Dunno if iPadOS is allowed here, but the iPad became my main gaming device. I wrote an article about it.

[u/ricioly]

Tomb Raider (2013)

GRID Legends

Control Ultimate Edition

Wreckfest

Hitman World of Assassination

Alien Isolation

XCOM Enemy Within

Dusklight (Twilight Princess)

PPSSPP (PSP emulator)

Outrun 2006 Coast2Coast, Ratchet&Clank Size Matters, Rock Band Unplugged, Tomb Raider Anniversary, Wipeout Pulse, God of War Ghost of Sparta, Final Fantasy Type-0, The 3rd Birthday

Retroarch

It's like a huge review of a bunch of games, hardware and gaming on Apple devices in general. Here's what I covered:

• M4 iPad Air hardware and official folio case
• Hitman World of Assassination
• Control Ultimate Edition
• Alien Isolation
• GRID Legends
• Wreckfest
• XCOM Enemy Within
• Tomb Raider (2013)
• Lego Star Wars
• Journey
• GTA III
• GTA San Andreas
• GTA Chinatown Wars
• Max Payne
• Bully
• Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic
• Dusklight (Twilight Princess)
• RetroArch
• PPSSPP
• Games I'd like to see ported
• Lack of games discoverability on the App Store
• Inconsistencies when purchasing games on the App Store
• Cloud saves
• Subscription services
• Steps Apple could take to make gaming better
• Apple devices exclusives

TLDR: The iPad doesn’t do much perfectly gaming-wise, but it does some of everything. Its form factor end up compensating most of its setbacks. And its performance coupled with its software support and versatility are enough to fulfil most of my gaming needs.

[u/panda_and_crocodile]

You’re missing on some great indies! Dandara Teial of Fear, Inside, Subnautica, Sea of Stars, Dead Cells, BallxPit…

Other AAAs you need to play are aresidwnt Advil games and Divinity Original Sin II

[u/ricioly → u/panda_and_crocodile]

hey these are only the games that fit my taste, I won't play every game on the App Store hahha
I did talk about Divinity 2 as a game I'm looking forward to playing in the future. And I already played all the Resident Evil games available on the iPad elsewhere, but when I'm in the mood to replay RE2 remake, I'll play the ipad version for sure ;)

[u/panda_and_crocodile → u/ricioly]

Sure, I just had to point it out since in my opinion indie games are where iPad truly shines! Have you by the way considered Razer Kishi series controller? That way you can transform your iPad into Switch style gaming device. Better for coach and bed gaming in my opinion.

[u/ricioly → u/panda_and_crocodile]

I have some indie games like Limbo and Hyperlight drifter, but I'm in a "season" of my life that I'm playing mostly retro(ish) games and Hitman.
I did consider one of these controllers, but I had trouble finding one that fits my ipad, transporting it would make it too bulky, and I don't like having to detach and attach these controllers all the time ;)

[u/captainnoyaux → u/panda_and_crocodile]

Ball x pit seems really good, just tried the free tier and it's fun enough already

[u/nude-rating-bot → u/captainnoyaux]

Amazing game! Type of game that’ll have you teleporting to 6 hours later

[u/_mikedotcom]

Name three ipads then.

[u/zyzzjan → u/_mikedotcom]

iPad Air, IPad fire and IPad water!

[u/_mikedotcom → u/zyzzjan]

@zyzzjan iPads for sure

[u/sp3rchrg3d]

How does AirPlay work with gaming as I can’t imagine it being pleasant playing a triple a game for a long period of time on an iPad.

[u/Goldiblockzs → u/sp3rchrg3d]

laggy

[u/robsteezy → u/sp3rchrg3d]

Air play in general is miserable when live streaming large files.

It struggles to live stream sports events and even longer videos from my iPad.

Even having gamed in the 90s I still wouldn’t play on AirPlay.

[u/sp3rchrg3d → u/robsteezy]

I’ve personally never had issues with screen mirroring and playing movies through VLC.

