Balatro was the surprise indie hit of 2024. The irresistible roguelike puts a chaotic solo spin on poker that’s impossible to put down. The Apple Arcade version features zero microtransactions, so you experience the thrill of high-stakes virtual gambling without the risk.

Card of Darkness has pleasing aesthetics (courtesy of Adventure Time creator Pendleton Ward), unexpected remixes of familiar but elegant strategy systems, and number-based card game mechanics. It’s what we’ve come to expect from Zach Gage, creator of other mobile masterpieces, such as Really Bad Chess and SpellTower.

Crossy Road asked “What if Frogger was about a chicken crossing the road?” and wound up becoming one of our all-time favorite mobile games for kids or anyone else who wanted in on the action. Crossy Road Castle tries something different. Instead of crossing endless roads, you control a chicken who traverses platforming levels in an endless tower. Change in genre aside, Crossy Road Castle's challenge is still fun. The Crossy Road franchise is mobile gaming royalty, after all. 

Final Fantasy's creator doesn’t work for Square Enix anymore, but doesn’t mean he’s done making high-quality JRPGs. Fantasian is the latest project from Hironobu Sakaguchi’s Mistwalker studio. The turn-based gameplay may harken back to the past, but the gorgeous, shining visuals feel straight from the future.

Grindstone is already cool enough as a block-matching puzzle game where you sometimes worry about the blocks biting back. But it’s the satisfying carnage that happens when your beefy fantasy hero chops through those monsters that put this game over the top. If you’ve heard of any Apple Arcade title, it’s probably this one, for good reason.

Hello Kitty and the rest of her Sanrio friends have earned their spots as pop culture icons. In Hello Kitty Island Adventure, you explore a seaside community helping friends and solving puzzles. If you want to play an adorable, Animal Crossing-like game, this is it.

Whereas the original Oceanhorn ripped off The Wind Waker for its Legend of Zelda influences, Oceanhorn 2 has its hungry eyes set on Breath of the Wild. However, the overall structure is still closer to a traditional 3D Legend of Zelda game. It remains quite ambitious and beautiful for a mobile adventure.

The Oregon Trail on Apple Arcade modernizes the classic educational game for today’s youth. Not enough kids know how to avoid dying of dysentery. A particularly cool update is the increased input from indigenous people, making sure that cultural elements like hairstyles and music are accurately represented. Live out your American pioneer life wherever you want.   

For years, Pac-Man 256 has been one of our absolute favorite mobile games. It marries classic Pac-Man gameplay with an endless twist, presented through an awesome glitchy retro art style. This Apple Arcade version removes all in-app purchases, so can you focus on pellets.

Developer Zach Gage is the absolute king of taking familiar casual games and turning them into innovative, approachable art. Really Bad Chess is chess where all of your pieces are random. Sometimes you’re blessed with five queens. Other times, you’ll need to wrangle an entire herd of knights. With so much of traditional chess dominated by the need to memorize specific strategies, this twist adds exciting unpredictability for both players and viewers, alike.

Developer Game Freak makes more than just Pokemon games. The original Pocket Card Jockey was a beloved and bizarre Nintendo 3DS game that tasked you with mastering a card game to help your horse win the race. Sure! Originally, this mobile version was exclusive to Japan. But now Apple Arcade subscribers everywhere can get in on the gambling and galloping action.

As the Sneaky Sasquatch, you don’t just dig through trash to find food to live. You also have fun ruining race car competitions or invading posh golf clubs. The low-stakes life-sim reminds me of Animal Crossing or Stardew Valley. There’s some light stealth, too, as you’ll need to move quietly or wear a disguise to infiltrate human spaces, Octodad-style. Or, tell the park ranger to shove it and openly be Sasquatch.

3D Sonic the Hedgehog platformers don’t have the same sterling reputation as their 2D counterparts, but Sonic Dream Team is a surprising exception. Race and bounce around creative, colorful, and contained 3D levels in this sleeper Sonic hit.

Threes! remains one of the best puzzle games of the past decade. No amount of 2048 rip-offs will ever change that. On Apple Arcade you can play the original game, ad-free, in all of its adorable, number-sliding glory.

What The Golf? makes you question the limits of what constitutes a golf game. Is it just about hitting a ball into a hole? What about hitting a hole into another hole? Hitting your club with another club? The answers to these questions, and more, are waiting.