Are you looking for an exciting new game to while away the hours on your iMac or MacBook? Choosing from the thousands of options out there can be difficult. Here's Agent Clayton with his selection of the best Mac games available right now - and the best news is, they won't cost you a penny!
Whoever said Macs don't have games? We've got dozens of fantastic selections for you, and they're all entirely free! Just click the links below to browse the last year's selections month by month.
| February 2016 | January 2016 | December 2015 | November 2015 |
| October 2015 | September 2015 | August 2015 | July 2015 |
| June 2015 | May 2015 | April 2015 | March 2015 |
February 2016
Expendabros
Devolver Digital
Local co-op
A spin-off of the popular (and not free) Broforce, Expendabros is a fast-paced platformer that puts you in the boots of one of the Expendables, a team of mercenaries led by Sylvester Stallone from the movie of the same name.
Your task is simply to reach the end of each level in one piece, rescuing hostages and recruiting new mercenaries to your band of bros along the way. The difficulty ramps up quite quickly, and you'll die often!
Each time you respawn you'll take on the role of a different Expendabro, from Trent Broser and Bro Caesar to Broctor Death and Toll Broad. As you can see, there's a lot of humour inherent in Expendabros!
But what is a good joke if no one's around to hear it? Well, grab a bro and play Expendabros in co-op (bro-op?) mode for an even better experience! Perks of playing with your bros include: someone who can revive you when you're downed, an extra weapon against the insane helicopters and monstrous tanks you'll have to fight against, and someone to curse you loudly when you accidentally on purpose blow them up.
Port of Call
Underdog Games
Single player
Port of Call is a narrative-driven adventure following you, the nameless protagonist, as you wake up on a small dock and are recruited to work on a mysterious ferry. Much of the adventure is based around wandering the ferry and talking to the passengers on board, finding out your reasons for being there along the way.
There are quite a few narrative-driven games popping up recently, and the quality of such games can vary wildly. Port of Call is definitely one of the better titles in this genre, with an attractive art style and achievements to earn while you play. The story is engaging and a little bit creepy, and lasts a comfortable 40–60 minutes before you reach the end of the adventure. If you're looking for a casual yet engrossing game and aren't interested in high scores and explosions, this is a game I'd most definitely recommend.
Like any game of this type, you'll miss out on most of the experience if you skip through all the text and cutscenes. It's all too easy to race through a game to the finish and realise you have no idea what's going on at the end – so make sure to speak to everyone and read everything!
Mitos.is
Freakinware Studios
Online multiplayer
This is by far the simplest game I've recommended this month – but that doesn't mean it's the easiest. Mitos.is is the type of game that can make you either bare your teeth in a villainous grin, or grind them into enamel dust!
Any budding biologists among you will know that mitosis is a type of cell division: it's where a cell splits into two identical 'daughter' cells, sharing the same quantity and kind of chromosomes as the parent cell. This should give you some insight in to what the mechanics of this game are – although if you're hoping to learn about biology by playing it, you're in for a bit of a let down!
When each game round starts, you take control of a cell, swimming around in a two-dimensional sea. As you float around the environment you'll encounter other cells – some bigger and some smaller than you.
The aim is to absorb the smaller cells, making your mass larger – but avoid getting hit by the larger cells, lest you be the one who's absorbed! If you make yourself large enough, you can split into two cells and start absorbing at twice the rate – and in some of the other game modes, you can team up with other players to take control of a full squad of identical cells, ready to absorb enemy players en masse.
If you like multiplayer mayhem and fast-paced gameplay, give Mitos.is a try.
January 2016
Radical Rockits
Multiplayer
Prototyped for a game jam – one of our favourite sources for free games – Radical Rockits was simply too good to leave partially finished!
RageSquid have put together a physics-based jetpack sandbox that's incredibly fun to play but almost impossible to fully master: the first time you fluke your way through a score ring or hit the bullseye on your first try is truly a moment to remember!
