I’m not normally one for mobile games, and definitely not one for arcade games that look like they were made for children. But when Stardew Valley was announced for Apple Arcade, my interest was piqued and I’ve resolved to give it a try. There must be a reason it has 493,000 overwhelmingly positive reviews on Steam, a 4.8-star rating from 58.4K ratings on the App Store, and a Golden Joystick award, you get the picture. 

But I never play games without doing my research, so I’ve asked my colleagues, who all love and swear by this cute RPG, what I need to know before I start. If you’re playing Stardew Valley for the first time too, I’m here to impart that wisdom. Here are five tips and tricks to start you on your Stardew Valley journey.

 Use a controller  

This isn’t really a trick per se, but Stardew Valley on both iPhone and iPad supports touch input and gamepad, leaving you with a choice. Stardew Valley strikes me as a relaxing game that lends itself to reclining while you play, and that’s difficult to do with touch controls. Not impossible, but a just a bit less relaxed. “I would say controller based on pure instinct,” TechRadar’s Josie Watson tells me, and our How-to Editor John-Anthony Disotto agrees, it’s a controller title “for sure”. 

If you’re taking the plunge into Stardew Valley for the first time on Apple Arcade, the best game controllers for iPhone will see you taken care of. 

Clear your farm

I’ve come to learn that farming seems to be at the heart of Stardew Valley, and Josie tells me I need to spend time every day clearing my farm to get resources. Farming is one of your main sources of income in Stardew Valley and also helps you get ingredients for cooking. By clearing your farm you can acquire wood, stone, and more resources that can be used to craft items. However, clearing your farm uses energy so you don’t want this to be your sole focus each day. 

 Buy seeds straight away

You only start with 500 gold, and the consensus seems to be that investing this into seeds is the right way to go. Once you’ve used up your starter pack, buy more, as these can provide quite a good yield early on and help you on your way to earning more money. So far as I can tell, planting and selling crops you’ve harvested is one of the best ways to make money in Stardew Valley. Seeds can be bought from one of the four shops around town, with Pierre’s General Store being the closest. Seed prices seem to fluctuate, however, so it pays to shop around for a bargain.  

Keep it local

I’ve also been told that there’s not much point trying to explore the far reaches of the map until week two or three unless there’s a good quest you can do that will provide decent rewards. There are a couple of reasons for this, as with clearing your farm, energy in Stardew Valley is limited, so exploring is going to use up valuable energy and time. For the first couple of weeks, we want to focus on gathering resources and farming. So this one is less about not exploring and more about being efficient with your time and your energy. 

Watch TV

You probably play a title like Stardew Valley so you don’t waste your evening watching TV, but doing so in-game is actually really important. “Watching the TV every day is a big one!” PC Gamer’s Mollie Taylor says, the TV will tell you what the weather is going to be and will tell you your luck levels, which is important for fishing and mining. 

Beware... It’s addictive!

Stardew Valley is a simple game but with many layers and complexities, and I’ve seen it said that it can be quite daunting for new players. We’ve barely scratched the surface here, but this is a least a little bit to keep you going. If you’re an Apple One or Apple Arcade subscriber, you’ve nothing to lose by firing up Stardew Valley and giving it a go. But you should know one more thing… 

iMore’s Editor-in-chief Gerald Lynch only has a few hours to his name, but when I asked him what I should know before I started, he simply told me “It’s addictive,” like, seriously addictive. So you’ve been warned folks, Stardew Valley has time sync written all over it, and is definitely not recommended for procrastinators or the easily distracted, or anyone with deadlines, or family commitments. Not that that will stop you anyway. Happy farming!

On May 4, Apple announced 20 games coming to its Apple Arcade subscription service, with some classics moving over to it with enhanced controls and 4K remastered graphics.

Developer Triband, who made 'WHAT THE GOLF?' and 'WHAT THE BAT?', is bringing a new entry in the series, 'WHAT THE CAR?' to the service, where you take control of an ever-transforming car that will fly, run, and catch a cold as you race it towards the finishing line.

For remastered games, Temple Run + arrives with support for game controllers, and graphics that will now look crystal clear on 4K televisions when playing on an Apple TV, while Playdead’s LIMBO+, a horror platformer, also comes with similar enhancements, ready to play on Mac, iPad, and iPhone too.

In its press release announcing the breadth of games coming to Apple Arcade, Alex Rofman, Apple’s senior director of Apple Arcade said, “Today’s launch boosts our award-winning catalog with 20 new games people will love playing and sharing with their friends and families.”

20 new games available to play right now

• TMNT Splintered Fate (Paramount Global)
• Disney SpellStruck (Artist Arcade)
• WHAT THE CAR? (Triband)
• Cityscapes: Sim Builder (Magic Fuel Games)
• Chess Universe+ (Tilting Point) 
• Disney Colouring World+ (StoryToys) 
• Disney Getaway Blast+ (Gameloft) 
• Farming Simulator 20+ (GIANTS Software) 
• Getting Over It+ (Bennett Foddy) 
• Hill Climb Racing+ (Fingersoft) 
• Iron Marines+ (Ironhide Game Studio) 
• Kingdom Two Crowns+ (Raw Fury) 
• Playdead’s LIMBO+ (Playdead) 
• My Town Home - Family Games+ (My Town Games LTD)
• Octodad: Dadliest Catch+ (Young Horses) 
• PPKP+ (SHIMADA TOSHIHIRO) 
• Snake.io+ (Kooapps) 
• Temple Run+ (Imangi Studios) 
• Time Locker+ (Sotaro Otsuka) 
• Very Little Nightmares+ (Bandai Namco Entertainment)

Insert coin to continue.. your subscription

With 20 brand-new games arriving on Apple Arcade, it only builds on what is finally becoming a service for most gamers. While some are still waiting for No Mans Sky to arrive on Mac and iPad since its announcement at WWDC in June 2022, there's plenty here to keep you busy until that arrives.

Seeing remastered games in this announcement is also a welcome surprise, as there have been a bunch of older games, such as Temple Run, that have been inconsistent when trying to run on certain devices in the past.

But efforts like this will only reinforce to both users and developers alike, that Apple does believe in games for its platforms, and will try to revive popular games from the past for a newer audience.

