player has to race, fly and fight. Thus, a level can start on a motorcycle, with which the player must collect as many points as possible and not drive against obstacles. The same level then ends up in the air, in a fight against three women, in which the player has to touch the touchscreen at the right time. "Sayonara Wild Hearts" is a crazy experience of style and substance and a real highlight.

"The Get Out Kids" , Frosty Pop

Molly and Salim are friends and want to sneak out of the house at night to watch a movie in the cinema. But before they have to do things: Salim must align his prayer rug correctly and Molly feeding her dog Moses. These tasks are done by the player: he zooms in on the isometric clippings, rotates them, finds the right objects, packs them into his backpack. On the way to the cinema, the friends experience all sorts of adventures, such as tricking a cemetery guard by distracting him with Böllern. "The Get Out Kids" tells the story of a friendship and that of a mysterious house where many people have lost their lives.

"Shinsekai: Into the Depths," Capcom

Deep in the water is all about one thing: survival. That's the premise of "Shinsekai: Into the Depths." An icy cold has made survival on the surface impossible. The player moves with a figure in a diving suit packed figure on the seabed. He can jump, hit and slide through the water with a drive that wants to be energized. But he must not dive too deep, otherwise he will be crushed by the high pressure. He also has to beware of ice, otherwise he freezes. "Shinsekai: Into the Depths" is a 2D survival game in which the player follows a mechanical creature in depth and finds out why the world has become as it is.

Are the games exclusive?

Not always. Apple Arcade offers games that are currently playable only through this service, including "Frogger in Toy Town" and "Shinsekai: Into the Depths." Likewise, titles are also part of the package that are also available on other platforms, albeit not as a mobile title. For example, "Sayonara Wild Hearts" will be released for Playstation 4 and Nintendo Switch at the same time. It is expected that will continue to appear exclusive games for Apple Arcade, as the company itself financed some of the games.

What does the competition look like?

On Apple devices, Apple Arcade is currently the best option to play in dozens of mostly high-quality games at a fixed price. On the PC and on game consoles, however, there are similarly interesting game flat rates, for example from Microsoft, Sony, Ubisoft and Electronic Arts.

The biggest advantage of Apple Arcade is that the games can all be played on the go, on the iPhone. In the coming weeks, it will be interesting to see how Google will respond to Apple's move with its own Google Play Pass Android service. Thanks to interesting exclusive games and many visually impressive titles, Apple Arcade has definitely made a good start into the world of gaming flatrates.

Source: spiegel

All tech articles on 2019-09-19

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