Six of the best: Apple Watch games
Has the time come for videogaming on your wrist? Why yes it has...
SUPER SIX
Gaming has a brave new frontier in the form of the Apple Watch. As we speak, armies of developers are trying their hand at fashioning interactive experiences for it, puzzling over how best to make games work on a 1.5in display. The truth is, they’ve not all nailed it yet. Even a short time with the device is enough for anyone to understand it’s very much not a PlayStation on your wrist. No surprise, then, that most of the games we’ve tried are rubbish. But we’re not giving up on it yet. After all, it’s only been around for a few weeks, and who’d have thought that smartphone gaming would get this good? And anyway, among all the dross there are gems such as the six games in this list.
1) LIFELINE
Essentially a Choose Your Own Adventure on your wrist. Lifeline… places a stranded astronaut’s very survival in your hands, as you make decisions regarding what they do next — for example, should they sleep by an engine possibly spewing radiation, or risk a night under an alien moon? The script is smart, funny and poignant, and the straightforward interface, short session times, and a story playing out in real-time, make it perfect for Apple Watch aficionados wanting something properly good to play on their new wearable.
2) RULES
A devious and tightly focused memory test that merrily smashes your brains out with a brick. Over ten rounds, you get rules (“Tap ascending”, “Blue if you see red”) that must be applied to tiles featuring cute little robots, monsters and other objects. The cunning bit is that all prior rules are only referred to by number; when you’re on round eight and trying to remember what the third rule was, it’s very easy to slip up and make an incorrect tap. Do so and your game is over, potentially scuppering your daily target.
3) BOXPOP
Boxpop is a straightforward puzzle game that has you wink out every visible light by moving in L-shaped leaps and bounds, like a lonely, drunken knight on a tiny chess board. Like Rules!, the game offers a daily challenge, and the aim here is to complete five puzzles. The title’s brevity and simplicity do it plenty of favours, and the L-shaped move system enables surprisingly complex puzzles and solutions within the confines of the tiny Apple Watch display. The only minor snag is you might get stuck and end up staring at your wrist for ages.
4) TRIVIA CRACK
This gem is an asynchronous multiplayer quiz game that’s roughly Trivial Pursuit minus the board. You spin the wheel to pick a category, and are then faced with a multiple-choice question. Successive correct answers give you a shot at a challenge round, where you can win a crown. Get all six to win the game; or if you’ve the most after 25 rounds, you’re the victor. Like BoxPop, the straightforward nature of Trivia Crack combined with how quickly you can play a round makes it ideal for Apple Watch. Playing against real people is fun, and the huge number of questions means you’re unlikely to see duplicates for a good long while.
5) LIGHTSTAPPRO
Lightstappro is one of a large number of lights-out logic puzzles that have arrived on Apple Watch. You know the drill: tap a cell and it along with its four neighbours switch. The aim is to turn all the lights out within a set number of turns. It’s not the most exciting nor the most original puzzle game you’ve ever played, but it works perfectly well on the wrist. Most challenges can be defeated within a short space of time, making the game well suited to filling the odd moment.
6) RUNEBLADE
According to the blurb, Runeblade is an “award winning fantasy adventure for Apple Watch”. In reality, we’re in tap/idle territory here, with a smattering of RPG. You set out against the forces of evil, swipe your weapon about, collect gold, upgrade your powers, and then rinse and repeat. It’s OK, in a fairly mindless ‘dip in and out’ sort of fashion. The basic gameplay is tapping a sword icon and strategising a bit about power-ups. So while you won’t be buzzing with excitement at any stage, it’s quite nice to launch the app every now and again to find a few hundred thousand gold coins waiting for you, while a ‘giant frenzied grab’ gets a thorough stabbing. If only the coins were real…
