Skip to main content

Apple Vision Pro gets three more surprise launch games

Synth Riders on Apple Vision Pro.
Kluge Interactive

Ahead of the Apple Vision Pro’s launch tomorrow, three surprise launch titles have been revealed: Kluge Interactive’s Synth Riders, and new versions of Illustrated and Patterned from BorderLeap

Synth Riders is a VR rhythm game where players dance as they interact with notes flying toward them and dodge obstacles to the beat of popular songs. Kluge Interactive has redesigned Synth Riders for Apple Vision Pro, using its spatial reality features to include a mode that makes it look like the notes are flying right at you in your own room. At release, over 73 songs will be included, with Kluge sharing the whole track list on Spotify. Kluge released a gameplay video to give people a better idea of what to expect from this version of Synth Riders.

Synth Riders Gameplay | Apple Vision Pro | Apple Arcade

Illustrated and Patterned were both previously released for iOS via Apple Arcade. They are essentially digital jigsaw puzzle games. Illustrated has story elements with each picture and was made in partnership with the Van Gough Museum, while Patterned‘s puzzles are based on images full of repeating patterns. Both have been redesigned around the Apple Vision Pro’s SpatialOS so that players can fully immerse themselves in the puzzles they are solving. They will receive even more puzzles post-launch.

Recommended Videos

To play Synth Riders, Illustrated, or Patterned, you’ll need an Apple Arcade subscription. That also goes for other Apple Vision Pro launch titles, like Resolution Games’ Game Room, What the Golf?, and Super Fruit Ninja. Over 100 regular Apple Arcade games are also playable on the Apple Vision Pro, and you can easily connect a Bluetooth controller to the headset in order to play them.

Apple Vision Pro and its unique versions of Synth Riders, Illustrated, and Patterned launch on February 2.

Tomas Franzese
As a Gaming Staff Writer at Digital Trends, Tomas Franzese reports on and reviews the latest releases and exciting…
Apple Vision Pro is getting three ‘spatial games’ including Fruit Ninja
A person plays a game on the Apple Vision Pro.

The Apple Vision Pro will get three "spatial games" when it launches on February 2. Game Room, Super Fruit Ninja, and Apple Arcade standout What the Golf? will all launch on the platform, though Apple hasn't shared many details about them yet.

Previously, Apple had been underplaying the role of gaming on its new headset. We knew it would be able to access Apple Arcade games and other apps, playing them on a flat screen inside the headset, but it didn't seem like it had any new gaming component. The launch announcement revealed that Apple is, in fact, creating some games for the device that'll take advantage of the tech.

Read more
iPhone 15 Pro can natively run the latest Resident Evil and Assassin’s Creed games
Leon and Ashley in the Resident Evil 4 remake.

In a major stride forward for mobile gaming, Apple announced during today's event that console games like Assassin's Creed Mirage, Resident Evil 4's remake, and Resident Evil Village are coming to the iPhone 15 Pro. These aren't watered-down mobile spinoffs or cloud-streamed games either; they're running natively with the help of the A17 Pro chip.

During the gaming segment of Tuesday's Apple event, the power of the iPhone 15 Pro's A17 Pro chip was highlighted. The 3-nanometer chip has 19 billion transistors, a six-core CPU, a 16-core Neural Engine that can handle 35 trillion operations per second, and a six-core GPU that supports things like mesh shading and hardware-accelerated ray tracing in video games. Several game developers were featured following its introduction to explain and show off just how powerful the A17 Pro Chip is. While this segment started with games already native to mobile, like The Division Resurgence, Honkai: Star Rail, and Genshin Impact, it didn't take long for some games made for systems like PS5 and Xbox Series X to appear.
Capcom's Tsuyoshi Kanda showed up and revealed that natively running versions of Resident Evil Village and Resident Evil 4 are coming to the iPhone 15 Pro before the end of the year. Later, Apple confirmed that Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Mirage, which launches next month on PC and consoles, will also get a native iPhone 15 Pro port in early 2024, while Death Stranding is slated for a 2023 iPhone 15 Pro launch.
Historically, console-quality games like these have been impossible to get running on a mobile phone without the use of cloud gaming. Confirming that these three AAA games can all run natively on iPhone 15 Pro is certainly an impactful way for Apple to show just how powerful the A17 Pro chip is.

Read more
Apple made it clear: The Vision Pro isn’t the next big video game platform
A man wears Apple Vision Pro.

The cat's finally out of the bag: Apple is entering the AR/VR world in a big way. Revealed during the company's annual WWDC stream, the Apple Vision Pro is an impressive XR headset that can be used for anything from writing emails to watching movies. Apple calls the device the "most advanced personal electronics device ever," and that might be true -- though the jury's out on whether or not it's worth the jaw-dropping $3,500 price tag.

Heading into the long-rumored reveal, there was one use case I was most curious to see: gaming. Video games have long been a crucial selling point for VR headsets, showing off the power and potential of any given device. Just last week, we got our first glimpse at the Meta Quest 3, which was revealed hours before a dedicated Meta Gaming Showcase. Considering how much Apple has been investing in gaming over the past year, I figured we'd get a dedicated block during the Vision Pro reveal that would similarly emphasize the platform as a gaming device.

Read more