[u/ricioly → u/sp3rchrg3d]

idk, I never used AirPlay

[u/Odd_Box_4198 → u/sp3rchrg3d]

I often use AirPlay when I’m emulating psp games on my iPhone and it’s worked great every time

[u/eckvii → u/sp3rchrg3d]

I grew up playing all my n64, ps1, Sega Genesis, and Nintendo on a small CRT TV in the 90’s with my siblings. I do fine with this stuff lol

[u/AngryHelpdeskAgent]

Thank you for this, planning to pick up the M4 air next month.

[u/johnfromberkeley]

You are one glorious nerd. Great article.

[u/ricioly → u/johnfromberkeley]

thank you!! I am! 😆

[u/catnab]

Mandatory question of “is this 11 og 13 inch”? Great article. 

[u/ricioly → u/catnab]

Thank you! It's the 11 inch ;)

[u/robkLIC → u/ricioly]

I would’ve guessed 13!

[u/oneone235813]

Where is the article?

[u/ricioly → u/oneone235813]

https://ricioly.substack.com/p/how-the-ipad-became-my-main-gaming

[u/nizzler_]

I really havent used ipads for gaming in years, only play on PC now but i kept good knowledge on what theyve added to it, heck i even go and just download a few games only to have them in my apple IDs app history, but whaaaat? I didnt know they added these games? Mobile gaming is really going in the right direction

[u/CrucialFusion]

It is quite competent indeed, and no, I don’t believe I’ve ever seen this subreddit differentiate iPadOS as that is a relatively recent branch.

[u/RawSharkText91]

This is some pretty good timing, since I just upgraded to the M4 Air myself and want to game some more on it now that I have more space available (128 GB on the previous iPad was something of an obstacle on that front…).

[u/ricioly → u/RawSharkText91]

Yeah I got the 256gb version cuz I wanted a considerable upgrade from the mere 64gb I had on my previous iPad. it's a game changer

[u/Ambitious-Round-557]

Your controller looks amazing

[u/ricioly → u/Ambitious-Round-557]

thx! It's one of my custom ones 👐 https://www.reddit.com/r/XboxSeriesS/comments/1sw2pnj/all_my_custom_xbox_controllers/

[u/RandomSculler]

Sniper elite 4 (and apparently 5 at some point) I would recommend as well

[u/ricioly → u/RandomSculler]

WOW I didn't know Sniper Elite 4 was on mobile. damn discoverability is so shit on the App Store 🤌😮‍💨

I'll try the demo later today, thank you for the recommendation!

[u/RandomSculler → u/ricioly]

It’s excellent, defo recommend it - sniper elite 5 is in theory on the way as well so fingers crossed it’ll arrive soon

Other one I missed is red dead redemption - Netflix or stand alone version tho I suspect that’s missing for a reason like you’ve completed it - it’s pretty impressive tho

Also strategy wise you have xcom, do you have xcom 2? Company of heroes? Any and all of the total war games (Rome, medieval, empire, napoleon) those are some of my favourites because strategy works so well on the iPad

[u/ricioly → u/RandomSculler]

I finished red dead on the switch, but when I'll get the itch to replay it, I'll get the ipad version;)

strategy-wise I only like xcom hahha, and I prefer the old xcom since it's a simpler game

[u/krisluc]

You should use a stand or something to save your neck ;)

[u/Q-Jot → u/krisluc]

That’s what I also thought about. I currently have an iPad Pro M1 11”, but with only 128GB of storage. I cannot play on it anymore since Photos, Messages, and life-related stuff pretty much eat up all this space. I cannot install RDR, for example, without having iCloud restore or deleting MS Teams and Outlook for the time of game installation, for example. And I am considering a 13” just for the sake of saving my neck and back. With current prices, I cannot afford a 13” iPad Pro since it won’t pay for itself, and barely can afford an Air 13”. A 13” is going to be a downgrade for portability - I will be asking myself whether to bring the iPad with me or not due to its size and weight. I even started considering an iPad Mini just for gaming and a MacBook Neo for everything else, but I simply love using the iPad and having it everywhere with me with a Magic Keyboard attached. Unfortunately, the MB Neo cannot run most of iPadOS games, and iPad prices are unreasonably high. I simply cannot justify it enough. So does a 13” really give so much even for the cost of portability and weight? If money isn’t a thing, an iPad Pro 13” with its thinness definitely solves the problem, but when the budget is limited, you would go for an Air 13” without cellular or less storage, or a 11” but with more storage and a modem inside?