With not long to go until WWDC 2023 and constant rumors of Apple's VR headset, it will be interesting to see whether we'll see Apple Arcade showcased on this new product. But for now, playing Temple Run in 4K will satisfy a lot of Apple users.

Apple Arcade and Netflix Games are two key players in today’s gaming market – both offering access to huge piles of games to willing subscribers, whether you’re a Netflix regular looking to make the most of your account, or an Apple die-hard wanting more quality experiences to enjoy on your iOS, iPadOS, or tvOS devices.

Netflix Games is a newer player, a spin-off from the dominant TV and movie streaming company, having launched in 2021 and only having 55 titles to Apple Arcade’s 200. But with unique game libraries, different pricing models, and varying devices to enjoy both services, it’s clear that each service will cater to different gamers. 

A subscription service can be a great way to enjoy a huge range of games without having to pay for each title individually -- such as by delving into the best iPad games -– tasting and sampling gameplay to figure out what you might enjoy. So, to help you figure out if Netflix Games or Apple Arcade is a better fit for you, we’ve put together this guide to everything worth considering before you make your choice, from the pricing plans to the device and controller support you can expect with each platform.

Apple Arcade vs Netflix Games: Cost and subscription

Apple Arcade costs $4.99 / £4.99 / AU$7.99 per month, though you can get a free one-month trial when signing up for the first time to either Apple Arcade or the Apple One bundle, and a three-month trial if you’ve just bought an Apple device like an iPhone 14 or Macbook Pro.

Netflix Games is simply bundled in with a Netflix subscription, which starts at $6.99 / £4.99 / AU$6.99 per month for a Basic Plan with ads, and goes up to $9.99 / £6.99 / AU$10.99 for Basic Plan without ads, $15.49 / £10.99 / AU$16.99 for Standard Plan (Full HD, and watch/download on more devices), and $19.99 / £15.99 / AU$22.99 for Premium Plan (more devices, Ultra HD, and Netflix Spatial Audio).

Apple Arcade vs Netflix Games: Platforms

One big differentiator is where you can access either service. Netflix Games is limited to mobile and tablet devices, with a library engineered around touchscreen interfaces. Apple Arcade, on the other hand, runs on pretty much any Apple device you can think of, from iPhones and iPads to the best Macs and Apple TV.

Netflix’s restrictions could be set to change in the near future, with hidden code in the Netflix app that refers to using your phone as a controller for a game played on your TV (via Bloomberg). For now, though, you’re limited to tablets and smartphones.

Keep in mind also that Netflix games aren’t available on kids' profiles – a smart safety measure to prevent some of the more mature titles from creeping in between replays of Peppa Pig.

Apple Arcade vs Netflix Games: Controller support

This is an easy one: Netflix Games don’t support external controllers, while Apple Arcade supports DualShock 4, DualSense, Xbox Wireless, Nintendo Switch Pro and Joy-Con controllers as of iOS 16, not to mention controller shell accessories like the Gamevice Flex and Backbone One. Not every Apple Arcade game supports all these options, but each title is clearly labeled so you know how best to play it.

Apple Arcade vs Netflix Games: Games

It’s worth noting that Apple Arcade has had something of a headstart – the iPhone maker launched its game service back in 2019 and now features over 200 games, “with more added all the time”. There’s a big mix, from Sayonara Wild Hearts and Oceanhorn 2 to Overland and Enter the Gungeon, with an emphasis on games that look good on a crisp Apple display and run comfortably on Apple processors. Because each game has to run on all Apple devices, they usually scale up well for larger screens and are simple enough to play on smaller ones.

Netflix currently sports 55 games, with plans to add an additional 40 over the course of 2023. There’s a much smaller selection for now, then, though there are some real highlights, from turn-based strategy game Intro The Breach and database narrative Immortality (a great fit for the platform behind Bandersnatch!) to a number of tie-in games like Stranger Things: 1984 and Too Hot To Handle.

Both services have a similar approach to ads and microtransactions, getting rid of them entirely! If you’ve paid for the service, you get the game and all its content at no extra cost, or creeping micro-purchases – which is pretty refreshing. But neither platform packs in any AAA games, given the technical restrictions of mobile hardware.

Remember though that these games aren't for keeps. Both platforms offer subscription to their libraries, and those libraries can change without notice. Don't be surprised when games cycle in and out of availability between the two.

Apple Arcade vs Netflix Games: Which is right for you?

So, which service is best? For anyone already sporting a Netflix subscription, it’s a no-brainer – head to the Netflix app on your phone or tablet and download anything you’re interested in, and then consider if Apple Arcade is worth getting in addition.

If you don’t have Netflix, the decision is a little harder. Is it worth paying anywhere from £4.99 to £16.99 per month for its gaming lineup? The games are bundled in for every Netflix plan, so you can get the whole suite for the lower amount, but there’s no denying that Apple’s similarly-priced service packs in a whole lot more for the same price. Apple Arcade runs on a lot more devices, for one, and has a catalog of over 200 games, meaning you get a lot more bang for your buck. But! Netflix's plans give access to all its TV and movie streaming content too. If variety in entertainment sources is your bag, Netflix offers it all for that entry-level price.

If you tend towards Apple devices in your home, though, then paying for Apple One – which bundles together Apple Arcade, Apple Music, Apple News+, Apple Fitness+, Apple TV+, and up to 2TB of iCloud storage for the cost of a Premium Netflix subscription – might be the smarter decision in the long run.

However, as both Apple Arcade and Netflix Games offer very different quantities and types of games, we recommend looking at the full roster before making a final decision.

Apple Arcade is always better with a controller - and they don't come better than the Xbox Elite Series 2. You'll currently save around $26 at GameStop if you're looking to grab one, which brings it down to a very reasonable $154. This isn't the lowest price that the controller has ever been, but it's a big saving on a feature-packed device with some premium additions - the box that will arrive at your door will be heavy with extra metal bits.

