It might not be the reason why you bought your Apple Watch, but gaming is certainly a feature you can enjoy now you’ve got one. We wouldn’t be entirely shocked if you told us you didn’t even know you could play games on your device Alas, you’ve found our treasure trove of the best Apple Watch games on offer right now and there’s a lot to enjoy.
Gaming watches never really took off, but the best Apple Watches have multifunctionality meaning you can use them for sending messages, getting directions, and yes, games are there too. A small screen and lack of real functionality is going to be a hurdle for developers hoping to put their game on the Apple Watch, but it’s not insurmountable. Unfortunately, you won’t be playing Pokémon Go on your Apple Watch, but there’s plenty more fun to be had.
Here are the best Apple Watch games:
Lifeline 2
Starting us off, Lifeline 2 is a suspenseful text adventure with a story to tell. Plus, it’s the second story in the Lifeline series that has many more games, so if you like it, there’s more to play.
Lifeline 2 follows the tale of Arika, a woman on a deadly quest to avenge her parents and rescue her long-lost brother. You must make choices that will keep her alive and complete her quest… or the worst may happen.
The game plays out in real-time, meaning as you go about your day, you’ll also be able to move Arika’s story along. The beauty of Lifeline 2 is when it’s over, you can play it all over again making different decisions and seeing what differences occur.
2048
2048 sounds simple when we explain it, but actually completing the puzzle is a whole lot harder. You’re presented with a 4×4 grid. You swipe numbers left to right and when two numbers of the same amount meet, they merge to create the sum of the two. You repeat this process until you make a block that equals 2,048.
It’s a perfect game for the Apple Watch as it always requires the same amount of space to complete, but within the space, multiple puzzles can thrive. There’s a multiplayer mode, challenge mode, and obstacle mode all with varying difficulties. Plus, you don’t always have to make 2048, there are other numbers on offer that are a lot easier to achieve.
Pocket Bandit
Pocket Bandit is a rarity in the gaming world as it’s fully focused on the Apple Watch. It also takes advantage of one of the watch’s features, the digital crown. In this fast-paced puzzle game, you must crack safes to find treasures.
Using the digital crown, the rotating dial on the watch, you move the cursor to crack the code. Your watch will vibrate when you’re on a good number and once you’ve done it, the safe opens and you get the treasure inside. To become the ‘King of Bandits’ there are over 100 treasures to find and heists to pull off within a time limit. It’s puzzling at its finest.
Jellyfish Tap
If you were involved in the highly addictive gaming time period of Flappy Bird, then you’re going to love this one. Jellyfish Tap is the same concept; tap the screen at varying speeds to move your character between obstacles.
Unsurprisingly given its name, your character is a jellyfish. The further into the game you get, the harder it gets and the faster the pace. You can tap your Apple Watch incessantly to secure a high score, all while enjoying the vibrant, yet simple visuals of this game. Tap to rise through the depths and stop tapping to watch your jellyfish sink to the bottom. All you have to do is get through the obstacles.
Tiny Armies
Next, Tiny Armies brings turn-based strategy to your wrist. You use your tiny army to defeat the other tiny army with increasing complexity the further along you get. There are obstacles to tackle and different terrains including lakes and mountains to endure, but if you swipe the right way you can take down enemies to achieve victory.
With Tiny Armies, you have the option to play alone, versus friends, or against anyone in the world via iMessage. A pretty nifty conquest game for Apple Watch.
Rules!
In Rules! you’re presented with a puzzle to solve by following… the rules. While the game starts off simple with only one rule to follow, as you advance through the levels more rules get added. But, the rules from previous levels still apply. You must remember all the rules and follow them in a particular order.
All of a sudden, there are lots of rules and this puzzle game becomes a real memory test (have I said rules enough?). It seems simple enough given that you’ve only got four tiles to play with in each level on the Apple Watch interface, but when you can only tap them a certain way, it all gets really confusing, really fast.
Dare the Monkey: Go Bananas!
A platformer on the Apple Watch? That’s right. Dare the Monkey: Go Bananas! proves that platform games can find a home on a tiny screen. Coined as a “super casual, one-tap platformer” you control a monkey that has to run, jump, dodge, and roll its way around a tricky series of traps.
The worlds get trickier and the tapping becomes more complex, but with lots of vibrant graphics to enjoy, there’s a lot of fun to be had with this pretty impressive game given there’s such a small screen to work with.
Snappy Word
If you’ve ever played Wordle, the five-letter online word puzzler, then you’ll like Snappy Word. While it may appear at first to be a rather straightforward set of rules, you’ll find yourself addicted and puzzled in no time. Four letters appear on your screen and you’ve got to make a legitimate word from them.
Once the first word has been found, you’ll be given an entirely new set of letters to do it over and over again, as many times as you can in 30 seconds. Clickable, fast, and perplexing. A perfect time waster for the Apple Watch.
Octopuz
Get those brain cogs churning with this puzzle design game that tests your brain. Originally only for mobile and iPad, Octopuz developer 13-year-old Brayden Gogis added Apple Watch support, so here we are. For this simple, yet testing puzzle game, you’re shown a pattern that you must replicate after you’ve seen it.
Each puzzle piece that you change has eight options and you’ve got to make sure you get the right ones. There are different levels of difficulty on varying sizes of puzzles, as well as a daily puzzle to test your skills.
Chess
If you’re a fan of the strategy board game Chess then, unsurprisingly given its name, this Apple Watch game is simply that. Chess on your wrist. Even better, you can play on your Watch OS against players from around the world.
It’s free-to-play (although there are in-app purchases available) and offers not only games but lessons and videos alongside it. With cross-compatibility with the iPad and iPhone, you can keep the puzzles going on an even larger screen.
That rounds up our best Apple Watch games guide for now. If you’re still in the market for more from the App Store, we’ve got the best iPhone games as well as the best iPad games. We’ve also got a guide to the best gaming phones to peruse at your leisure.