You control your jetpack engines independently with the Z and X keys, and your orientation with the left and right arrow keys. The game supports up to four-player split-screen as well as a fiendish four-player co-op game where each player controls a single input key! If you thought single player was tough, this is insanely difficult – but four times as much fun.
Seven Weeks of Cat Monarchy
Web-based
While the feline king takes a week-long holiday – a nap in the divine sunbeam – it's up to you, as a visiting noblecat, to wear the crown in his absence! Over the following week, your loyal subjects approach the royal throne to humbly ask for your aid.
Before each week begins, you can speak to your royal advisors to determine the happiness of your kingdom and also to check on the royal vault, which stores your most precious commodity: cheese. Each of your decisions will have an impact on both of these, but which is more important to you: do you lend them your support and improve the lives of your people, or will you rule with an iron claw?
Loss of Fluid
Single-player
Built for the Ludum Dare 34 game jam, Loss of Fluid is (very loosely )based on real life events.
You’re piloting a large commercial airliner when you suddenly lose all hydraulic power. But you can still power the engines independently – and this becomes your only option to attempt to land the plane safely.
Using arrow keys on your keyboard, you control the left and right engines to help you turn the aircraft. To change elevation, you can press both buttons at the same time to power into the skies with the full force of both engines. Let go of the buttons and the plane will slow down to a complete stall.
With the help of air traffic control, you first have to locate the nearest landing strip þ and with a bit of in-flight wiggling, you’ll also need to fix the landing gear too. Points are awarded depending on your approach angle, your aircraft's pitch and your vertical speed.
December 2015
Double Kick Heroes
Blackmagic, Gyhyom and Elmobo
Created for Ludum Dare 34 in just 72 hours, Double Kick Heroes is a gorgeous pixel-art, two-button rhythm game with a rocking soundtrack!
Cruising down a highway to hell in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, your band of rockstars must keep the hordes of zombies at bay with your 'gundillac' - a dual-machine gun-wielding Cadillac powered by heavy metal music.
As the rest of the band plays, you, as the drummer, must keep time with your double-kick bass drum pedals which, coincidentally, is also how you fire your vehicle’s machine guns. To stomp each pedal, you use either the right or left arrow key of your keyboard. Keep the zombies at bay for long enough and you'll speed off into the distance, leaving the walking dead in your dust!
Zunus
Jonathan Whiting
Zunus is a simple 2D wireframe space sim where the basic premise is to navigate your ship between space stations in the hunt for some calamari for your Gran.
Starting with a small amount of pocket money, your Gran explains the controls and sets you out on your space-trading adventure. You can then buy commodities at one space station and transport them to another for profit. Compare this to Freelancer or Elite: Dangerous if you wish – but with only two buttons to play with, the scope of the game is understandably limited.
As a 'two button'-themed Ludum Dare 34 entry, your ship is controlled using the left and right arrow keys to fire your left and right thrusters, and pressing them both at the same time will move your ship forward. You’ll be fighting the inertia of space, too, as you accidentally zip past your destination and weave around floating asteroids and kamikaze space pirates! Just be careful when you dock your ship: the space stations have a tendency to spin wildly to deflect incoming hazards.
November 2015
DoomRL
Kornel Kisielewicz and Derek Yu
DoomRL takes much of its atmosphere, visual design and sound effects from the popular first-person shooter that started it all: it’s essentially a roguelike title that allows you to roleplay as the space marine from Doom as you collect loot and navigate dark rooms where your next step could be your last!
Each room is shrouded in darkness unless you have line of sight, making an enemy ambush incredibly deadly. Each step you take allows the enemy to move and attack you. This means that the game is essentially turn-based, making it a perfect game to run in the background while you’re doing other things – or busy planning your next move.
Being Doom, the game is faster paced and more combat orientated than your average roguelike title, and relies heavily on ranged rather than melee combat. You can equip all the classic Doom weapons and armour, as well as collect ammo, health globes and medkits. There’s limited inventory space to play with, so you’ll want to only carry the weapons you’re able to find ammo for.
In traditional RPG style, each kill also builds your experience and allows your character to level up, with character traits and perks available to customise your character to your liking. This is probably the best Doom spinoff you’re likely to find!