Microsoft Xbox Elite Series 2 controller $26 off

You don't have to have an Xbox to use the Xbox Elite Series 2 controller - it'll connect up to almost any computer with a Bluetooth connection. Most importantly to us, it'll connect up really easily with any of the best Macs, letting you play your Apple Arcade games in the best way possible. It can also hook up to your best iPhone, or even your Apple TV 4K - and once you've got going, you won't be able to go back.

The Xbox Elite 2 controller is packed to the gills with cool features. There are paddles on the back that you can program to different inputs, letting you customize the controller. For FPS players you can shorten the activation distance of the analog triggers to improve trigger response time. The analog sticks can be swapped out too, for taller, shorter, and convex or concave options. There's even a case in the box to keep everything together when you're on the go.

Unfortunately for Nintendo Switch players, this isn't compatible - you'll want one of the best Nintendo Switch controllers instead. Don't forget that Black Friday is on the way too - these are the best Black Friday Nintendo Switch deals we think we can expect.

I'm dating myself here, but my earliest gaming memories involve Pong in the late 1970s. My dad was so excited to set up this thing, on our tiny black and white tv, for my brother and me. Yes, that Pong — literally two paddles and a ball. My brother and I quickly figured out how to set up the paddles directly across from each other so that the ball would go back and forth indefinitely. We could — and did — walk away and let that silly game play itself. Yawn. A few years later, in the early 1980s, we got a real Atari system and a few cartridges to play. That was better than Pong, but frankly, most of the time I preferred to read a book.

But arcades came along in the '80s too, and they were a whole other story! The colorful lights and sounds, the variety of games from pinball to Pac-Man and so much more. Going to the arcade was a real outing, a social activity. In middle school, my friends and I would save up our allowance and head to the arcade with a pocketful of quarters. This was the golden era of video game arcades. We'd play games and buy snacks until we ran out of money. Maybe we'd even see some cute boys. Not really knowing how to talk to boys at that age, playing video games gave us something to do without having to talk too much.

By the time I got to high school, college, and beyond, I'd pretty much lost interest in gaming, even as video games continued to get more sophisticated. I'd found other social activities I found more engaging. But I'll always look back fondly at my middle school days spent at the arcade.

At-home gaming is definitely king these days, and why not? Home systems, hand-held devices, and even iOS games have advanced leaps and bounds beyond any games I played in my youth. You can barely find a Nintendo Switch in stores these days, they're so popular! Games like Animal Crossing: New Horizons have spawned dedicated online communities.

Gaming on your iPhone or iPad or even your Mac is so easy, and inexpensive. You already own the device, so why not download some games? Some, like Pokemon Go and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, are more social and get you running around outside. You can download games for free, or just a buck or two, and play them over and over. Or, subscribe to Apple Arcade and get access to tons of games for a small monthly fee.

But I still think there's something special about going to an arcade with your buddies. After all, how many songs do you know about playing video games at home? But songs about arcade games have permeated popular culture, with classics like The Who's Pinball Wizard and Buckner & Garcia's Pac-Man Fever. "Grown-up arcades" like Dave & Buster's and Beercade have popped up all over, combining nostalgia for arcades with adult beverages and food. You can drink beer, eat real food, and play pinball and retro video games to your hearts' content.

Granted, the coronavirus has put a damper on these outings, but I think once the virus is in the past, people are going to be anxious to socialize with their friends again. Indulging in a popular pastime from your youth will be a lot of fun. We'd love to hear your favorite arcade memories in the comments below.

More navigation links:

Techno-stalgia

• My First Mac
• Remembering arcades
• Love for LAN
• Lemonade Stand memories
• The classy iPod Classic
• Game manual memorabilia
• Nintendo Nostalgia
• Cassettes vs digital music

• The best Android tablet was the Pixel C
• Galaxy S Fascinate retrospective review
• HTC Inspire 4G retrospective review
• Why the Moto X was the best
• Honeycomb: The Android version we all forgot
• Nexus Q was super weird but influential
• NVIDIA Shield is timeless
• The first Android phones I loved
• Android 10 vs. Android 4.4
• Android phones with physical keyboards
• Admit it, Android sucked before 2017
• The wild early days of Android smartwatches

• The glory days of Windows Phone
• Remembering Xbox 360
• Legacy of the Pocket PC
• PC gaming changed my life
• Best video games of the '80s
• Why Zune was great
• 35 years of Windows

Everyone who dreamed of owning their favorite arcade machine as a child can finally live out their fantasies without buying expensive, heavy equipment or an entire arcade. Arcade1Up machines bring arcade entertainment to your home at an affordable price — a price that's even lower now that select models are on sale at Walmart. Starting at just $99.99 for countertop models and $149.99 for the 4-foot cabinets, you can add one to your games room for one of its prices yet.

These arcade machines feature some of your favorite titles like Centipede and Asteroids. The countertop versions have an 8-inch display wheras the arcade cabinets feature a 17-inch LCD screen with controls for multiplayer. All of them have licensed artwork and look the part. These aren't exactly full-sized arcade cabinets, but they are larger than novelty cabinets we've seen before. You'll probably still want to play these in a sitting position unless you add a riser underneath. Luckily, Arcade1Up has a riser that's built exactly for that purpose, which you can pick up with today's order for $45. It makes playing much more comfortable if you're an adult.

There are more Arcade1Up cabinets to add to your collection, including Street Fighter 2, Rampage, Galaga, Pacman, Mortal Kombat, and Space Invaders, Star Wars, and that's not all. There's also the Arcade1Up Deluxe Edition that includes 12 games on one cabinet and comes with a riser so you won't have to purchase one separately.

The App Store is filled with tons of casino games, but one of the biggest casino apps is Double Down Casino & Slots. Just like at an actual casino, there is a lot of luck involved and relatively little skill; however, you'll still feel a rush of adrenaline every time you win a whopping load of coins.

In case you're wondering how it all works, here is everything you need to know about Double Down Casino & Slots.

Tons of slots

The game primarily features slot machines, and there are a lot of them. All the slot machine games essentially work the same, which is just like a real slot machine.

Place your bet and spin the slots; if you win something, the game will tell you; if you don't, you'll have to try again.

Other games

If you head over to the "More Games" section, you'll see that Double Down Casino & Slots does have several other popular casino games such as Blackjack, Roulette, and Video Poker.

