Although the finest video game consoles do not deliver the same mix of independence and control as the iPad. In addition to the vast catalog of available titles (many of which can be downloaded in only a few minutes), you get a huge, gorgeous screen with excellent touch controls and the freedom to play anytime, at any time. The best iPad games exploit all of these benefits, allowing players to experience amazing games on the go, usually at a fraction of the price that the console and PC titles pay.
The almost limitless catalog of games comes with a caveat, though — it’s hard to hack through all the rough to locate the gems. If you’re playing on an iPad Pro, you’ll want to check out the graphically stunning games that optimize your real estate screen and take advantage of the Retina monitor. If you’re looking for ideas, you’ve come to the right place — here are our options for the best games to play on your iPad .
1. Asphalt 9: Legends
A long time ago, the Asphalt series left behind every hint that it was specifically concerned with reality. Instead, you know that you’re going to be served by high-octane, larger-than-life races, where your vehicle is constantly catapulted into the air, in a way that will make the ordinary mechanic shriek in fear.
Asphalt 9, however, is going for the bizarre in a decidedly different direction, with a ‘TouchDrive’ control scheme that streamlines careening through the race track, essentially by making the game itself deal with steering. Although there is an alternative ‘manual’ device hidden in the menus, by default, tap and swipe to turn lanes, perform tricks, drift, and raise.
2. Alto’s Odyssey
Alto’s Odyssey trades in the sunny, snowy, and vivid palette of the first game for a much colder, darker setting that is just as enticing as the original. The desert — while stunningly gorgeous — feels harder and less forgiving than the mountains that Alto used to, and the current terrain offers a plethora of fresh obstacles for players to encounter.
The very basic mechanics of the game have not changed. You’re also guiding a bunch of offbeat characters who are navigating a land-heavy, endless runner while trying an assortment of board-based tricks around a stunning, ever-changing landscape. Collecting coins, overcoming challenges, and meeting targets will allow you to update and buy power-ups for the in-game shop. As you may have guessed, it all flows extremely seamlessly and is almost as addictive as the first incarnation. Alto’s Odyssey continues to build on the well-defined center and introduces enormous new obstacles to players on almost every sprint.
3. Shadowgun Legends
First-person shooters are not a genre that anyone wants to equate with touchscreens unless it’s in a statement like “first-person shooters are usually trash on touchscreens.” And that’s fair enough-a slippery glass pane can’t deal with the control that a gamepad or keyboard offers you whenever you fall around firing stuff. However, Shadowgun Legends manages the unlikely, fine-tuned, high-octane FPS to your iPad.
Most of the time, this game works because it knows the limits of the computer. Controls are simplified to a two-stroke system for pushing and shooting. Autofire blows missiles at enemy daft enough to get in the line of fire. Buttons are then used to activate acts like punching door controls or to set up special equipment like sentry weapons.
4. SimCity BuildIt
SimCity BuildIt’s been around on iOS for a bit, and while it’s playable on the iPhone, it’s always been more fun on the iPad. Now, the iPad Pro’s widescreen takes that step further, particularly since the game’s control scheme is all about pinching, zooming, and spinning extremely detailed 3D houses. Fans of the SimCity series can enjoy creating large metropolitan centers, and the game keeps things fresh by adding new requirements — such as fire departments, police stations, and city services — without which the city has no chance of survival. The visuals are stellar, with lots of little touches that will confuse and inspire you. Bear your mind, though — there are a lot of in-app transactions as well.
5. Journey
A journey is just as much an opportunity to poke around like an iPad title. It’s going to drop you in a vast desert and leave you to it. At that point, it’s up to you to unlock the mysteries of the mysterious universe – and how to continue. It’s a joy to explore at first, with your traveler cruising the dunes and making brief discoveries. The Exploration is more than just a sandbox game – there’s a way forward in this adventure.
It seems clear that you can go to a mountain, but getting there involves knowing the world around you, singing cloth animals, confronting ancient guardians, and uncovering glyphs. There are bursts of suspense, but most of all this is a foreign, unworldly feeling of the joys of liberation and adventure, operating at your own pace and looking at the breathtaking visuals.
6. Time Locker
Vertical shooters look frenzied, marrying your wish to dance by the showers of sparkling bullets and blowing to smithereens all in your way. Sometimes, death occurs via momentary distraction, and you’re going to wish you could run all over the Universe and slow it down momentarily.
Time Locker indicates that this doesn’t actually help. In its abstract, minimal world, all run as quickly as you drag a finger. Non, the universe freezes. Drag and everything come back to life, whether you’re blowing away or your many enemies in your place.
7. The King of Fighters ALLSTAR
Classic brawlers don’t tend to go well on cell phones, so developers tend to make one-thumb fares like Beat Street or stripped-down happy warriors like Transformers: Forged to Battle. ALLSTAR is an exception-a game that, while not comparable to console brawlers, still offers enough of a genre to deliver a punch.
Based on the iconic title sequence, this game features mainly side-by-side scrapping, in the spirit of the classics Double Dragon, Final Battle, and Renegade. At any given moment, you’re surrounded by gangsters who need a quick blow. Defeat them without being walloped by yourself, and you’re going to take on a manager.
8. Dead Cells
Dead Cells is a villain-like RPG gameplay that lets you take “plays” through multiple stages of a dark island. You’re going to have to find objects and improvements along the way, but be careful, if you die, you start from the beginning.
You’re going to die — a lot — but every time you do, you’re going to experience something different, making the next run even more rewarding. While you start every time you lose from the beginning, you do gain permanent enhancements when you destroy more enemies to bring them into the game, which means that some improvement needs to be made.
Dead Cells is one of my favorite games in recent years, I enjoy it so much that I have it for every machine I own, and getting it on my iPad means I can play it anywhere! Only head up, it’s a newer game that needs some control, so older iPad versions (like a few years ago) might be struggling a little bit.