Wonderland Dizzy
The Oliver Twins
Wonderland Dizzy shouldn’t exist: it was a forgotten sequel in the Dizzy series that never saw the light of day.
It was a chance discovery when the developers uncovered a design map of the game, created during its time in development 22 years ago – but the game was never finished. After showcasing the find at a retro games expo, the brothers later found a floppy disc that contained all the source code for the NES game. With help from the gaming community, they decided to complete the game and upload it to the Internet to be played through an emulator.
If you’ve played Dizzy in the past, you’ll know each game follows Dizzy’s adventures in the land of the Yolkfolk. Primarily a tricky platformer, it’s also a puzzle game – with items scattered throughout the world that must be used in specific situations before you can progress further. The new version includes a two-player mode, an infinite lives option, catchy chiptune music and support for different languages.
Here’s the story behind the game’s discovery: a fascinating slice of gaming history!
Endless Sky
Michael Zahniser
If you've played a few space exploration games, there’s a familiar feel to how this one plays out. You can play as a trader, travelling between star systems with a cargo hold full of precious minerals, or an explorer, visiting distant worlds and meeting intelligent life, or even a play as a pirate and raid innocent convoys for all your ill-gotten gains! It has a distinct Escape Velocity flavour, if you’ve ever played that.
At the start, only a few ships are in your price range – although these range from fast fighter ships to slow space trucks. The game adds an extra layer of complexity to the experience in that to afford the ship, you need to take out a mortgage – and like real-world mortgages, regular payments must be made to ensure that you don’t lose it! To keep the money rolling in, you’re able to profit from unrestricted trade routes, carry out lucrative missions from the jobs board or, of course, play as a meany space pirate – if you’re that way inclined.
The main storyline should last anywhere between 8–16 hours, but the galaxy contains hundreds of star systems to explore with several different alien species – so you’re bound to lose a few more hours to it if you’re anything like me! Side quest procrastination is awesome.
Teeworlds
Teeworlds Team
As a fan of the legendary Worms, I was a little apprehensive about Teeworlds being a clone of the popular annelid-based platform game. After playing it for about half an hour, all my worries had been blown up with a few well-placed rocket shots!
Far from being a copy of the well-known game, Teeworlds goes above and beyond, taking the familiar concept of moving your character around a two-dimensional world and firing assorted weaponry to the next level.
The first and most striking difference between Teeworlds and other games of its ilk is that Teeworlds is not turn-based. Yes, that's right – this game lets all players move and attack at once! It's a real free-for-all (no pun intended).
Popular game types like Capture the Flagand Team Deathmatch are available as standard, with plenty of room for players to create their own game types as well as maps and customisations for their playable characters - the "Tees" of the title.
I thoroughly enjoyed playing Teeworlds, even playing with total strangers – and it's not often I find a game where teamwork, well, works. If you have friends who love the antagonistic violence of Worms and are looking to up the ante, give Teeworlds a try on your Mac today.
Echoes+
Binary Zoo
Echoes+ is colourful, chaotic and slightly overwhelming!
Echoes+ is a challenging retro twin-stick shooter in a similar style to the popular Geometry Wars series, written as a tech demo to showcase a simple homebrew game development kit called AppGameKit 2.
You control a small ship and must navigate a 2D game area while shooting and avoiding increasingly difficult waves of enemies of different shapes, sizes and behaviours.You must stay focused and pay attention to what’s happening – because the slightest mistake could mean game over almost instantly.
The more waves of enemies you manage to take down, the stronger your shields become – and the more your score multiplier will increase. There’s a global leaderboard to keep track of your progress, but you’ll need a fair bit of practice before you’ll be anywhere near competitive. Don’t even try to play if you haven’t got a gamepad, though – it’s called a 'twin-stick shooter' for a reason, so expect major hurdles if you’ve only got a keyboard!
No More Kings
Montoya Industries
OK, it's not the most exciting game to look at – but it's fiendishly compulsive
No More Kings is a clever chess-based game... hang on a second, come back! It gets better.
