Hi everyone, and welcome back to My Week Unwrapped, where I discuss all the games I’ve been playing over the last seven days. I ended up skipping last week because there weren’t too many games that caught my eye, and I also ended up spending a lot of time playing both the live version of Sky and the beta. And then I spent most of this week making a walkthrough for the latest Adventure Escape Game. So this will be a short roundup. That said, Apple Arcade launches this week with a crazy amount of promising games all coming at once. So expect most of my focus to be on those games for the foreseeable future. There’s just so many good games, and many of them will cost about $20 each on PC/console but we get them all for only $5/month. I’m a bit overwhelmed just thinking about it. But anyway, expect lots of gameplay videos and impressions of the different games in the coming days and weeks. But for now, enjoy a very short roundup.
Adventure Escape Mysteries: Paradise Mystery
Haiku Games is back with another Adventure Escape game! This one is called Paradise Mystery and features Detective Kate Gray again. She goes on vacation with her friend Melissa — the one who joined a cult in the past. But things go wrong and they inevitably end up investigating a murder. This was an enjoyable one, with some good humor and no reflex-based puzzles. A couple were a little annoying, but not undoable. Overall, I think it’s one of their better games and would recommend it if you haven’t tired of the formula yet. And if you get stuck, I have a complete walkthrough here. I just need to finish making all the videos.
Widower’s Sky
I really wanted to like Widower’s Sky, as I had been looking forward to it. I gave it a few chances, but ultimately there was too much wrong with it and I gave up. I hope it can be fixed up and turned into something playable, but right now I wouldn’t recommend it. You can read more of my impressions here.
Sky: Children of the Light
I spent way too much time playing Sky these past couple of weeks, both the live version to earn light and hearts with friends, and on the beta to try out the next season’s content. But I think with Apple Arcade coming, I won’t be able to give it much more of my time. Especially since it’s basically just playing the same content over and over. I do plan to unlock the seasonal content, but I don’t think I can do my runs through every area every day. It’s just too time-consuming. But if you’re curious, you can watch my spoilerific video of an Easter egg area in the beta version. I didn’t get the best parts on video but I’ll revisit it and get some more footage later.
Football Drama
Football Drama actually releases tonight or tomorrow, which is pretty brave considering Apple Arcade is coming. You play as a football manager who has to decide what moves your team makes. You also get cards that give them moves to try, but they may fail. There’s also a bizarre story to go along with it. I’m a little confused by the whole thing but also intrigued. I’m not sure I’ll be able to play through the whole game, since my first football game was pretty long and ended in a tie of 1-1. But check out my video below to see if it’s something you might like.
Kazarma
Kazarma is a free level-based auto-runner in which you control a little spaceship that automatically shoots in front of you. You swipe left and right to change lanes, trying to destroy enemies, pick up coins and power-ups, and avoid obstacles like pitfalls. It’s pretty forgiving, but also scores too based on how well you do, whether you take any damage or not. There are IAPs for more coins and opt-in ads, but otherwise it seems pretty fair from the first world. I don’t know how it will be later, whether you’ll feel pressured to buy things. But it seems like a pretty cool game so far, so give it a try.
And that’s everything! I’ll now go back to having a minor anxiety attack as I try to figure out how to play and cover a ton of Apple Arcade games all at once, such as:
Jenny Le Clue
Mosaic
Overland
Oceanhorn 2
Spek.
Assemble with Care
The Enchanted World
Down in Bermuda
Where Cards Fall
What the Golf?
Dead End Job
Mutazione
Sayonara Wild Hearts
If it’s possible to have too much of a good thing, I think that’s what Apple Arcade is. It’s everything I’ve always wanted iOS gaming to be and I’m so incredibly excited. I hope you are, too, and will join me back here next week for My Week Unwrapped featuring Apple Arcade games!