There are also costs involved. These games are priced more like console games than iPhone games. Death trapped is $40, though it’s a universal app, meaning your one-time purchase also works on your Mac (and has outstanding performance). But The assassin’s creed illusion is $50 and a long-awaited Mac port seems lost in the desert. Also, Death trapped download nearly 50GB of data as you progress, and even “light” AAA titles require 15GB. Not ideal if you have a 128GB iPhone. Apple says you can offload games and keep their data, but you won’t want to download tens of gigabytes every time you want to play.
Dive into the App Store
That aside, these releases are still objectively enjoyable, even if they teeter between tech demos and something you’d actually want to play on your phone. However, it’s worth remembering that this isn’t AAA’s first attempt to bring it to the iPhone. Some publishers—most notably Feral—have been bringing PC games to the iPhone for years, and they’re often better suited to the hardware because they’re less demanding.
Sports automatic mesh launched on PS3 and PC in 2014 and appeared on iOS three years later. It’s still a solid racer and works well on the iPhone thanks to Feral’s optimized port. (Next in 2022 Legendary net scheduled to launch in December.) 2018 PC release shipwreck festival is now two years old on iPhone—and runs at 60 frames per second on the latest iPhone Pro. (Recently from Capcom Evil Residents 7 port benefits in the same way.) These titles are also cheaper (usually $10 or less) and require less storage.
In fact, we think the iPhone’s gaming prowess stems more from its extensive catalog than from 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 indie games that have origin on this platform. Much has been written about iPhone gaming which was notoriously garbage before the current crop of AAA titles. That’s nonsense. There are a lot of great games out there if you know where to look.
Try an all-you-can-eat subscription
That said, you might not want to rummage through the App Store dregs for gems. Registration provides a handy shortcut. Apple Arcade floundered and quickly abandoned its bid to become the HBO of mobile gaming as it focused on engagement and retention. However, there is still a lot of quality, e.g Balatro, What car?And Digging shovel knight. Netflix has also built a quality mobile catalog that now includes Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, Hadesand remaster of Grand Theft Auto And World of Goo.
When you want to go beyond games and mobile ports, 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 remnants of gaming history, Antstream Arcade (available on the App Store) combines classic games, worldwide high scores, and fun challenges. Both services require a fast, stable Internet connection and—surprisingly—make an effort with touchscreen controls, even if the games they contain are resolutely designed with controllers in mind. controls (and play better with a controller).
Emulation is another option for classic games and received a boost when Apple in 2024 dropped its ban on emulators from loading external files. This has led to a number of quality emulators appearing on the App Store, including Delta, PPSSPP, and RetroArch. Just note that the emulation ecosystem lags behind Android, partly due to Apple’s remaining limitations that make it impossible to emulate much hardware beyond the original PlayStation. Although if you’re old enough it could be a blessing.
“Comfort” your iPhone
So, to varying degrees, the iPhone could replace consoles from the PS5 back to the Atari 2600. But can it? To be a dashboard? Apple had all the console components “everywhere” long before the Switch—Apple TV, AirPlay, cross-device game syncing—but never connected the dots .
It’s not quite there yet. In addition to native Apple TV titles (which these days mostly means Apple Arcade), you can mirror your screen to your Apple TV—or plug and (hopefully) play with a USB-C to HDMI cable or dock HDMI for a more powerful experience. But there are shortcomings when it comes to iPhone screen mirroring.
Lots of black borders. The Distracting Home indicator often appears. There’s no horizontal Home Screen nor any means of launching games with a controller. Button labels don’t always match the controller you use. You may experience a little lag. We found the best console-like experience actually came from Delta — ironic given that Apple has resisted it for years. In part, this is because Delta uses the TV as a proper second screen rather than a mirror, meaning there are no black bezels.
