Starting Dec 2020 holidays, I finally started my Apple Arcade free trial I got from an Apple TV 4K purchase. Had some more free time during the holidays so made sense to give a try. I hadn't gamed regularly in probably 10-15 years (my last consoles were XBox360 and PS3!). My life these days isn't really conducive for regular gaming, so the idea that I can do it easily on my iPad makes it work for my current season of life.
Anyways, after trying a few games on my 11" iPad Pro (2018), by basically just looking at the most popular ones, reading a few articles, and reading game descriptions, I've basically settled into Sonic Racing and Mini Motorway as the ones I enjoy and play. For the last few weeks, I'll play for maybe 30-45mins at night when the kiddos are asleep. They're both great, "shorter" games, especially Sonic where each race is in-and-out in 3-4mins, so you can play for short bursts of time or longer by doing more races. With Mini Motorway, I basically just play the Daily Challenge once per day and that's it.
On Sonic, I'm still improving, but I'm at Racer level 5 (3,450ish points ranking), and my 5 Wisps at fairly high (but still more to go) upgraded levels. I don't know what the spectrum is of racers online (as there's no concept of a leaderboard or anything, like there is on Mini Motorway), but I think I'm probably fairly decent when I compare vs who I get paired up against. Most of the time, it's much newer / lower-point ranked opponents, when the races tend not to be as fun (but hey I was at that point just a month or 2 ago!). But who knows, I could be very wrong and they just don't pair you up with anyone who's much better than you?
I looked around and there wasn't much on the forum (or the internet) about game details / strategies, though it's one of the more popular games on Apple Arcade, so I assume there's a fair number of ppl who play it. Curious if any other MR forum members play this regularly too.
Going to add a bunch of detail in post below which may be TLDR for most people, but figured may resonate with someone out there! Welcome any one else's thoughts / playing habits here. I just entered my first paid month of Apple Arcade, and for now, I'm getting enough value out of it that it's worth it for $5/month. I imagine eventually, without getting into additional games, I'll tired of it but for now, enjoying it and seemingly the free trial has worked on me for now! ?
************************************************
I basically only play online races, trying to win and use the winnings to upgrade Wisps. I race maybe 10-15mins per night, maybe 3-5 races in a row.
Wisps:
The 5 wisps I've settled on are below with a bit of commentary on why I like them.
![IMG_0241.PNG]( "IMG_0241.PNG")
- Magenta Rhythm (Common Rarity 1 / 2): This puts up the purple music notes on the opponent's screen. I think this is a pretty good attack, especially when used when opponent going through a tough part of the course (where easy to crash), or they might be going through my Grey Quake pillars. I know when I get hit with these from my opponent, the 2 above situations apply against me! Hah. This wisp is one I also find a lot of the higher-ranked players I race against have and use against me. And I hate them! So I'm guessing it would be similar against others.
- Cyan Laser (Common Rarity 2 / 2): In a close race, I think this can be useful to hit your opponent who's just a bit ahead of you and you're actively "racing" to win against. It can be hard to stay on it long enough that it does the zap and the opponent gets hit / dizzied, but it can come in handy in close races. And it's a super cheap upgrade (150 each). Mostly though, I have this because I need to have another "Common rarity" wisp, and this is better than the other 3 to me
- Grey Quake (Rare 1 / 1): I like this a lot. It fires ahead of you a decent amount (so it's good when opponent's a bit ahead of you) and brings up the pillars that can be tough to avoid for the opponent. Again, that's the case when used against me! And I find frequently I see the notification that my opponent got hit by these successfully. Especially in tougher racetracks, these can really be tough to avoid sometimes in the thick of a race. They don't hurt you or your teammates (they become transparent).
- Ivory Lightnig (Super Rare 1 / 2): I think this is the best "attack" wisp. They're very likely to hit / dizzy your opponent, which is about as good as it gets. I know when used against me, it's really hard to avoid getting hit. I can maybe avoid 20-40% of them depending on how hard the course is, whether I'm winning and out ahead or not, and if I happen to be in a part of the course with a lot of the purple arrow speed boosts in succession (as lightning can't hit you when you're on those - ditto when you're using a White Speed boost). You can see in the pic I'm only at Level 10 on this one, so this is one I have a lot to upgrade still.
- White Boost (Super Rare 2 / 2): This is my only non-attack wisp, and it's great. The speed boost is really helpful in "winning the actual race". Getting out ahead is super helpful in winning, as you can then focus on just racing and avoiding obstacles / walls. I've found the sooner you can do that and avoid having to "fight" your opponent back and forth, the better.