No More Kings is a short chess-based game where the objective is to capture every piece on the board and then finally capturing the king. Each move must result in the capture of a piece – which means that if you can’t make a legal move that captures a piece, the game is over.
Each time a piece is taken, you take control of that piece – and your next move must be carried using the new piece’s moveset. Each level should be completed as quickly as possible to achieve a full three-star rating. There’s usually only one way to complete each level, too – and there are 50 levels in total. Should you get hooked, there are other sets of levels to unlock – but there is a fee for those.
September 2015
Fistful of Frags
FoF Team
“When a man with a .45 meets a man with a rifle, you said, the man with a pistol's a dead man. Let's see if that's true. Go ahead, load up and shoot.” - The Man With No Name, Fistful of Dollars
Fistful of Frags is a free standalone Wild West mod based on the Half Life 2 Source engine which arrived on Steam over a year ago, with a huge community enjoying it to date. It’s much older than that though! The game consists of classic deathmatch and team deathmatch modes with an emphasis on historically accurate black powder weaponry. There are also objective game modes such as capture the flag and push the cart.
Speaking of weaponry, there are pistols (dual wielding available), shotguns, rifles, dynamite, brass knuckles, bows and knives available at your disposal. Weapons of the Wild West were slow, inaccurate but powerful and these facts are present in Fistful of Frags, which is a nice departure from the norm of modern shooters. Maps are suitably themed and range from classic dusty towns to mines dug out of canyon walls and even a paddle steamboat.
The Source engine means that gameplay is pretty solid with the visuals, physics and sound effects presented with relatively few bugs. If you’ve played Team Fortress or Half Life 2 Deathmatch before, you’ll know what to expect. The mod is definitely worth a try if you’re looking for something where the weaponry takes centre stage.
Brogue
Brian Walker
Brogue might use ASCII graphics – but packs a surprising amount of colour and animation
Brogue is a direct descendant of the 35-year-old genre-defining title Rogueand uses ASCII text characters to populate a randomly generated world with monsters, traps, loot and other surprises. Your quest is to descend down to the 26th floor of the Dungeons of Doom, retrieve the Amulet of Yendor, and return to the surface alive.
If you've never played a 'roguelike' title before, you may be completely lost at first – but there are helpful guides online to assist with the identification of game objects. For example, ‘#’ characters normally denote impassable walls, alphanumeric characters indicate enemies, such as ‘r’ for rat, and your playable character is an ‘@’ symbol.
You can also hover your mouse cursor over anything in visible range to see a description of what it is – this is usually your best ally when navigating into unknown areas, because a single critical mistake will end with game over and the dungeon being reset!
There are loads of weapons to wield, armour to equip, potions to drink, curious scrolls to read, allies to encounter, enemies to conquer and much more. Traps are plentiful and dangerous, with some that can flood rooms with poisonous gases or passageways with torrents of water. There are stealth mechanics in play too – so even if you don’t have the best gear, there’s still a way of getting past that high level Ogre just waiting to crush your bones into dust.
Mobs, Inc.
Ferrantelli, Loaec, Grassien and McFly
Mobs, Inc. is a game that was developed in three days for the Ludum Dare 33 development competition – where the theme of the contest was simply “You are the monster”.
Set in a dark dungeon, you are cast as an employee of Mobs, Inc. – an evil company set up to maintain the dungeon and defend it against the hordes of annoying adventuring types who arrive to vanquish your evil presence. You’ve got a job to do, a quota to achieve and an angry boss waiting for an opportunity to fire you.
You control your minion with your mouse, attacking with a left mouse click in the direction of your cursor. Each hero you kill will add to your quota and increase your level. Keep the boss happy and he’ll promote you to an even more powerful minion, with new special attacks which can be triggered with the Q, W and E keys. Meet your demise before meeting your quota and your demonic boss won’t be pleased. 4 strikes and you’re out!