Chips

You need chips to play any game in Double Down Casino & Slots, and you get chips by winning. That's not the only way you can get chips in-game.

Every day when you sign into the game, you'll be rewarded with bonus chips. The more friends you add and the more consecutive days you play, the more bonus chips you'll get. Plus, you get to spin the Wheel of Fortune, which will reward you a ton of extra bonus chips.

You can also get chips by paying real money in the in-app store.

Internet Connection

If you're on a plane or underground, you may notice that Double Down Casino & Slots will give you the error you see pictured above. That's because the game needs a constant internet connection to play and cannot be played offline.

Lots of downloads

Double Down Casino & Slots doesn't include all the slot machines and other casino games off the bat. You may notice that if you load a new slot machine or game, there will be a notice to download the file file.

This is normal and helps save your storage space because you only have to have space for the casino games you want to play.

Level Up

You can level up in Double Down Casino & Slots, which doesn't actually do much of anything, except give you more bonus chips.

You level up simply by betting; the more chips you bet, the more experience you'll get.

What else do you want to know?

Let me know in the comments below!

Like most of the tech world, I've been obsessed with Pac-Man 256 over the past week. Its colorful throwback graphics, delightful gameplay mechanics, and ridiculously fun power-ups keep you chomping for bits long after the novelty of a traditional Pac-Man game might have worn off. If you're having trouble beating your friends' scores or want some extra help to get you over the 5,000 or 10,000 mark, here are some of my best tips, tricks, and bit-chaining advice to get you on your way.

1. If you like the game, buy unlimited credits

Let's get this out of the way first: If you want to get good at the game and get the best power-ups, you're going to need to play it a lot. A whole lot. And while Pac-Man 256 is free to play, you only get a limited number of credits to play with every few hours.

If you want to beat your friends and have a lot of fun, skip the $1 credit boost and go straight for the $8 unlimited credits in-app purchase. It's worth it, you'll have a lot more fun, and you won't get the same awful frustrated feeling when you run out of lives.

2. Know your Pac-Man

Pac-Man 256 is, at its heart, a Pac-Man game. The creators of Crossy Road teamed up with Bandai Namco to create this 21st-century Pac-Man reboot, and the result is a maze with all of the fun, frustration, and play mechanics of a Pac-Man game—as well as a few signature Crossy Road delights.

Just as in the original, you play Pac-Man, the titular pixel-muncher, attempting to wind your way through a maze and eat as many white Pac-dots as you can find to up your score.

But there are a few quirks that separate it from your average Pac-Man experience. The title—and those ominous munching numbers at the bottom of the screen—are nods to an infamous glitch in the 256th level of Pac-Man, wherein a coding error caused the entire screen to slowly fill up with nonsense characters and crash the game.

In good fun, Bandai Namco has brought this conceit back for Pac-Man 256—but instead of an outright crash, the "glitch" has been retooled as a time-eating monster. Dawdle too long at the bottom of your screen, and those colorfully-bizarre numbers will swallow your Pac-Man whole, ending the game.

Lucky for you, unlike a traditional Pac-Man game, this iteration endlessly scrolls upward: So you can escape the glitch as long as you can keep a forward bit-munching momentum.

You'll have some resistance in your desire to score points, of course: Stopping you from a freewheeling career in eating Pac-dots are seven ghosts: Blinky (red), Pinky (pink), Spunky (grey), Clyde (orange), Inky (teal), Sue (purple), Funky (green), and a new, 256-inspired ghost named Glitchy (who appears as a series of glitch-numbers followed by one of the ghost colors).

But Pac-Man 256 isn't sending you out to glitch-and-ghost minefields to die in a blast of pixelated glory unaided: You'll get some delightful powerups, point multipliers, and pixelated coins to aid you on your journey.

3. Know your ghosts

The best way to avoid Pac-Man's ghosts and climb ever upwards is to know how to beat them. Each of the ghosts has a unique and rather strange way of traversing the maze:

• Inky (teal): Inky is the simplest (and the first) ghost you'll likely meet in Pac-Man 256: It follows a strict square-or-rectangular path through the maze, and won't follow you. Get in the ghost's way, however, and it will explode your Pac-Man without much thought.
• Clyde (orange): Like Inky, Clyde follows a strict path and doesn't much care for chasing you through the maze. Clyde's set path tends to be more winding, however, and involves several turns.
• Pinky (pink): Starts off stationary at one end of a maze lane, ever-searching. If you munch into Pinky's lane, the ghost will come racing down that stretch at 120-percent speed. Once Pinky goes the entire distance of a lane, it will again start searching for you; if it can still see you in an adjacent lane, it will again run down that lane. You can avoid Pinky by either not crossing or going down lanes that Pinky's guarding, or by running quickly across the lane and getting out of Pinky's vision.
• Spunky (grey): Starts the game off sleeping in a corner; if you get within five white Pac-dots of the ghost, it will wake and then chase you for five seconds or so; if it can't catch you, Spunky will go back to sleep. Keep moving and don't get yourself trapped in the maze, and you should be able to avoid Spunky with no problems.
• Sue (purple): Sue always has two Sue buddies, and moves slowly (around 60 percent move speed) in one horizontal lane within the maze. Stay out of the three Sue ghosts's way, and you'll avoid being eaten by them.
• Funky (green): Funky, like Sue, travels in a group and is trapped to a single horizontal lane; unlike Sue, Funky comes in a group of four, and travels at full movement speed. But the same principle of avoidance and dodging applies here.
• Blinky (red): Starts appearing around the 3000-point mark, and will wind its way through the maze targeting you. Blinky will destroy you eventually if you give it the chance, so you need to either eat him first or send him to his death in the glitch void.
• Glitchy (glitch): The weirdest of the ghosts, Glitchy has... well... a problem: It glitches in and out of existence. Glitchy appears in a swarm of glitch numbers. In swarm-form, the ghost is actually harmless, and you can munch through it with no concern; once it transforms into a colored ghost, however, it will follow you much like Blinky... until it glitches out of existence again a few seconds later.

Unlike your average Pac-Man game, there's no limit to the number of each ghost type that can be on the board—you could run into a section with three Blinkys, two Clydes, an Inky, and a set of Funkys.

