Good OSX/iOS games for a long plane trip?
March 28, 2023 11:55 AM Subscribe
I have a long (over 10 hour) plane trip coming up. I will have a Mac laptop, iPad, and iPhone available. What are good games for OSX (i.e., on the laptop) or iOS (on the iPad/iPhone) that would be good to pass the time?
On a previous flight I really enjoyed Kingdom Two Crowns, which I played on the laptop. That ate up lots of hours, with the slow building and management of the kingdom. It was immersive, but not too complicated, and had that "just one more level" sort of feel to it, that made it perfect to pass the time.
On a previous flight I really enjoyed Kingdom Two Crowns, which I played on the laptop. That ate up lots of hours, with the slow building and management of the kingdom. It was immersive, but not too complicated, and had that "just one more level" sort of feel to it, that made it perfect to pass the time.
Best answer: All through elementary school I desperately wanted a Mac to play Escape Velocity on.
Sadly all the real EV games are defunct because of a failed DRM mechanism, but Endless Sky is free, modern, and in the same style and tradition.
posted by sindark at 12:21 PM on March 28, 2023
Sadly all the real EV games are defunct because of a failed DRM mechanism, but Endless Sky is free, modern, and in the same style and tradition.
posted by sindark at 12:21 PM on March 28, 2023
Best answer: Terraria and RimWorld both have good Mac versions on Steam.
posted by sindark at 12:22 PM on March 28, 2023
posted by sindark at 12:22 PM on March 28, 2023
Best answer: You might like Outlanders, a town-building management sim. I loved Kingdom: Two Crowns and found that Outlanders had a similar pace -- i.e. not constant clicking, but rather, watching/overseeing/intervening. It's on Steam, but also iOS.
posted by fire, water, earth, air at 12:23 PM on March 28, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by fire, water, earth, air at 12:23 PM on March 28, 2023 [2 favorites]
Best answer: I liked Alto's Adventure and Alto's Odyssey for the phone: simple mechanics, soothing soundtrack, and a Zen Mode for endless time wasting.
posted by wenestvedt at 12:23 PM on March 28, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by wenestvedt at 12:23 PM on March 28, 2023 [3 favorites]
Best answer: Slay the Spire is addictive (and nice because you can very easily start and stop), but it does eat through battery life and doesn't sync across devices.
posted by starman at 12:24 PM on March 28, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by starman at 12:24 PM on March 28, 2023 [3 favorites]
Best answer: If you're a netflix user, Into The Breach is a great little tactical game that is broken up into bite-sized levels. It's kind of like robot chess, except that as you progress you earn points to unlock different types of robots, different pilots with specific skills, etc. Easy to pick up and play for 5 minutes and put down. It's not complicated at all (in theory), but very replayable.
It used to be a small standalone game but after a bunch of years netflix bought it and it's free for any subscriber.
posted by true at 12:29 PM on March 28, 2023 [5 favorites]
It used to be a small standalone game but after a bunch of years netflix bought it and it's free for any subscriber.
posted by true at 12:29 PM on March 28, 2023 [5 favorites]
As always, the game to consume all the time you are willing to give it is Factorio.
posted by jquinby at 1:25 PM on March 28, 2023
posted by jquinby at 1:25 PM on March 28, 2023
I downloaded the 1994 edition of Lode Runner: The Legend Returns and it's been even more fun than I remember it from the past. Hours and hours of gameplay on a Mac laptop.
posted by knotty knots at 1:25 PM on March 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by knotty knots at 1:25 PM on March 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
If you like escape room games, “the room three” on the iPhone could be good. I picked it up in a similar situation and it worked well for me.
posted by bruinfan at 1:27 PM on March 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by bruinfan at 1:27 PM on March 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
Recently added on iOS after being on Steam for a long time, Dungreed is a fun little 2d platforming roguelite
posted by isauteikisa at 1:42 PM on March 28, 2023
posted by isauteikisa at 1:42 PM on March 28, 2023
Seconding Into The Breach; that studio's previous game FTL is a viciously difficult roguelike space-battle sim that can easily eat hours of my life...
posted by aihal at 1:56 PM on March 28, 2023
posted by aihal at 1:56 PM on March 28, 2023
I’m going to suggest some iOS board game apps
Baseball Highlights 2045
Race for the Galaxy
Terraforming Mars
Star Realms
posted by Windopaene at 3:35 PM on March 28, 2023
Baseball Highlights 2045
Race for the Galaxy
Terraforming Mars
Star Realms
posted by Windopaene at 3:35 PM on March 28, 2023
The Professor Layton games that were originally on Nintendo DS are great. Sort of visual novels with puzzles.
posted by jclarkin at 5:46 PM on March 28, 2023
posted by jclarkin at 5:46 PM on March 28, 2023
Some great games are only available via Apple Arcade which is a subscription, but you can subscribe and cancel immediately to get just one month.
Some of my favourites on Arcade:
Grindstone
Creaks
Monument Valley 2
Osmos
Also seconding Alto's Adventure and Alto's Odyssey which I think are on Arcade now
posted by riddley at 6:01 PM on March 28, 2023
Some of my favourites on Arcade:
Grindstone
Creaks
Monument Valley 2
Osmos
Also seconding Alto's Adventure and Alto's Odyssey which I think are on Arcade now
posted by riddley at 6:01 PM on March 28, 2023
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I also really love Bring You Home, Love You to Bits, and All of You, all super cute puzzle adventure games with innovative gameplay by Alike Studios (basically I liked Bring You Home so much that I went and played everything else they made). Any one of those might not last you the full 10 hours but they have that propulsive "one more level" feeling, offer a lot of visual variety, and the puzzles are generally hard enough to keep you engaged but solvable enough to be rewarding and not frustrating.
posted by babelfish at 12:17 PM on March 28, 2023 [3 favorites]