August 2015
Brick-Force
Exe games
Brick-Force is a rather twee MMOFPS, or massively-multiplayer-online-first-person-shooter for the uninitiated. Similiar to titles like Blockstorm, this is a sandbox shooter meaning you can build your own maps and battlegrounds to fight on! Craft cities, woodlands, office buildings and more, with plenty of traps to place and sniper towers to build and climb.
I spent more time in the level creator than I did in the multiplayer game modes, I can't help but explore any kind of in-game content creator! And when you're happy with your level design, it's very easy to start up a quick game of team vs. team and find out how well your designs work.
Like many free-to-play games there are a few in-game purchases you can buy to give yourself a boost, but this isn't necessary if you just want to jump in to a quick game every so often. Try it out, and let us know your favourite sandbox games in our comments section below.
Sigils of Elohim
Croteam
Sigils of Elohim is a fantastic mini-game prequel to the critically acclaimed The Talos Principle, in which players must test their mental ability to complete puzzles which are a cross between Chinese tangrams and Tetris.
If you’re familiar with the way that Tetris allows you to position pieces together, you’ll understand what needs to be done here almost immediately. Here you’re given all the pieces from the start, which can be rotated and dropped in to place to fill the puzzle area. There’s only ever one solution, so you’ll know when you’ve got it right. There are also no countdown clocks or enemy combatants to face, so you can really take your time and solve each puzzle at your own pace.
The game is certainly challenging, which may put off some – but there’s enough going on in terms of beautifully rendered game pieces, a masterful soundtrack and solid gameplay. Completing the puzzles rewards the player with relics and items that transfer over to the full game if they decide to play that as well. This is a much better way of offering extra content than pre-order DLC!
July 2015
Dota 2
Valve
Image by Valve
Dota 2 is a Multiplayer Online Battle Arena game, or MOBA, that has become hugely popular and is regularly the most played game on Steam. This is due to the depth of the gameplay, the huge community of fans – and also the fact that it's completely free to play.
With over 100 different characters to choose from, players form two teams of five, which then battle against each other for control of the arena. Each character has unique abilities which can be upgraded and combined with the skills of the other players on your team. As well as battling your opposing team, there are also many different computer-controlled enemies to take on, in order to gain gold and/or experience.
It sounds simple, but Dota 2 is actually a hugely complex game, requiring hours of practice and research to make the most of. In fact, you may find that the first few hours aren’t particularly enjoyable while you learn the ropes – but if you're willing to put the effort in, you'll be rewarded with one of the most in-depth gaming experiences around. If you get good enough then you can even take part in the International tournament, where the prize money runs into millions of dollars!
Transformice
Atelier 801
One of the hardest 'simple' games I've played, Transformice puts you in the body of a mouse, competing against other mice to reach the cheese and return it to your hole. What makes this interesting is the fact that all the other mice are controlled by other players, and it's every mouse for themselves! One mouse per round takes on the role of the Shaman, a mystical power-mouse imbued with magic. This Shaman can change the landscape and craft new contraptions to help or hinder the other players, making Transformice a truly chaotic game to play.
If you like games with few rules and plenty of opportunities to backstab your fellow players, I definitely recommend this game. Even when you're losing there is still a lot of enjoyment to be had, which is fortunate as there will be a lot of losing going on!
June
Dungeons & Dragons Online
Turbine, Inc
Image by Turbine, Inc
Dungeons & Dragons– or D&D – began life as a board game in the 1970s. Its complicated rule book has become the basis for many different computer games over the years including, perhaps unsurprisingly, Dungeons & Dragons Online.
D&D Online is an MMORPG allowing you to team up with players around the world or play on your own. You start by configuring your character, selecting your class from the usual range of RPG favourites, like rogue, sorcerer, fighter and so on. There are also a few D&D-specific classes available, although some of these are 'premium' features and need to be purchased.
Once you've finished creating your character, the game takes you through a nice tutorial section that allows you to get to grips with the inventory and combat systems. It’s all standard MMORPG fare, so if you’ve ever played World of Warcraft or Guild Wars then you’ll know what to expect.
The game is a few years old now, so the graphics are a little dated, but they do the job. D&D in all its forms has always focused more on storytelling, and D&D Online has good voice acting and interesting story missions – so why not give it a download and see how you get on.
