With a new month comes Apple laying out its Apple Arcade plans for said month, and today they’ve revealed what’s happening in November. I wouldn’t call it a terribly exciting month on the surface, but there’s certainly the possibility that the two Arcade Originals titles will impress, and the two App Store Greats are two very beloved releases from back in the day. So all in all, not too shabby. First, the two Arcade Originals. There’s Football Manager 2023 Touch which, well, is not exactly original but this touch-centric version of the long-running sports management game is exclusive to Arcade on mobile. Then we have SpongeBob SolitairePants which is a take on the classic card game wrapped up with the wackiness of SpongeBob, where you can run through a quest-based adventure, play multiplayer, compete in daily challenges, and more.
Strangely, I’m perhaps more excited for the App Store Greats this month. There’s Old Man’s Journey+ which is a unique adventure game with a cool perspective-based gameplay hook and a narrative that will stick with you long after it’s over. We picked it as our Game of the Week and awarded it 5 stars in our review when it launched back in 2017. Next is Mika Mobile’s wonderful action RPG Battleheart Legacy+ with its strategic combat and nearly endless level of character customization. We similarly chose it as our Game of the Week and awarded it 5 stars in our review when it launched in 2014.
Somewhat buried in the announcements of new games is another batch of games that are set to leave Apple Arcade soon. In the What’s Next on Apple Arcade featured story in the store, down at the bottom it mentions that Doomsday Vault, Tales of Memo, and No Way Home will all be leaving the service soon. I get that an ever-changing library is par for the course with these subscription services, both in gaming and other forms of media, but it still is a bummer whenever a game becomes unavailable. So while you still have the chance, and for at least a couple of weeks after they’re gone if you have them installed on your device, go play through those games that are on their way out and then look forward to the new batch of stuff hitting Apple Arcade in November starting with Battleheart Legacy+ this Friday.