4. Use your power-ups and fruits to your advantage

If you're looking at that list of ghosts from the last slide and going "Gee, that's a lot of ghosts and I'm only one little Pac-Man," I feel for you, buddy. And so do the game designers: You'll get a lot of weapon power-ups at your disposal to dispatch with them.

There are 21 power-ups in the game, and all are earned strictly by eating Pac-dots. You can't buy them, find them, or otherwise cheat your way into having them: Like all good things, these power-ups come with time—and bit-chains munched.

You'll start with the age-old Pac-Man power-up: a Power Pellet, which appears in the maze like an oversized white dot. Munching a power pellet will turn all the ghosts blue, and give you the power to destroy them from the map by eating them. Unlike typical Pac-Man, once eaten, ghost don't respawn from a box; instead, they'll re-appear upwards on the map.

You'll also get the first of many very cool power-ups: the Laser. This does exactly what it sounds like when you pick it up—it shoots a laser out of Pac-Man's mouth straight down any maze corridor you turn into. It's one of my favorites. The Laser starts as a 5-second power-up, but you can increase its power and points-per-ghost-vanquished with coins. (More on that later.)

As you play, you'll uncover a bunch of other great power-ups—some more awesome than others. You can only ever have three active power-ups (plus the Power Pellet) in the maze at a time, so choose wisely. (My current favorite lineup: Optics, Pyro, and Boom.)

Here are the various "active attack" power-ups:

• Freeze: Slows all ghost movement for a certain amount of time to allow you to dodge through the maze.
• Bomb: Touch a ghost, and you'll trigger an explosion that will take out all ghosts in a three-dot radius.
• Giant: Turns you into a giant rolling Pac-Man that can squish all enemies.
• Fire: You turn into a flame ball, and set fire to every path you take.
• Pyro: Fire's big brother. Flames appear in every path you take, but also spread out one or two dots to adjacent lanes.
• Optics: A better version of Laser, and my favorite power-up in the game. Optics gives you lasers that go the length of a lane then bend around one corner, letting you sneak-attack ghosts nearby.
• Boom: Not only do you get a massive bomb after a certain time period, but any time a ghost runs into you until that point, they'll get exploded, too.

Here are the "passive attack" power-ups (they do the ghost-killing for you):

• Tornado: You summon a tornado that randomly chases ghosts through the maze for a set time period.
• Stealth: For a set period, ghosts can't see you and you can roll right through them.
• Trap: Five or so traps spring up around you in the maze, killing ghosts who run across them.
• Pac-Men: You'll get a few clones, all of which go and attack ghosts.
• Twinado: Like Tornado, but there are now two of them. Double the trouble.

And here are the "get you more points" power-ups:

• Magnet: Fruit and coins within a three-dot radius get automatically absorbed by Pac-Man, no eating necessary.
• Shatter: Five or so stalacmites appear on the board, which you can shatter for bonus points. Ghosts also get slowed and frozen.
• Regen: If you eat this power-up, any Pac-dots you consume will automatically regenerate.

In the maze, you'll see two other items you can eat along the way: fruit, which gives you a point multiplier for a limited time period; and coins, which help you upgrade your weapons.

There are five fruits in the game, each with a different multiplier: Cherries (2x), Apples (3x), Strawberries (4x), Oranges (5x), and Melons (6x). All of these are good, but if you have to choose which to pick up and which to skip, keep your eyes out for Strawberries, Oranges, and Melons.

Picking up coins is the only way you'll upgrade your power-ups (so they last longer and score you more points per ghost kill), but coins also don't get you any points. If you're going for a points run, you'll want to avoid coins; if you're trying to upgrade your weapons, you want to pick up nothing but coins on a run. (Coins, incidentally, are also one of the few in-app purchase items you can acquire: you can double your coins for $5, or you can watch an ad to get a chance at more coins.)

5. ABCP: Always Be Chasing Power-ups (for lots of points)

If you want to be the envy of your Game Center friends list, this is the way to do it. You want to traverse the maze with one goal, and one goal only: Get to the next power-up on the screen.

This works best when you have a load-out of three active attack power-ups. When you pick up a power-up, you're protected from ghosts; your goal should then be to run up the maze until you can find the next power-up, and get as close to it as possible before time runs out.

When you eat a power-up, any "other" power-up shows up on the screen as a white Pac-dot diamond: This is what you should be looking for. As soon as the previous power-up expires and you see the diamond turn back into an icon, eat it to turn on the new power-up. (On rare occasions, you may be lucky enough to find two in a row of the same power-up; in that case, you'll see the icon for that power-up immediately instead of a white diamond.)

What power-ups you choose are ultimately up to you, but I've had great success with Optics, Boom, and Pyro (or their lower-level cousins Laser, Bomb, and Flame).

Do not fall into the trap of eating Pac-dots horizontally—even if it means you get to eat a few ghosts. If you absolutely have to move horizontally to advance forward, do it, but otherwise, focus on vertical movement and don't get distracted by fruits, coins, or ghost-eating possibilities.

6. Look ahead and have an escape plan

As you traverse the maze, you'll want to look upwards to see what kinds of ghosts you're going to be encountering. Some can be easily avoided; others, like Blinky, will need to be killed with a power-up or led into the glitch. (More on that trick later.)

You can also look ahead to avoid accidentally running yourself into a corner. And remember: If you run up the edges of the screen, you may see a group of arrows pointing a corridor off-maze; that loops you back around to the opposite side and can be useful in avoiding ghosts. (When you pop back into the maze, you're also briefly invulnerable from any ghosts in that immediate vicinity.)

7. Earn more power-ups by chaining your Pac-dots

If you want some of the big-daddy power-ups like Optics and Pyro, you need to collect Pac-dots, not points. There are a couple of good ways of doing this.

My personal favorite (and how I got all my power-ups) is eating as many dots as possible at the very beginning of the game. The glitch starts five seconds in, so you have a brief period of time to munch along the very bottom of the maze, collecting Pac-dots, and you'll likely only have one or two ghosts to avoid. Collecting Pac-dots gets a lot harder the further up the maze you go, so getting as many as you can at the beginning is crucial.

