Apple Arcade to Gain NFL Retro Bowl '25, Monster Train+, and Puzzle Sculpt

The Apple Arcade gaming service is set to gain three new games in September, including NFL Retro Bowl '25, an NFL and NFLPA-licensed relaunch of the popular Retro Bowl game that initially came out in 2020.

apple arcade retro bowl
NFL Retro Bowl '25 lets NFL fans create their own football dynasty by selecting their favorite NFL teams and players to manage. The game focuses on roster management and game strategies, with the ‌Apple Arcade‌ version offering authentic rosters and NFL players in the original game's retro style.

Monster Train+ is another ‌Apple Arcade‌ revamp of a popular original. It is a roguelite deck builder with more than 250 cards to unlock and six monster clans to discover. The ‌Apple Arcade‌ version of the game includes a new strategic layer with three vertical playing fields to defend, along with support for The Last Divinity DLC with an additional clan and more gameplay challenges.

For the Apple Vision Pro, ‌Apple Arcade‌ is gaining Puzzle Sculpt, a game where players decipher increasingly challenging clues to solve puzzles. Gameplay consists of removing unnecessary cubes to uncover Deco Objects that can then be placed anywhere in the virtual space around the player.

Several ‌Apple Arcade‌ games are set to get new content updates, including new Shrek-themed hoops for Stitch, a Smithsonian-inspired area in Crayola Create and Play, and Tiana from The Princess and the Frog for Disney Dreamlight Valley.

‌Apple Arcade‌ is priced at $6.99 per month, a fee that allows up to six family members to play games. ‌Apple Arcade‌ titles have no in-app purchases or ads. ‌Apple Arcade‌ is also part of the Apple One, Family, and Premier plans.

Popular Stories

iPadOS 26 App Windowing

Apple Explains Why iPads Don't Just Run macOS

Friday June 13, 2025 7:46 am PDT by
iPadOS 26 allows iPads to function much more like Macs, with a new app windowing system, a swipe-down menu bar at the top of the screen, and more. However, Apple has stopped short of allowing iPads to run macOS, and it has now explained why. In an interview this week with Swiss tech journalist Rafael Zeier, Apple's software engineering chief Craig Federighi said that iPadOS 26's new Mac-like ...
iphone 16 pro models 1

17 Reasons to Wait for the iPhone 17

Thursday June 12, 2025 8:58 am PDT by
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models simultaneously, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 17 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect from Apple's 2025 smartphone lineup. If you skipped the iPhone...
Logitech Logo Feature

Logitech Announces Two New Accessories for WWDC

Friday June 13, 2025 7:22 am PDT by
Alongside WWDC this week, Logitech announced notable new accessories for the iPad and Apple Vision Pro. The Logitech Muse is a spatially-tracked stylus developed for use with the Apple Vision Pro. Introduced during the WWDC 2025 keynote address, Muse is intended to support the next generation of spatial computing workflows enabled by visionOS 26. The device incorporates six degrees of...
iPhone 17 Pro Blue Feature Tighter Crop

iPhone 17 Pro Launching in Three Months With These 12 New Features

Saturday June 14, 2025 5:45 pm PDT by
The iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are three months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of June 2025:Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone X through iPhone 14 Pro have a...
iOS 26 Screens

Here Are All the iOS 26 Features That Require iPhone 15 Pro or Newer

Thursday June 12, 2025 4:53 am PDT by
With iOS 26, Apple has introduced some major changes to the iPhone experience, headlined by the new Liquid Glass redesign that's available across all compatible devices. However, several of the update's features are exclusive to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models, since they rely on Apple Intelligence. The following features are powered by on-device large language models and machine...
CarPlay Liquid Glass Dark

Apple to Let iPhone Users Watch Videos on CarPlay Screen While Parked

Thursday June 12, 2025 6:16 am PDT by
Apple this week announced that iPhone users will soon be able to watch videos right on the CarPlay screen in supported vehicles. iPhone users will be able to wirelessly stream videos to the CarPlay screen using AirPlay, according to Apple. For safety reasons, video playback will only be available when the vehicle is parked, to prevent distracted driving. The connected iPhone will be able to...
iOS 26 on Three iPhones

Hate iOS 26's Liquid Glass Design? Here's How to Tone It Down

Wednesday June 11, 2025 4:22 pm PDT by
iOS 26 features a whole new design material that Apple calls Liquid Glass, with a focus on transparency that lets the content on your display shine through the controls. If you're not a fan of the look, or are having trouble with readability, there is a step that you can take to make things more opaque without entirely losing out on the new look. Apple has multiple Accessibility options that ...
Mac Studio Feature

Apple Begins Selling Refurbished Mac Studio With M4 Max and M3 Ultra Chips at a Discount