Relic Hunters Zero
Rogue Snail
From the people who brought you Knights of Pen and Paper and Dungeonland comes a new action RPG called Relic Hunters Zero, a top-down adventure where you work alone or with a partner to hunt down ducks and turtles (evil, from space), gathering relics and bounty to upgrade your character to the max. There are plenty of guns, relics and characters to unlock along your path, and plenty of fun to be had playing with a friend in co-op mode, made even better with full controller support!
There's a lot to be said for short'n'sweet games like Relic Hunters Zero, and a good multiplayer mode can save even the sketchiest of titles (We're not looking at Battlefield Hardline, honest!). I love the cartoonish art style and short play time, it's designed to be quick and easily accessible and that comes across the minute you start playing.
May
AdVenture Capitalist
Hyper Hippo Games
We’ve covered “clicker” games before on our Free PC Games list and thought now would be a good time to introduce Mac gamers to all the clicking fuss. In a nutshell, you’ll be clicking on things – a whole lot! That’s about it really, but don’t say we didn’t warn you when you discover how addictive they are.
Like all hopeful venture capitalists, progress starts small as you’re tasked with buying lemonade stands and running them by clicking to earn a small profit. When you’ve earned enough money, you’re able to upgrade your business to a newspaper delivery, car wash services, donut shops and more. The more businesses you run, the more profit you get per click.
If clicking seems like too much real work for you, you can also hire managers to run your businesses for you even when you’re offline. Hiring a manager means that clicks on your businesses are done automatically letting you focus on other businesses. Bonuses are awarding for buying enough businesses of the same type which can lead to doubled profits. Expensive upgrades can also be purchased for massive increases in revenue.
When you feel you can’t earn money fast enough anymore, the game can be reset to earn angels who invest in your brand new company as you start over again. Money climbs even faster this time and so the cycle continues. Later in the game, you can’t buy new managers with cash. Instead you’ll need to trade in the angels you’ve acquired so the incentive to restart the game continues again.
IT’S NEVER ENDING! TURN BACK NOW!
Team Fortress 2
Valve
I still can’t believe this game is free to play considering how much content is on offer. It’s a multi-award-winning, team-based online multiplayer shooter and is actually a sequel to the popular Team Fortress mod for the first Half-Life title. Each game revolves around two teams and features up to nine different classes in a range of environments.
Each team, consisting of Reliable Excavation & Demolition (RED) and Builders League United (BLU), must battle it out to accomplish a specific objective. Game modes include capture the flag (where players must steal a briefcase of industrial secrets), control point and payload (where the objective is to deliver a bomb to the enemy base) and many more. There’s even a horde co-op mode named Mann vs. Machine, where players must survive wave upon wave of robots. There are 50 maps, including 9 arena-type maps, 8 ‘King of the Hill’ maps and many others that have all been released for free. The game even allows up to 32 players battling it out at the same time!
The player classes are where the real character comes from in this game. Each class has its own back story and voice actor. As a promo for the game, Valve even created short animations to introduce each character to enormous fanfare using the Source Film Maker (budding animators should check this out immediately!). Also, there are hats. Lots and lots of hats. You can trade them if you like, so there’s that as well, I suppose.
April 2015
Beneath a Steel Sky
Revolution Software
Created in 1994, Beneath a Steel Sky is a point-and-click adventure game set in a dystopian future. Developed by the same people who created the legendary Broken Sword series, you assume the role of Robert Foster, a man raised by indigenous people in the wasteland known as ‘The Gap’. After many years, the locals are attacked by armed security officers and Robert is taken back to Union City. Robert soon escapes and begins to uncover the corruption within the city.
Much of the charm comes from the interaction between Robert and his sentient robotic creation named Joey. Joey’s personality is stored on a circuit board that can be moved to different robots as required and a running gag has Joey commenting on the new ‘Shell’ he has been fitted into: the first being a Vacuum cleaner which, understandably, Joey isn’t very happy about.