Additionally, in this variation of Pac-Man, you have two lives: When you die the first time, the board is wiped of ghosts and the glitch resets. That often gives you an entire blank screen of Pac-dots and power-ups with which to gorge yourself on.

8. Earn more coins by completing missions

If you're finding coin collection to be exceedingly slow going, you can get more power-up juice in a variety of different ways.

If in-app purchasing and watching 30-second ad videos aren't your jam, you can win coin groupings by completing missions; you'll get these during the game over screen, above the settings buttons and miscellany. Missions can range from "Kill 30 ghosts" to "Deploy bombs 5 times", and once you've finished them, you'll get a little play button during the game over screen that lets you roll a chance die for money. You have a chance of getting 16, 32, 64, 128, or 256 coins every time you complete a mission, so the more missions you can complete, the better.

9. Let the glitch be your friend and rid you of ghosts

If you have a Pinky or a Blinky that just won't get off your back, you can use the glitch to your advantage and send them into the great black beyond.

As long as the glitch only partially obscures paths, it's safe to travel into—though your screen will start shaking and Pac-Man moves a little slower. You can use this to get ghosts to follow you down screen, then cut across horizontally and flee the glitch while they get swallowed up. You won't get any points for their demise, but you'll at least get them off your back.

10. How to get the 256-chain combo

If you eat 256 consecutive Pac-dots, you'll clear the entire board of ghosts and get their points (and a point bonus). It's a really fun way to start off a run, and pretty easy to do if you begin at the start of the board.

Start by going to the middle left and eating down the side of the screen, going around, then going up the long right vertical. From there, look for squares, long horizontal lanes, and other areas where you can collect as many consecutive dots as possible without running into a ghost. Completing a 256 chain is a lot harder as you get further up into the maze, so it's best to start at the very beginning.

I've also had decent luck with making a 256 chain immediately after your first death in-game, when the board's been cleared of glitches and ghosts.

11. Get to the settings screen by getting exploded

Can't find the settings screen? Weirdly enough, you can only get to it—and its sound controls—after you die, on the Game Over screen. If you want to turn off the music and sound effects, start a new game, and immediately run into the first ghost you see.

12: Upgrade power-ups at the end of a gaming session

Your power-ups take actual time to upgrade when you spend coins on them, and will be unavailable while they're pumped up. As such, if you're planning on spending a bunch of coins to take your Laser to the next level, make sure you do it at the end of a gaming session, so that they can upgrade when you don't need them to defeat that one ghost.

(Alternatively, you can turn your iPhone's clock forward if you're really impatient, but end of a gaming session works just as well.)

Your tips?

Those are my favorite tips for getting the most out of Pac-Man 256. Do you guys like the game? Have any tricks you're finding successful for navigating your way through the pixelated maze? Let us know in the comments.

Pac-Man can be played right now on Google Maps, utilizing the streets of the map as the course. Users can play on streets of their own town on the web, or in select areas on mobile devices. Google has listed a bunch of clues of where to find Pac-Man on mobile devices, but if you want to just get down and play try searching for "Arc de Triomphe".

We are unsure how long Pac-Man is going to hang around Google Maps (it's worth noting that is already April 1st in some parts of the world), so we suggest giving it a try soon, lest it disappear before you get the chance.

Source: Google

Just Dance Now recently launched for iOS and Android, which offers booty-shaking gameplay minus the console. Players use their smartphone as a motion controller, and any screen with browser access as the primary game display. You need to match up with the movements of the dancer on the TV, laptop, or tablet, and are scored based on how closely you mimic the movements. If you're feeling brave, you can share video clips of your sweet, sweet dance moves to social media.

Some of the songs available at launch include LMFAO's Sexy and I Know It, Psy's Gentleman, and I Was Made for Lovin' You by Kiss. We got a look at Just Dance Now at E3, and back then it showed a lot of promise.

What's particularly interesting about Just Dance Now is that it's trying out a freemium subscription model. 5 songs will always be available for free and rotate regularly, but if you want full access to the 50 tracks available at launch, you can get as little as an hour of game time for a buck or shell out $54.99 for a full year's worth. It's a bold move and it's hard to imagine too many people biting, but making this sort of motion-based gameplay accessible to people without something like Xbox's Kinect sensor is a unique proposition.

Head on over to Just Dance Now to start playing in the browser, and grab the game in the App Store at the link below.

• Free, subscription - Download now

Just Dance Now was a bit of a surprise at E3 2014, as it's bringing the well-known motion-capturing dancing game to smartphones and just about everything with a web browser. Any number of players can jump in with their handheld, and after pairing up with a browser on the big screen, you'll be able shake what your momma gave you and be scored for it. It's worth noting that Just Dance Now will be totally separate from Just Dance 2015, the console title that Ubisoft also announced at E3. The impression I got was that the same core gameplay will be available through Just Dance Now, while all of the extra bells and whistles will be reserved for consoles.

The mobile app acts as both a remote control for picking your songs and generally navigating the game, as well as being a proper game controller. Though the app will be free, the devs were a little coy on the revenue model, which they said will need to go through a soft launch phase for refining. Presumably this involves microtransactions of some kind, but if that's as simple as selling access to individual songs while offering a small core set for free, I could see it working.

Regardless of how prone you are to get into spontaneous dancegaming parties, the technology at work here is really impressive. These movements require a lot of precision, which means if there's any amount of serious latency, it could derail the entire game. As you can see, these dancers handled just fine under the rough wireless conditions of a trade show floor. Besides that, I've found these dancing games are the only remotely compelling experiences enabled by motion-tracking devices like the Kinect. Even on mobile, orientation and movement is rarely a primary control method in games.

Just Dance Now will be made available sometime this year for iOS and Android. For those interested, head over to JustDanceNow.com for more info. Any takers? How many of you guys have tried Just Dance or Dance Central before?

Ubisoft's highly successful Just Dance dancing game franchise is getting a new and very interesting addition, Just Dance Now. It's an upcoming smartphone app that basically turns your iOS device into a dance controller for a large screen such as a tablet, PC or an Internet enabled smart TV.

