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There are also associated costs. These games are priced closer to console games than iPhone games. death stranded It costs $40, although it’s a universal app, meaning your one-time purchase also works on a Mac (and with superior performance). But Assassin’s Creed Mirage It costs $50 and a long-awaited Mac adaptation appears lost in the desert. Also, death stranded It downloads about 50GB of data as you go, and even “light” AAA titles need 15GB. Not ideal if you have a 128GB iPhone. Apple would say that you can download games and keep their data, but you don’t want to download dozens of GB every time you want to play.
Enter the App Store
Complaints aside, these releases are still objectively fun, even if they sit uncomfortably between a tech demo and something you’d actually want to play on a phone. However, it’s worth remembering that these aren’t the first AAA efforts to come to the iPhone. Several publishers, notably Feral, have been bringing PC games to the iPhone for years, and they are often better suited to the hardware because they are less demanding.
Grid sports It was released for PS3 and PC in 2014 and came to iOS three years later. It’s still a great runner and runs well on iPhone thanks to the optimized port of Feral. (2022 follow-up Grid Legends expires in December). The 2018 PC release shipwreck festival It’s already been on the iPhone for two years and runs at 60 fps on the latest iPhone Pro. (Capcom’s recent Resident Evil 7 porting benefits similarly.) These titles are also cheaper (generally $10 or less) and require less storage.
In fact, we’d argue that the iPhone’s strength in gaming comes from its rich back catalog rather than shiny new toys. So while it may not replace your current-gen console, your iPhone can complement it as you explore older AAA titles, or the countless indies that originated on the platform. Much has been written about iPhone games having a reputation for trash before the current crop of AAA titles. That’s nonsense. There are many great games if you know where to look.
Try All You Can Eat Subscriptions
That said, you might not want to dig through the App Store trash to find gems. Subscriptions provide a useful shortcut. Apple Arcade draws criticism and quickly abandoned its efforts to be the HBO of mobile gaming when it pivoted toward engagement and retention. However, there is still a lot of quality, such as Balatro, What car?and knight shovel dig. Netflix has also created a quality mobile catalog that now includes Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, helland remasters of grand theft car and world of goo.
When you want to go beyond ports and mobile games, try streaming. Xbox Cloud Gaming works well as a progressive web app saved from Safari to your home screen, giving you access to a rotating list of quality titles. Focusing on the other end of gaming history, Antstream Arcade (available on the App Store) combines retro gaming, worldwide high score tables, and fun challenges. Both services require a solid, fast Internet connection and surprisingly make an effort with touchscreen controls, even if the games they host were decidedly designed with a controller in mind (and are best played with one).
Emulation is another option for classic games and received a boost when Apple in 2024 removed its rule prohibiting emulators from loading external files. This has led to several quality emulators appearing on the App Store, including Delta, PPSSPP, and RetroArch. Just keep in mind that the emulation ecosystem is far behind Android’s, in part due to Apple’s remaining restrictions that make it impossible to emulate much hardware beyond the original PlayStation. Although if you’re old enough, that could be a blessing.
‘Consolidate’ your iPhone
So an iPhone can, to varying degrees, replace consoles from the PS5 to the Atari 2600. But can it be a console? Apple had all the components of an “anywhere” console long before the Switch (Apple TV, AirPlay, syncing games between devices), but it never connected the dots.
He hasn’t quite done it yet. Beyond native Apple TV titles (which, these days, mostly means Apple Arcade), you can mirror your screen to an Apple TV or plug and (hopefully) play using a USB-C to HDMI cable or HDMI dock for a more robust experience. . But there are disadvantages to mirroring an iPhone screen.
Black edges abound. The distracting Home indicator is usually present. There’s no horizontal home screen or any means to launch games using a controller. Button labels don’t always match the controller you’re using. You may experience a touch of lag. We found that the best console-like experience comes from Delta, somewhat ironic given that Apple rejected it for years. In part, this is because Delta uses the TV as a proper second screen rather than mirroring it, meaning there are no black borders.
