The smash success of Rocket League has more than proven that there’s a large appetite for a wackier breed of sports video game. But as fun as cars playing soccer can be, the history of the arcade sports genre in general is a little less fantastical. People still want real teams and players. They just also want less-demanding simulations and basketballs catching on fire sometimes. It’s why we’ll accept something like NBA Playgrounds, which in retrospect is only an okay game.
For the past few months Apple Arcade has been proving that mobile games can be more than just okay. The subscription service just crossed the 100 games threshold, and a shockingly high percentage of those titles are totally worth playing. And the newest Apple Arcade worth playing is Ultimate Rivals, the Super Smash Bros. of arcade sports games.
Ultimate Rivals will ultimately be a series of arcade sports games all centered around a novel, wacky, crossover conceit. You can pick whatever athlete you want, regardless of what sport you are playing. So even though this first release Ultimate Rivals: The Rink is a stylized hockey game, with a roster largely made up of hockey players (including Wayne Gretzky), during my demo my squad included a couple of NBA stars and soccer champion Megan Rapinoe.
How does this work you ask? Well remember this is an arcade sports game, so realism isn’t necessarily the focus. But the team at Bit Fry Game Studios has tried to translate various stats like speed and strength across sports in ways that make sense. I also asked about athletes with real experience across different sports. Will Michael Jordan be a god in basketball but trash at baseball? No comment. With an ever-expanding roster of athletes, you can easily see how grossly this could’ve been monetized. Fortunately, as an Apple Arcade game the only thing you need to do to unlock players is keep playing.
And you’ll want to keep playing because Ultimate Rivals: The Rink is a totally solid little arcade hockey game. Controls are fluid (at least with a real controller). Knowing when to check or steal adds some strategic depth. Goalies are a bit like a health bar and get whittled down with each shot. However, charging up a strong shot leaves you especially vulnerable. And beyond the novelty of seeing all these different athletes on the neon computer simulation field, each player has a fighting game-style ultimate attack based on their native sport. Soccer players summon a ring of protective soccer balls around them. NBA players create a three-point line that grants extra points. Football players just charge into fools.
Ultimate Rivals: The Rink is available now. The basketball-focused Ultimate Rivals: The Court is next on tap. And based on the sports leagues (MLB, NHL, NBA, NFL, WNBA, USWNST) included, you can probably guess the roadmap. For more on Apple Arcade here are a bunch of other Apple Arcade games worth checking out.
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