Revealed as part of Ubisoft's E3 2014 press conference, Just Dance Now is supposed to work with WiFi, 3G and 4G connections. The most interesting thing about the app is that there should be no limit to the amount of players that can join in one Just Dance Now game. Ubisoft said it can even be as high as 20,000 people, all using their smartphones with the Just Dance Now app at once in one big game, located in a stadium or arena.

A release date and specific platforms were not revealed for Just Dance Now, nor was there any mention of a price tag for the app. However, the game was clearly shown as being demonstrated on an iPhone during the press event so it's most likely to be headed to the App Store first.

Source: Spike TV

Venerable gaming hero Pac-Man sure gets around. He’s appeared in all kinds of genres, including several puzzlers.  Now Pac-Man is back in another puzzle game called Pac-Man Monsters from GREE and Namco Bandai. It’s free to play with in-app purchases.

Pac-Man Monsters isn’t just a puzzle game. It’s actually a puzzle RPG with monster collecting elements – basically a mash-up of Pac-Man with Puzzle and Dragons. There’s so much to do, see, and collect in Pac-Man Monsters – read on for details.

Save the Pac kingdom

In this puzzle-RPG, players form a team of Pacs and monsters to do battle against other monster teams. There are more than 100 unique monsters, which you collect by summoning them with soft and hard currency or evolving them from other monsters. They all look great thanks to an attractive Japanese art style.

Although previous Pac-puzzle games like Pac-Attack have been less than exciting, Pac-Man Monsters actually has a really good puzzle engine. At the top of the screen you’ll see your team on the left and the enemy team on the right. At the bottom sits the puzzle field – standard stuff so far.

The puzzle field consists of pellets with various colored backgrounds. Each of these colors represents an element embodied by friendly and unfriendly monsters. Every element is strong and weak against another, creating a paper-rock-scissors mechanic when damage is calculated.

During your turn, you draw a line between 12 dots or spaces. Our hero Pac-Man then eats the dots, converting them into damage for your monsters to deal. Power pellets, ghosts, and fruits occasionally show up in the puzzle field as well. Eat a power pellet before chomping a ghost and you’ll gain both a damage bonus and money for your troubles. Fruits heal your party, and special power-ups will activate your monster’s unique special moves.

Quests

The world map contains various locations for Pac and his party to visit. Each location offers a series of quests to complete. These consist of a series of battles, often punctuated by a boss fight. Special bosses pop up during quests as well, which you can choose to fight in order to earn extra money and items. The money earned in quests can be spent on summoning monsters, whereas the items seem to be mostly used as ingredients during the evolution process.

In addition to regular quests, the game also offers limited time special quests. Completing these quests gives players the chance to earn unique monsters and items. The current special quest “Pac-Man Vs. Galaga” features Galaga-themed enemies and a very peppy techno mix of the Galaga theme.

Quests cost stamina to play. After all, this is a free to play game. Luckily the stamina meter fills up fairly quickly, and your meter increases as you level up too.

Recruit friends to help save Pac-Land!

Whenever you embark on a quest, you’re allowed to bring along a guest monster from another player’s team. These monsters help out in battle just like your own creatures, but you don’t get to keep them. You do get the chance to send friend requests to the monster’s owner, however. Friends can send items to each other and even team up together.

From my brief time playing it, Pac-Man Monsters seems to be an engrossing puzzle-RPG that Pac-Man and Pokémon fans will love.

• Free - Download now

If you picked up the recently released MOGA Ace Power Controller for iPhone, you probably want games to play with it. Well, Aztec Antics from UK indie developer Bouncing Ball Limited is a classic arcade-style platformer that packs impressive controller support on both iPhone and iPad. With both a selection of single-player levels with which to chase high scores and an assortment of competitive multiplayer levels, this one should appeal to fans of retro games and/or local multiplayer.

We’re looking for treasure

Aztec Antics is a classic arcade-style game in which players control a treasure hunter as he grabs coins and avoids danger. The levels are single-screen on iPad, but they scroll vertically a bit on iPhone. The style reminds me a lot of the original arcade Mario Bros, except you don’t attack enemies from below in this one.

Enemies constantly spawn from the top of the screen and descend toward the bottom. Our hero can jump on their heads to defeat them and score some points, but it’s tough because they move so quickly. At first you’ll only have to fight off enraged boars, but other types appear as the level goes on: the Aztec mummy, Nagual the jaguar, and Quetzalcoatl the god of death.

The main goal other than staying alive is to grab as much treasure as possible. Coins randomly appear throughout the level, but only one coin at a time. Thus you’ll grab a coin and then scramble to get the next one, and so on, until an enemy catches you or you fall into the pit at the bottom of the screen. Aztec Antics only gives players one life to work with.

Other than hunting high scores, collecting coins plays another important purpose. At the start of the game, only one level is unlocked. To gain access to the remaining four levels, you’ll need lots of coins. Every fifty coins collected will open up a new level. You can’t track how many coins you have from the main menu, and the level select doesn’t have a visual indicator of which levels are locked or not. But when the game ends, it at least displays how many coins the player needs to get a new level.

Online leaderboards are an important component in any score-based game. Aztec Antics does not drop the bouncing ball there – it includes Game Center leaderboards and Achievements.

Controller antics

To move around in Aztec Antics, players can swipe left or right (basically an invisible virtual d-pad) on the left side of the screen. Tapping the right side of the screen jumps.

That’s the basic control scheme, but Aztec Antics offers so many more control options.:

• iPad players can use iPhones or iPads as touch-screen controllers using the Joypad app.
• Aztec Antics supports the MOGA Ace Power controller.
• iCade, GameDock, and iControlPad work too!

It’s great that players who prefer the classic gaming experience that physical controllers and buttons bring have so many ways to enjoy this one.

Multiplayer mayhem

Just as the original Mario Bros. truly comes to life in multiplayer, so does Aztec Antics. You’ll need a couple of physical controllers or devices running Joypad to take advantage of it, though. The game supports up to 6 simultaneous players on iOS using any combination of supported controllers.

In multiplayer mode, players race to reach the target score before everyone else. Jumping on another player’s head will stun him or her, annoying your opponent and hopefully bringing you closer to that precious gold. Aztec Antics includes 10 Multiplayer-specific maps on top of the five single-player levels.