Racer / Teammates:
- So admittedly, this is an area I haven't really explored (whereas wisps I've tried most of them). For me as a racer, I'm just Sonic. It's what I got used to when I started playing the game, and so know how to control him well and think he has a decent enough combo of speed / handling / power. Is there a more optimal character out there? Don't know - if anyone else uses someone else as a racer and has noticed certain benefits, would love to hear it
- Teammates: I currently use Omega and Shadow as my teammates. Not a whole lot of rhyme or reason to this other than, I thought it was helpful to have a teammate who can give 1) a skim boost, and 2) Capsule gift.
![IMG_0248.PNG]( "IMG_0248.PNG")
![IMG_0249.PNG]( "IMG_0249.PNG")
(1) Skim boosts on a teammate basically boosts your speed back up to full speed instantly when you've been hit, and the teammate touches you. I don't always get to enjoy this benefit, but there've been a few situations Shadow and I have been #2 and #3 trying to chase down my opponent who's winning. And a bunch of times in a row when they use a Wisp that hits me / slows me down (like Ivory Lightning), Shadow instantly touches me and I jump right back to full speed and still in the hunt together to try to chase down. When you're racing someone at a similar (or better) point-ranking than you and it's usually a super close race, these things have made a big difference a few times for me and kept me in the race.
(2) Capsule gifts are basically when teammate gets a (?) capsule, and you don't have a Wisp, they give you their capsule. Given such a big part of the race is just getting wisps and using them, trying to attack your opponent (or getting a White Speed Boost to get out front / build a lead), having a constant supply of wisps is very helpful. This capsule gift teammate + getting most of the (?) capsules during the race, I rarely have a point in time of the race where I don't have or are cycling through a wisp.
Given these 2 benefits in my view were very helpful, I basically just found teammate racers, 1 of each who have the above. And Shadow and Omega seemed the best of the ones who have these 2 when I looked through the teammates long time ago. Again though, I haven't really looked into this that much, as I don't play enough to make it worth experimenting with all of the different racers. I made the choice once a long time ago when they all unlocked, and just don't really think about it ever. So if anyone else has had good use out of any of the others teammates, definitely all-ears!
Anyways, I continue to enjoy Sonic Racing quite a bit, though I find that like 70-80% of my races are against newer racers which tends to be less fun (I win handily, with many of the races ending before I finish because the opponent ends up too far behind). I'm guessing it's because while one of the more popular Apple Arcade games, there's still relatively few people playing this at any time, that there aren't enough people at the more experienced skill levels where you always get paired up against someone evenly matched. Still a great game where I can play for as little or as long as I want!
Anyways, after trying a few games on my 11" iPad Pro (2018), by basically just looking at the most popular ones, reading a few articles, and reading game descriptions, I've basically settled into Sonic Racing and Mini Motorway as the ones I enjoy and play. For the last few weeks, I'll play for maybe 30-45mins at night when the kiddos are asleep. They're both great, "shorter" games, especially Sonic where each race is in-and-out in 3-4mins, so you can play for short bursts of time or longer by doing more races. With Mini Motorway, I basically just play the Daily Challenge once per day and that's it.
On Sonic, I'm still improving, but I'm at Racer level 5 (3,450ish points ranking), and my 5 Wisps at fairly high (but still more to go) upgraded levels. I don't know what the spectrum is of racers online (as there's no concept of a leaderboard or anything, like there is on Mini Motorway), but I think I'm probably fairly decent when I compare vs who I get paired up against. Most of the time, it's much newer / lower-point ranked opponents, when the races tend not to be as fun (but hey I was at that point just a month or 2 ago!). But who knows, I could be very wrong and they just don't pair you up with anyone who's much better than you?
I looked around and there wasn't much on the forum (or the internet) about game details / strategies, though it's one of the more popular games on Apple Arcade, so I assume there's a fair number of ppl who play it. Curious if any other MR forum members play this regularly too.
Going to add a bunch of detail in post below which may be TLDR for most people, but figured may resonate with someone out there! Welcome any one else's thoughts / playing habits here. I just entered my first paid month of Apple Arcade, and for now, I'm getting enough value out of it that it's worth it for $5/month. I imagine eventually, without getting into additional games, I'll tired of it but for now, enjoying it and seemingly the free trial has worked on me for now! ?
************************************************
I basically only play online races, trying to win and use the winnings to upgrade Wisps. I race maybe 10-15mins per night, maybe 3-5 races in a row.
Wisps:
The 5 wisps I've settled on are below with a bit of commentary on why I like them.
