Filip Brož Whenever I meet someone wearing an Apple Watch, I ask them if they've tried playing any games on the watch. However, it is probably no surprise that most people will give me a negative answer. "It doesn't make sense on such a small display. It's not a full experience and the startup is tragically slow," most Apple Watch owners say.
They are partially right, but there are also arguments why playing games on a watch makes sense. Apple Watch is always on our hands and above all, it offers a different way of interacting and communicating with the player. Conceptually, this opens up a completely new market for developers and a large space for new possibilities of use.
I have been using the Apple Watch since the first weeks after it went on sale. Already in first watch review I announced that I was playing the game on my watch and watching the progress in the App Store. In the beginning, there were really very few of them, but lately the situation is slowly improving. New games are added, and to my surprise, in certain cases, even full-fledged titles. On the other hand, it is very difficult to learn about new games at all. Apple practically does not update its store, so you have to rely on the fact that you will come across information about an interesting game somewhere.
Apple watch games could be divided into several categories: text, interactive with the use of a digital crown or haptics, RPG and fitness. Let's get out of the text games Lifeline, which follows the adventures of astronaut Taylor in the style of legendary gamebooks. There are now several variations of Lifeline text games for the Watch in the App Store, but for now you need to know English for all of them. The principle is simple: a text story appears on the watch display at regular intervals, at the end of which there are always some options for what the main character should do next.
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What I love most about Lifeline is that you are actively drawn into the plot and in control of the entire story. The text is also not very long, so you can react within a few seconds and the game continues. Price wise all Lifeline titles range from one to three euros and they all work on Apple Watch too.
Digital crown and haptics
The most comprehensive category of gaming on the Watch is games that make use of the digital crown and haptic feedback in some way. If you are a fan Flappy Bird games, which once almost broke all the records in the App Store, you will be pleased to know that you can play the flying bird on your wrist. There is a free game in the watch shop Birdie, which is a prime example of the use of a digital crown. With it, you control the height of the yellow bird, which must fly through the opening. There are four difficulty levels to choose from and a fairly high sensitivity.
Despite its simplicity, the game lacks anything else, such as competing with other players, but still, I sometimes play Birdie with a shorter wait when I don't want to take out my iPhone. However, it offers a slightly better gaming experience Lateras, an alternative to the legendary Pong. It is a game in which you again use the crown to control a small platform, from which a ball bounces, breaking bricks. Lateres costs one euro and offers several levels of increasing difficulty.
Speaking of Pong, you can also play it on your Apple Watch. Pong is one of the oldest video games ever, created in 1972 for Atari by Allan Alcorn. It is a simple tennis game in which you use the crown to bounce the ball to the opponent's side. I like that the game is Free Download and offers the original 2D graphics and the same gameplay.
However, if you want to play a more sophisticated game on the Watch, I recommend that you do not miss the title Break this Safe, in which your task is to unlock a security safe (more about the thoughtful game <a href="https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1932/8043/files/200721_ODSTOUPENI_BEZ_UDANI_DUVODU__EN.pdf?v=1595428404" data-gt-href-en="https://en.notsofunnyany.com/">here</a>). The digital crown is used here to turn the numbers on the safe, and the main role is played by the haptic response. Once you find the right number, you will feel a distinct tapping response on your hand. The joke is that you are running out of time and you have to concentrate a lot. Once you find the correct combination of three numbers, you continue to the next safe. Break this Safe may look simple, but it's one of the developer's most sophisticated Watch games, and it's completely free.
RPG
Various forms of RPG are also available on Apple Watch. Among the first ever to hit the watch software store is a fantasy adventure game Runeblades. The game is very simple and intended primarily for the Watch. On the iPhone, you practically just exchange the diamonds obtained and you can read the story and characteristics of the individual characters on it. Otherwise, all interaction is on the watch and your job is to kill enemies and upgrade your hero. I run Runeblade several times a day, collect the gold I win, upgrade my character and defeat several enemies. The game works in real time, so you are constantly progressing, even if you are not playing directly.
However, we can only call the game Cosmos Rings from Square Enix, which we are talking about, a full-fledged RPG they wrote in August, as it is an exceptional title, using the full potential of the Watch. I can personally say that you won't find a better watch game. That's why it costs 9 euros. If you are a fan of Final Fantasy and similar games, you will be very pleasantly surprised at what kind of experience can be achieved on a small screen.
Games that use movement
A new area made possible by the Apple Watch is games connected to your movement, where the game world is connected to the real world thanks to various sensors. It was one of the first such games Walkr - Galaxy Adventure in Your Pocket, in which the energy to drive the ship is recharged by walking. However, the Six to Start studio went much further with its game Zombies, Run!, which after the introduction of the Watch made its way from iPhones to watches.
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Zombies, Run! connects your real run and imaginary story. You put on your headphones, turn on the app and run. You then receive information in your ears about how many zombies and other monsters are around you and how fast you have to run to avoid being caught. The game thus not only motivates to better performance, but above all offers a completely new gaming experience. I personally see a great future in this industry and I hope that there will be more games like this. The combination of sports activity and play is very attractive and it is possible that it will lift many people out of their chairs, as it did Pokemon GO game.
Just an extended hand of the iPhone
Browsing through your watch's app store, you'll come across many familiar games that masquerade as full-fledged titles, but are actually just a kind of extended hands (or rather displays) of games on iPhones and iPads. In the case of a racing game Real Racing 3 so you definitely won't get the opportunity to race directly on your wrist, but you can only use various bonuses or receive notifications that you have a car ready for the next race.
Personally, I usually don't install such games at all, because I'm definitely not interested in additional annoying notifications on the Watch that should distract me during the day. Even so, setting notifications from other and much more important apps on the Apple Watch is a very sensitive and important job, so that the watch does not disturb too much.
Among the other games I liked, for example, the logical one on Watch BoxPop, which will delight chess lovers. The point of the game is to collect all the colored cubes, using an imaginary slider that only moves to the letter L. You can also play Sudoku or various logic games with words in the style of the board game Scrabble on your wrist. However, as said before, you have to search for games manually and also know what you want to find. The page, for example, is very useful for this watchaware.com.
The future of gaming on the Watch
Playing games on a watch is certainly not one of the most comfortable ways and often does not even offer any kind of gaming experience. On the other hand, you can play practically anywhere and in certain cases have a good time. However, quality and full-fledged games for the Apple Watch are plentiful. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the developers to take more interest in this platform and come up with a similarly fun and fulfilling title like Cosmos Rings, for example. The potential is definitely there.
But at the same time, I could also imagine the Apple Watch serving as a remote control for playing games on the Apple TV. And in my opinion, the option of playing in multiple players remains completely unused, which could work in real time on the watch. You meet someone with a Watch, start the same game and have a fight, for example. If the developers can work well with haptics, such as in the mentioned game Break this Safe, the experience can be even better.
However, it is the developers' interest in the entire watch platform that is key to the development of games on the Watch. For many of them, it doesn't make sense to compete with iPhones and iPads as gaming devices, and even Apple doesn't go too far by leaving the App Store for the Watch completely dead and unupdated. Even a good game can easily fall into place. It's often a shame, because the Watch will never be primarily a gaming device, but how many times they can shorten a long time with a fun game.
Great article. I agree that Apple should do something about the store or it will soon be in a similar state to the Macapp store
Excellent article, thank you!
Don't get mad at me, but all these watches are just an unnecessary obsession. It would be ideal if people would sometimes forget about this nonsense, turn everything off and go out into the real world.