| gave Apple Arcade a chance.Here's why you should too

Apple's gaming service is friendly, fun, and free from annoyances.

- BY EUGEN WEGMANN

Apple Arcade is one of Apple's more opaque services. The company doesn't disclose any subscription figures and keeps other key data under wraps. Occasionally, specialist media manage to glean a few insights by interviewing a developer in a forthcoming mood, but most of the time we're kept in the dark. Is it a success? Is it a failure? That's hard to say.

What we can say for sure is that Arcade has some really good games. Everything from indie classics such as Slay the Spire and Stardew Valley and current titles such as Vampire Survivors and Balatro to surprising (and surprisingly good!) franchise additions such as Sonic Dream Team and Cypher 007. On the other hand, there's some real rubbish on there too: the kind of junk that should have died with Farmville. It's a mixed bag, then. But I'd like to explain why I think Apple Arcade is absolutely worth your time, even if you don't play a lot of games. In fact, people who don’t play a lot of games might be the ones who need Arcade the most.

THE AGONY OF CHOICE

The bored iPhone owner who randomly browses for games in the App Store is likely to become overwhelmed by the sheer number of options. And while the Games tab is quite well organized and offers numerous points of entry— including What We're Playing, Must-Play Games, Hidden Gems, and the charts— this only makes a difficult situation fractionally less difficult.

Perhaps our iPhone owner might begin by tapping on the Top Paid Games chart. At the time of writing, Minecraft is in first place ($6.99 from fave. co/42Av686), followed by Balatro ($9.99 from fave.co/42Ad99J), and Bloons TD 6 ($2.99 from fave. co/42QmZ5V). Maybe you'd like to try one of them? You'll have to pony up the cash since demo versions aren't available. You'll just have to look at the screenshots and hope you'll like it.