Best of the Mac App Store
Letting all the people know that Apple's back to run the show.
It's fair to say that gaming on Macs has hardly been Apple's number one priority over the years. But whether it intended for it to happen or not, the vast success of game sales on its various iOS devices has given the Cupertino giant reason to try and tap into Mac gaming as well.
Rather than simply bolt yet another section onto its increasingly clunky iTunes App Store, Apple decided to open a standalone Mac App Store on January 6th, complete with around 200 games to choose from. Most of them are absolute junk, obviously, but there are plenty that are worth checking out if you happen to have a half-decent Mac.
You might reasonably ask why anyone should care. After all, Valve got there first with its Mac game store on Steam, and has a growing selection of over 80 games vying for your attention. The answer to that is price. Following the lead of the aggressive pricing strategy on the iTunes App Store, many titles – whether casual or hardcore – are significantly cheaper on the Mac App Store than you'll find them elsewhere.
So, without further ado, here's a run-down of the best and most interesting titles currently available, and why you should care...
And Yet It Moves
- £4.99 (Steam price: £7.99)
Comfortably the best game released on WiiWare last year, and also one of the strangest. The basic idea of this is to fashion a route to the level exit by literally twisting the world around you. At the start, it's all rock and shrubbery, but someone obviously slips something into your drink halfway through. Suddenly you're oscillating gently on pulsing columns of sound that fade in and out, and trying not to get sucked into inky voids, while an inverse doppleganger demands that you also get it to an exit. Although the controls lack the fluidity and flexibility of the Wii, this is still an essential purchase.
9/10
Osmos
- £2.99 (Steam price: £6.99)
Another PC indie classic that received acclaim away from its native platform was Osmos. In this instance, it was possibly the first app to show off the potential of the iPad, thanks to its absolutely stunning visuals and intuitive touch-based gameplay. The simple, calming premise of consuming other, smaller motes to make yourself bigger is more engrossing than it has any right to be, and at this price it's an absolute steal. The fact that it still plays brilliantly and looks incredible on a bigger screen ought to be enough for you.
9/10