It’s been seven years since Aquiris’ outstanding arcade racer Horizon Chase (Free) arrived on the App Store. Since then, the game has been on a tour of its own, hitting a variety of other platforms and constantly adding new content to enjoy. About a month ago, we finally got a sequel when Horizon Chase 2 () roared onto the Apple Arcade service in anticipation of a wider release in 2023. I’ve been playing the wheels off the game since then, and I figured I’d write up a review in case anyone needs a nudge.
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Shovel Knight first released a little over eight years ago, and thanks to a bevy of updates and cameos it feels like the character has never really left the spotlight. Still, if we count all of the updates to the main game as simply being part of that game, Shovel Knight Dig is just the third game in the series. This is also the first game in the series to hit mobile, which was roughly the last active platform on the planet without a Shovel Knight game on it. This comes to the platform through Apple Arcade, so if you want to play the game you know what you have to do.
Fantasian has proven to be a tremendously challenging game to review. It’s an Apple Arcade game, so you don’t exactly need advice on whether or not you should buy it if you already subscribe to the service. When it first launched, it was only the first part of the game and I didn’t think it was necessarily fair or a good idea to judge an RPG on its first half. And I’m glad I waited, because the second part really did change my opinion on Fantasian as a whole. There are still bits coming in future updates, but the main game is here and I suppose I have to do this now.
When I got my own PlayStation a few years after it launched, I didn’t know that one random sports game purchase would somehow get me into a game genre that I still play today. The Clap Hanz-developed and Sony-published Hot Shot’s Golf (Everybody’s Golf outside North America) is a game I don’t even know why I bought in the first place and I had an absolute blast with it and Hot Shot’s Golf 2 back in the day. Having not owned another PlayStation until the PS Vita and PS4, I never got to play the series until the more recent entries and I didn’t really enjoy the direction of Everybody’s Golf on PS4. Fast forward to April this year and Clap Hanz surprise released Clap Hanz Golf as an Apple Arcade exclusive. 
Sometimes, you run into a game you know you’ll enjoy just by the way it looks. That’s not always the case, though, and you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. Or in this case, a game by its trailers. However, every now and then, a game fills the expectations you had the first time you saw it. That’s the case with Roundguard, in my opinion.
Have you ever had a nightmare in which you feel like you’re awake? You’ve been through this dream so many times, you’d think you’d know how to wake yourself up from this nightmare. And yet, there you are, fearful, powerless, thinking that your time has finally come.