The Best Apple TV Games, Part 1
A lot of people – myself included – have been waiting for a gaming capable Apple TV for a long time. Current rumors are inconsistent about when such a product might be released, with guesses ranging from next week to over a year from now.
The good news is, gamers don’t have to wait that long to play iOS gamers on their TV. Through a technology called Airplay, modern iPhones and iPads can beam anything displayed on their screens to any current Apple TV. This, when combined with an MFi controller, allows true touchscreen-free play of iOS games on the big screen.
Such a solution isn’t perfect, however. In its current form, Airplay limits the framerate of screen mirroring to 30fps, and introduces about a half second of lag. This, combined with the fact that reaching down to touch your iPhone’s screen while looking at your TV is incredibly awkward, restricts the number of games that really work well with Airplay.
The best games to play via Airplay must have complete touchscreen-free controller support. That means menus, gameplay, pausing – everything must work completely using only the buttons and d-pad of the controller, as if the touchscreen doesn’t exist. The framerate limit and half-second lag further removes games that require fast reflexes or precise timing. The good news is, even with these restrictions, the list of games that work great on the Apple TV is substantial.
I’ll be covering this as a series of articles, to be posted over the course of the next few weeks. If anyone out there has any suggestions for games they personally recommend for the Apple TV, don’t be afraid to let everyone know in the comments section below.
Read on for Part 1 of the series!
Oceanhorn
Oceanhorn is a true classic iOS game, no two ways about it. While it bares some undeniable similarities to Nintendo’s Zelda series, Oceanhorn manages to carve out an identity of it’s own. Featuring an epic storyline, excellent action-rpg gameplay, top-notch presentation, beautiful graphics and sound, and full MFi controller support, I cannot recommend this game highly enough to anyone who’s a fan of the genre; this is an absolutely essential iOS RPG.
Oceanhorn may be an action-RPG, but it’s combat is paced slowly enough that the lag associated with Airplay doesn’t really interfere much. The graphics are vibrant and colorful, which comes across excellently even with light compression. More importantly, the game just feels wonderful on the big screen. This is simply one of the best iOS games available, and playing it on the Apple TV is a great experience.
â¨â¨
Edge / Edge Extended
The Edge games may have been released on the App Store 6 years ago, but they don’t feel like they’ve aged a day – these are true, undeniable iPhone classics. And they always have been. The relatively straightforward gameplay of tilting a cube along a minimalistic plane, attempting to navigate obstacles and flip switches on the way to the goal, still feels as fresh now as it did in 2008.
The Edge series has had a bit of a murky history due to some trademark disputes (some jackass claimed ownership over the word Edge and tried to sue anyone who used it in a product name), but those have long-since been resolved, and the Edge games are back and better than ever. They played great on the original iPhone, they got the retina update for iPhone 4, they got Universal support for the iPad, they got widescreen support for the iPhone 5, they got iCloud support, Airplay support – anything Apple implemented, you could count on these games supporting it as first-class citizens. Now they’ve received MFi controller support, further keeping them at the absolute forefront of the Apple ecosystem.
Thanks to the developer’s responsiveness to changes in the iOS ecosystem, Edge and Edge Extended play great on every iOS device ever made, including the Apple TV, and are strong recommendation.
â¨â¨
Final Fantasy III and IV
These two releases in the Final Fantasy series are truly great games in their own right, and they’re also notable for being the best iOS ports of the series. They also take tens of hours to complete each, and feature a level of polish that more than justifies their cost.
The graphics engine is fully 3D, rather than relying on blurry up-scaling of old sprites, like many others in the series; MFi controllers are supported both in-game and in menus, allowing for completely touchscreen-free control; the gameplay itself is turn-based, and doesn’t suffer at all from the limits of Airplay. These games come incredibly close to feeling like “true” Apple TV games, and are a strong recommendation for anyone looking to take their gaming to the big screen.
Terraria
Calling Terraria a side-scrolling version of Minecraft, while not entirely inaccurate, does it a disservice. To be fair, Terraria lets you craft picks, shovels and such to craft blocks from various biomes in the environment around you, and use those to build houses, assemble crafting stations, and build weapons to fight off enemies – all standard Minecraft fare, of course. But unlike Minecraft, Terraria is structured much more in the style of a traditional game. The world has boss enemies, and much of your crafting is in preparation to face these bosses. There are special events – meteor showers, goblin raids, that sort of thing – that keep Terraria from ever feeling like the sandbox Minecraft prides itself on being.
Terraria works excellently on the Apple TV – by far the best of any game with any relation to Minecraft. It is very easy to lose yourself in the experience of playing this game on the big screen, and if you’re like me, you’ll dump A LOT of time into this one.
â¨â¨
Mikey Hooks
The Mikey series has always provided a fun, polished way to speedrun through some well designed platforming levels. The whole series is great, and plays quite well with every available MFi controller.