Thursday June 12, 2025 10:14 am PDT by
Apple today added Mac Studio models with M4 Max and M3 Ultra chips to its online certified refurbished store in the United States, Canada, Japan, Singapore, and many European countries, for the first time since they were released in March. As usual for refurbished Macs, prices are discounted by approximately 15% compared to the equivalent new models on Apple's online store. Note that Apple's ...
iOS 26 Feature

Apple Seeds Revised iOS 26 Developer Beta to Fix Battery Issue

Friday June 13, 2025 10:15 am PDT by
Apple today provided developers with a revised version of the first iOS 26 beta for testing purposes. The update is only available for the iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 models, so if you're running iOS 26 on an iPhone 14 or earlier, you won't see the revised beta. Registered developers can download the new beta software through the Settings app on each device. The revised beta addresses an...

Top Rated Comments

Simmias Avatar
11 months ago
It’s time to take Apple Arcade off life support.

We‘ve had enough puzzle games.
We’ve had enough recycled mobile games.
We’ve had enough crude pixel art games.

Bring higher quality, or shut it down.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Circa1984 Avatar
11 months ago
I wish Apple would let you choose within the One subscription, I’d probably go with News over Arcade.

I like to game once in a while, but the current Arcade games I’m not very interested in - It would be a pleasant surprise if they made a dozen or so of the most popular console games for Apple Arcade - I’m not suggesting 2024 AAA titles but maybe a reboot of top rated games from a few years back, that phone/ipad and Apple TV hardware could handle & that have wide appeal to a ‘gamer audience’.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
BugHunter Avatar
11 months ago
People are so harsh on Apple Arcade, I think the games they offer there are fine, with a few gems to make it worthwhile, and a few bits of Pay to Win mobile games with the Pay to Win removed exposing how un-fun the games that rely on FOMO are.

All that said, I would imagine the primary target audience of Apple Arcade is parents who don't want to have to constantly tell their children that no, they can't buy $99 worth of magic crystal gems even if it is "BEST VALUE".

I'm sure people will reply to that with "maybe they should try parenting" - but I'd say giving your child a gaming experience that's not infested with addiction and gamble mechanics - is parenting. Yeah, have your kids do sports and other activities as well, but sometimes parents just need a break when they're at a cafe with their bored kid.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Velli Avatar
11 months ago

True. I doubt Apple Arcade was ever targeted to serious gamers. It’s a sandbox for mobile gaming with protections. I enjoyed me last free trail, just don’t see much value in paying for subscription.
So-called “Serious gamers” are in general a bunch of arrogant wankers who can’t see beyond their nosetip. Casual gamers are big business. Maybe, perhaps, if you are doing it professionally, gaming is by definition not “serious”. Stop kidding yourselves.

I probably spend a few hours per day gaming, but rarely more than 15 minutes at a time. I simply don’t have X hours set aside by myself to do a “gaming session”. But, I loathe P2W, and will happily pay significant money to avoid ads. I am very happy with Apple Arcade, and I have spent more hours using Apple Arcade games than I care to think about.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MasterControlProgram Avatar
11 months ago

Name a AAA game that “serious gamers” typically play on their phone.
It depends when we're talking about. We used to get interesting stuff like Bioshock, Ridge Racer, Soul Calibur, GTA Vice City, Deus Ex, Max Payne, etc on iOS. The trouble is, Apple kept breaking old games with iOS updates, I believe Bioshock lasted about 4 months before it stopped working and the developer didn't bother to fix it.

The trouble with mobile gaming is the race to the bottom that made F2P so prevalent, no-one is willing to pay for games anymore. Aside from the odd developer dipping their toe (like Capcom with their current RE ports) we never seem to get a consistent stream of decent games because anything more expensive than free gets ignored by the majority. I used to game on iOS all the time, but slowly but surely the choices have dwindled to nothing. The Switch and the Steam Deck have pretty much replaced my iOS devices for gaming now.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Velli Avatar
11 months ago

People are so harsh on Apple Arcade, I think the games they offer there are fine, with a few gems to make it worthwhile, and a few bits of Pay to Win mobile games with the Pay to Win removed exposing how un-fun the games that rely on FOMO are.

All that said, I would imagine the primary target audience of Apple Arcade is parents who don't want to have to constantly tell their children that no, they can't buy $99 worth of magic crystal gems even if it is "BEST VALUE".

I'm sure people will reply to that with "maybe they should try parenting" - but I'd say giving your child a gaming experience that's not infested with addiction and gamble mechanics - is parenting. Yeah, have your kids do sports and other activities as well, but sometimes parents just need a break when they're at a cafe with their bored kid.
100% agree. And yes, I pay for a family subscription to Youtube that I rarely use myself, only to avoid my kids being subjected to ads 25% of their screen time (and yes, we have exactly zero ad-supported TV channels or services available in my household).
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)