- Magenta Rhythm (Common Rarity 1 / 2): This puts up the purple music notes on the opponent's screen. I think this is a pretty good attack, especially when used when opponent going through a tough part of the course (where easy to crash), or they might be going through my Grey Quake pillars. I know when I get hit with these from my opponent, the 2 above situations apply against me! Hah. This wisp is one I also find a lot of the higher-ranked players I race against have and use against me. And I hate them! So I'm guessing it would be similar against others.
- Cyan Laser (Common Rarity 2 / 2): In a close race, I think this can be useful to hit your opponent who's just a bit ahead of you and you're actively "racing" to win against. It can be hard to stay on it long enough that it does the zap and the opponent gets hit / dizzied, but it can come in handy in close races. And it's a super cheap upgrade (150 each). Mostly though, I have this because I need to have another "Common rarity" wisp, and this is better than the other 3 to me
- Grey Quake (Rare 1 / 1): I like this a lot. It fires ahead of you a decent amount (so it's good when opponent's a bit ahead of you) and brings up the pillars that can be tough to avoid for the opponent. Again, that's the case when used against me! And I find frequently I see the notification that my opponent got hit by these successfully. Especially in tougher racetracks, these can really be tough to avoid sometimes in the thick of a race. They don't hurt you or your teammates (they become transparent).
- Ivory Lightnig (Super Rare 1 / 2): I think this is the best "attack" wisp. They're very likely to hit / dizzy your opponent, which is about as good as it gets. I know when used against me, it's really hard to avoid getting hit. I can maybe avoid 20-40% of them depending on how hard the course is, whether I'm winning and out ahead or not, and if I happen to be in a part of the course with a lot of the purple arrow speed boosts in succession (as lightning can't hit you when you're on those - ditto when you're using a White Speed boost). You can see in the pic I'm only at Level 10 on this one, so this is one I have a lot to upgrade still.
- White Boost (Super Rare 2 / 2): This is my only non-attack wisp, and it's great. The speed boost is really helpful in "winning the actual race". Getting out ahead is super helpful in winning, as you can then focus on just racing and avoiding obstacles / walls. I've found the sooner you can do that and avoid having to "fight" your opponent back and forth, the better.
Racer / Teammates:
- So admittedly, this is an area I haven't really explored (whereas wisps I've tried most of them). For me as a racer, I'm just Sonic. It's what I got used to when I started playing the game, and so know how to control him well and think he has a decent enough combo of speed / handling / power. Is there a more optimal character out there? Don't know - if anyone else uses someone else as a racer and has noticed certain benefits, would love to hear it
- Teammates: I currently use Omega and Shadow as my teammates. Not a whole lot of rhyme or reason to this other than, I thought it was helpful to have a teammate who can give 1) a skim boost, and 2) Capsule gift.
(1) Skim boosts on a teammate basically boosts your speed back up to full speed instantly when you've been hit, and the teammate touches you. I don't always get to enjoy this benefit, but there've been a few situations Shadow and I have been #2 and #3 trying to chase down my opponent who's winning. And a bunch of times in a row when they use a Wisp that hits me / slows me down (like Ivory Lightning), Shadow instantly touches me and I jump right back to full speed and still in the hunt together to try to chase down. When you're racing someone at a similar (or better) point-ranking than you and it's usually a super close race, these things have made a big difference a few times for me and kept me in the race.
(2) Capsule gifts are basically when teammate gets a (?) capsule, and you don't have a Wisp, they give you their capsule. Given such a big part of the race is just getting wisps and using them, trying to attack your opponent (or getting a White Speed Boost to get out front / build a lead), having a constant supply of wisps is very helpful. This capsule gift teammate + getting most of the (?) capsules during the race, I rarely have a point in time of the race where I don't have or are cycling through a wisp.
Given these 2 benefits in my view were very helpful, I basically just found teammate racers, 1 of each who have the above. And Shadow and Omega seemed the best of the ones who have these 2 when I looked through the teammates long time ago. Again though, I haven't really looked into this that much, as I don't play enough to make it worth experimenting with all of the different racers. I made the choice once a long time ago when they all unlocked, and just don't really think about it ever. So if anyone else has had good use out of any of the others teammates, definitely all-ears!
Anyways, I continue to enjoy Sonic Racing quite a bit, though I find that like 70-80% of my races are against newer racers which tends to be less fun (I win handily, with many of the races ending before I finish because the opponent ends up too far behind). I'm guessing it's because while one of the more popular Apple Arcade games, there's still relatively few people playing this at any time, that there aren't enough people at the more experienced skill levels where you always get paired up against someone evenly matched. Still a great game where I can play for as little or as long as I want!