Mikey Shorts, the first game in the series, isn’t recommended for the Apple TV due to a lack of menu control. Mikey Boots, the newest game in the series, is excluded because it gets laughably difficult near the end even at the full 60fps framerate and no lag – playing with lag and reduced framerate would simply be masochistic. Mikey Hooks strikes a great balance of not being TOO difficult, and also playing great on the Apple TV.
â¨â¨
Bioshock
Yes, I know it’s strange to see a graphically-intensive FPS on a list of games that play well with lag and reduced frame rates, but hear me out on this one. Bioshock is simply an outstanding game – often considered one of the best FPS games of all time. And something to consider is that this iOS version is already stuck with reduced graphics. The special effects have been dropped, the resolution has been reduced – not good things on their own, but when combined with the video processing required to output the game to the Apple TV, these reductions have the effect of allowing the game to still look great after video compression is applied.
It isn’t just the visuals, though. As a shooter, Bioshock tends to rely more on strategy than on precisely timed twitch reflexes. In fact, for a good deal of the game, you won’t be shooting anything at all, just experiencing a great story. In short, AirPlaying Bioshock to the Apple TV might not be the BEST way to experience it, but it certainly works, and it’s still a lot of fun.
â¨â¨
Aztec Antics
Aztec Antics might not be as well known as some of the other games on this list, but the fact of the matter is, it is tailor-made for big screen play in a way that very few other iOS games even come close to. In addition to supporting all available MFi controllers, full menu control, and looking great even with AirPlay compression, Aztec Antics sports one huge feature that precious few iOS games have: full multiplayer support.
Thats right – connect your iPhone over AirPlay to the Apple TV, and connect up to 4 MFi controllers over Lightning or Bluetooth, and you and a group of friends can all play at the same time, trying to jump each other, collect coins, and try to obtain the highest score before the timer expires. If you’ve ever played Super Mario War, or even Super Smash Bros, you know exactly what you’re in for here.
I’ve personally played the heck out of the multiplayer here with some friends, and even helped the developer tweak and optimize for MFi controller support, and I have to say, it works great. Strongly recommended for anyone who wants to play on the big screen.
â¨â¨
â¨â¨
Tomb Raider
Everyone reading this has probably heard of Tomb Raider at one time or another. Heck, most people have probably played it in some form – the series has been relaunched countless times, with sequels, remakes, and everything in between. This iOS port is of the original, classic Tomb Raider 1 from the ‘90s. But far from feeling old, this port feels fresh and modern, thanks to a top-flight porting job with all the extras you’d expect out of a modern iOS game. With MFi controller support, iCloud, widescreen, improved textures, and smooth 60fps framerates, there has probably never been a better version of Tomb Raider 1 than this one.
The nature of the platforming gameplay in Tomb Raider actually lends itself well to Airplay. There has always been a level of slack given to when you need to press the jump button or the grab button – the game is forgiving about timing, and generally plays better when you enter your jump / grab / roll commands a little bit before they’re actually needed. In fact, I found that I didn’t have to change my play style much at all to compensate for the associated lag with playing on the Apple TV; the game just worked.
Frankly, Tomb Raider 1 over AirPlay probably plays about as well as the original PlayStation / Sega Saturn version did on the old tube TVs most of us played it on.
â¨â¨
Worms 3
If you’ve never played the Worms games before, you’re in for a treat. You control a squad of worms with a selection of over-the-top weapons, and take turns controlling one of your worms and using it to the most damage to your opponent’s worms as possible before they take their turn. Developer Team17 has spend over a decade polishing this somewhat simple game design, and Worms 3 is the newest and best iOS game in the series.
Worms 3 plays a little different on the Apple TV than the rest of the games in this list. You don’t actually look at the Apple TV while you’re playing – it’s used as a spectator camera, just showing what your worms are doing from an outsider perspective, while you yourself look at a different picture on the iPhone’s screen. This allows you to select weapons and plan strategies without your friends actually seeing your inventory. Then after you take your turn, you hand the iPhone to the next player and watch the action on the TV.
This sort of thing actually works great for a multiplayer environment, but I wouldn’t recommend it for single player, as there’s no reason to bother AirPlaying it at all. But as long as you’re playing with some friends, Worms 3 on the Apple TV is a blast.
â¨â¨
Across Age 2 / Across Age 2 HD
Across Age 2 is an action-RPG with a classical retro presentation and a time-travel mechanic that is guaranteed to appeal to fans of games like Chrono Cross. It also happens to be a really good RPG in it’s own right, with a great storyline (which doesn’t require knowledge of the first game), clever puzzles, and excellent MFi controller support.
While Across Age 2’s gameplay is action-heavy, it never really feels like timing or reaction is critical. The puzzles interspersed between the action rely on strategy more than on action. The graphical style of the game lends itself well to Airplay, with bright, colorful environments and anime style characters. If you’re looking for a deep, polished action-RPG with a retro presentation that plays great on the Apple TV, you can’t go wrong with this one.
Wrap-up
Well that just about does it for the first installment of the Best Apple TV Games series. Don’t forget to leave questions or recommendations in the comments section below, and stay tuned for further articles in the series – there are a lot more games to cover!