Hailing from the golden age of pre-rendered adventure games, the story, characters and puzzles are universally glorified for their depth and maturity. Years before the internet became popular, puzzles had to be thought out logically and the exhilaration of solving them made it all worthwhile.
Revolution Software has recently announced that it’s looking into the possibility of developing a sequel due to popular demand, nearly 20 years after the original was released. It’s a game loved by adventure game fans and stands the test of time very well indeed. Handily, the Mac version is available for free through the excellent GOG.com service, meaning it’s fully optimised for new machines.
Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Blizzard Entertainment
Hearthstone is easily one of the best collectible card games around. It’s deceptively simple but can take weeks to fully understand the strategies available. Based on the Warcraft universe, you take turns to play a hand of themed cards against your opponents using offensive and defensive moves. You build your deck before each match, meaning that the number of strategies at play is practically infinite.
The goal of each match is to attack your opponent’s hero tile using offensive attacks. You have to try to use your cards to attack the opposing hero but will sometimes need to defeat the enemy minion cards to reach it. Each card has an attack number and a health number indicating how powerful they are. When two cards are pitted against each other, both cards deduct their attack number from their opponent’s health number. However, not all cards can be played right away due to each card having a cost measured in ‘mana crystals’. Some powerful cards are more expensive, so again this all links in to the overriding strategies that can be deployed.
It’s an immensely fun free-to-play title that will keep you coming back to it again and again. A free Battle.net account is required to download and play the game, but this can be set up in minutes. So what are you waiting for?!
March 2015
N - The Way of the Ninja
Metanet Software
For the uninitiated, N is an award-winning 2D platformer where the player controls a nimble Ninja to navigate through a hazardous environment to an escape door. Powered by an impressive physics simulation, this game is easy to pick up but very difficult to master. Players must run, jump, dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge to finish each level without meeting an explosive demise.
The player must collect gold pieces to extend the score timer before reaching the goal safely. The levels are filled with enemies including static explosive mines, machine gun turrets, homing missiles and lasers. Some levels can be pretty overwhelming at first but sheer determination will mean that victory is achieved. This is made easier due to each failed attempt being met by the game immediately restarting the level instead of showing a game over screen.
N has been available as a free download since 2008 but has only recently received its v2.0 release with 500 new and classic built in levels. It’s highly addictive but sometimes very frustrating and survives with the “just one more go” approach. The new version also has two player co-op and a new level editor meaning that new levels are constantly being created and shared with the N community.
Touchgrind
Illusion Labs
Originally released on iOS for iPhone users, the smash-hit Touchgrind has finally been ported to the Mac. It’s a skateboard simulator that uses multi-touch technology to simulate the rider’s feet on the board. For this, you’ll need a late 2009 Macbook, a Macbook Pro 2008 or newer, or a Magic Trackpad.
You compete for points while attempting to pull off ollies, shoveits, kickflips and boardslides by manipulating the board with your fingers. You can enter competitions within the game to unlock new boards, so there’s a sense of achievement for nailing a particularly difficult trick. To keep things challenging, the game uses a realistic physics system to allow you to pick up the game within minutes – but it’ll take a while longer to master!
GeoGuessr
Anton Wallén and the GeoGuessr team
We’ve featured this before in our Top Free PC Games article but as it’s recently been updated with new game modes, it’s well worth letting the Mac community in on this absolute gem. If you’ve ever wanted to travel the world but have either procrastinated about it or simply lacked the funds, take a look at GeoGuessr. Using Google maps, you’re transported to the corners of the Earth in a location-based “Where the heck am I?” type of game.
You’re able to use Google street view images to wander around the location you’ve been transported to in order to find clues about where you are. Road signs, landmarks, wildlife, vehicles and architecture are all useful in determining your current location. You then drop a pin on a global map to designate where you think you are and you’re scored based on how close to the start location the guess is.
Additional modes present in the new version include maps of London, New York City, Japan and famous landmarks, amongst others. Time limits can be set up to increase the difficulty and friends can be challenged when a game has been completed to see if they can beat your score.