Upcoming expedition

Bouncing Ball is also hard at work on a sequel: Aztec Antics II that will come to iOS and even consoles like the Wii U. The art style has changed, but still retains a classic vibe. We’ll have more Aztec Antics II details in the future.

Enter the jungle

Aztec Antics is a unique little platformer. Colorful and cute pixel art, great chiptunes music (which reminds me of “We Wish You a Merry Christmas”), and great control and multiplayer features all make this one worth a look.

• Download now - $1.99

Time to take a trip back to 1987 today as Dot Emu has brought retro classic Double Dragon to the iPhone and iPad. Better still, they've brought the whole trilogy to the App Store under one roof as the Double Dragon Trilogy. Time to get your punch and kick on!

With two game modes, three difficulty settings, an 8-bit soundtrack and forthcoming support for MFi game controllers, Double Dragon Trilogy might find itself dropkicking its way onto many an iOS gamers shopping list. All this retro goodness can be yours for just $2.99. No quarters required this time around.

So hands up, who's buying this?

• $2.99 - Download Now

Octagon for both iPhone and iPad is an arcade style game that requires you to swipe and flick your way through an unlimited amount of levels. Jump the gaps, twist through platforms and gaps in order to cross the finish line in each level. Fail and fall off and you've got to start the level over.

I stumbled across Octagon while browsing the App Store on my iPad and I haven't been able to put it down since. It's ridiculously addictive yet maddening at the same time. If you've ever played Impossible Road. this is the same kind of addiction.

There are only three controls to learn in Octagon. You can either tap or swipe left and right to dodge objects horizontally. In order to jump over objects and gaps, just flick upwards on the screen. In some areas, the entire path in front of you turns, so make sure you're looking ahead so you're prepared for what's next.

Octagon is somewhat like Temple Run, but on steroids and which much cooler music and graphics. If you're a Temple Run or Impossible Road fan, you definitely want to check out Octagon for iPhone or iPad.

• $1.99 - Download Now

A new game has been released in the App Store that offers a little more than meets the eye. Gridlee was a game that was originally developed for the arcade back in 1982 and never released; that is until now. It is a really simple game as you would imagine as it dates back to 1982; what’s interesting here however is that it is built on the MAME4iOS engine. The information comes from Touch Arcade whose eagle eyed forum members made the discovery.

This is going to be pulled from the App Store very quickly so if you want the opportunity to grab a working MAME emulator for your iPhone or iPad get this free game now. iMAME was originally released in the App Store back in 2011 with a small bundle of included games. When Apple discovered that more could be added by dropping ROM’s into a folder, it was pulled soon after. This game is no different so expect a very short shelf life. Also as this is a MAME emulator, it offers full iCade support; if you have one of those do not miss out, download it now!

Free – Download Now

Source: Touch Arcade

Ah! the 1980’s. A time when hair was big and so were the arcades. Sure, it's 2012 now, and we have more computing power in our iPads than we used to have in our houses, but there's still many a retro gamer just itching to play the classic arcade games on a classic arcade gear. Both the Atari Arcade Duo-powered joystick for iPad and ION Audio's iCade for iPad promise just that -- to give you a flashback of the '80s on the iPad of the '10s. But which is better, and which gives the best real arcade experience?

Since the Atari Arcade vs. ION iCade has been done to death, I decided to up the ante and go full out -- I decided to put the Atari Arcade and ION iCade not only against each other but to put both of them against a full size arcade machine as well. That's right. It's on like Pong! Literally!

Shootout criteria

So how close do the Atari Arcade and ION iCade get in terms of bringing that real arcade experience to the iPad? We've run a series of tests that compare our iPad accessories to the real deal arcade cabinet. For each test we've awarded a point for matching the arcade experience, half a point for effort, or no points for getting it wrong.

Tests included looks, feel, sound, coin feeding, coin staging, aggression proofing, kick resilience, trackball options, awesome art, and two player compatibility.

There were also a few ways the pretenders were better than the real thing, so  so we have some bonus points for the competition.

Those include portability, power efficiency, home convenience, and cost.

So which comes closest?

Here's the point where you watch the video up top and find out!

Bottom line

If you want the genuine arcade experience then get a genuine arcade cabinet!

However, for those who have a more limited budget or more limited floor space and want to relive some of the glory days of arcade gaming, judging from our results, the iCade is your best choice.

• $70.58 - ION iCade for iPad - Buy now
• $49.99 Atari Arcade for iPad - Buy now

I have seen Final Freeway in the App Store for a while and just glanced by. When looking at apps to review this week I felt a little nostalgic and thought I would give this little gem a spin. The result? Well, if you enjoy old-school arcade racing, if you remember when Out Run was the arcade game, then Final Freeway is for you!

Off the bat, the game is dead simple. Start off by going to Options and you can change your control type from accelerometer to to touch steering. I really prefer the accelerometer steering and once you turn on horizon tilt it gets a lot better.

Jumping into a game starts with two choices: Normal or Expert. Be warned, this game gets tough as more traffic and the time limit starts to hinder your progress. Next you have three choices for music. Unfortunately you can't select iPod music at this time (the developer says they are working hard on a substantial update, we shall see what this brings). From here, the race begins!

Controls are precise and responsive as you fly really fast around the tracks. You have a few different control layouts in options for gas, break, etc. From here it is time to beat the clock and avoid the traffic. When you reach a check point, the game continues, but you do not have any branching paths, you continue through six total levels for the high score.

I had a lot of fun with this game. Since the levels are relatively short and with fast task switching, it makes for an excellent pick up and play game when you have the time. Sure there is a big "Cons" list below, but for $.99 this is a must have app for any classic racing fan; no regrets.

[$.99- iTunes Link]

Pros

• Classic racing action
• Similar to the arcade classic "Out Run"
• Fast frame rate- almost too fast!
• Retina display support for iPhone 4
• Universal app for iPhone and iPad
• Pick back up and play with iOS4

Cons

• No "tree" to show level progression
• Only three music tracks
• No iPod music option
• Only one car to choose from
• No Internet scoring fro global high scores (Plus+ or OpenFeint for example)

[gallery link="file" columns="2"]