Apple Arcade remains one of the best deals in gaming — even after getting a price bump. Since launch, the service has steadily grown with a mix of original mobile releases and App Store classics, none of which are burdened with the ads or in-app purchases that so often plague smartphone games. 2023 was a particularly strong year for new additions, with everything from daily word games for the Wordle-obsessed to cozy adventures to relax with. If you just picked up a new Apple device, or are using the subscription service for the very first time, here are some great places to start.

Zach Gage and Jack Schlesinger have partnered on a number of great mobile puzzle games — including Good Sudoku and SpellTower, both of which are also available on Apple Arcade — but Knotwords might be my favorite. It combines the structure of a classic crossword puzzle with the guessing inherent in Wordle. You’re presented with a grid that looks like a crossword, but instead of clues, you’re given letters that can only be placed in certain squares. From there, you have to work out the words that fill up the puzzle. Knotwords has a huge number of puzzles, including daily ones that are a perfect companion to your morning coffee.

There was really nothing like Downwell when it first debuted in 2015, and all these years later not much has changed as the game hits Apple Arcade. It’s sort of a platformer, but one that asks you to move down instead of forward. You play as an unlucky pixel art character who is perpetually falling down a well full of platforms and enemies, aided by a pair of boots with guns on them, so that you can both kill bad guys and slow your descent when necessary. Downwell is dark, weird, and very tough — and also very hard to put down once you get into it.

Japanese Rural Life Adventure

This is probably the best way to unplug without, you know, actually putting down your phone. Japanese Rural Life Adventure may have an extremely literal name, but that also means you know exactly what you’re in for. It’s a laid-back experience in the mold of Harvest Moon, but one streamlined to play on a smartphone. You play as a newcomer to a small Japanese village: first, you need to rebuild your derelict home before eventually moving on to helping rebuild the entire town. There’s fishing and farming and festivals, and you can even take a bath.