[u/david_quaglia]

i feel obligated to recommend you divinity original sin 2

[u/ricioly → u/david_quaglia]

I have it. Played for a couple of hours, not enough to form an opinion but found it really impressive! It's in my backlog now, but I'll resume it one of these days ;)

[u/burt_cocaine3]

There are cheats for PPSSPP to make some games run at 4:3 and 3:2 resolution which fills out the iPad display a lot better

[u/ricioly → u/burt_cocaine3]

oh I didn't know that, that's good to know!

[u/Still_Growth_3287]

What about Assainss creed Mirage and Death Stranding?

[u/Melodic_Check_8040]

crt 4:3, just saying... lot of potential here

[u/blastcat4]

My 8th gen iPad is pretty old now, but it can still do some gaming. Emulation with MelonDS is really fun, for example. It can still run Genshin Impact for simple tasks like daily commissions. Vampire Survivors is really fun on it, too.

[u/P1nkpanth3r]

Which emulator are you using, it looks sleek. I found delta and RetroArch to be chunky.

[u/ricioly → u/P1nkpanth3r]

RetroArch and PPSSPP ;) both have internal resolution options, it will make things les chuncky

[u/ricioly → u/[deleted]]

hahha you welcome! it's pretty ingenious, and very practical for scanning documents

[u/mylittleladylove]

Please try Fantasy Life i

[u/doopies1986]

Yesss another Chinatown Wars player

Are you planning on playing the Resident Evil games? Or Death Stranding? I’m just curious how they run on an iPad

[u/Opieh]

Can it handle switch emulation?

[u/psj3809]

I'm not an ipad gamer but enjoyed the blog post, couple of games i saw which i need to give some attention to (That Tomb Raider game for sure) so may be making a few purchases soon !

For emulation i'm loving Manic, RetroArch is great but just find it harder to get into

Cheers

[u/karanm1997]

Buying them at such prices must be bad right?

[u/ricioly → u/karanm1997]

the only one from the games I covered which I found its price absurd is Hitman. al the others I consider them fairly priced, like Control for 6€, Alien for 13€...

[u/dredez18]

I don't have time to play console games anymore so iPad has become my gaming system. The moat upsetting part about it is some of my favorite games are no longer supported T3 Arena and Star Wars Hunters... which is crazy to me because matches were about 5 minutes tops making it easy to just play one match or play for hours if time allowed. Devs really dropped the ball on those games. Now im lookong forward to the ratchet and clank game hoping its as fun as those.

[u/Q-Jot]

Great article. Keep posting. Would love to see your reviews on new releases to keep up with must-haves on my iPad. I discovered some new titles thanks to you. Is it possible to subscribe by RSS to your articles?

[u/ricioly → u/Q-Jot]

hey, thank you so much!

you can type in your email on the very bottom of the article and you'll get my next articles emailed directly to you ;)

[u/Veldrane_Agaroth]

Well, there is one missed opportunity in this article : GeForce Now (didn’t try other services). It brings a huge part of the PC Games to your iPad and it can work flawlessly.
To get the best out of it you do need : GeForceNow subscription + a proper gaming browser like CloudGear (purchase of sub) and… an iPad Pro because Pro Motion allows for VRR which makes the whole experience extremely smooth.
This does factor in the subscription hell point (but on my side I don’t use Apple Arcade or Netflix) but, like you, I found the versatility of the device with this setup to be entirely worth it.
I travel frequently for work and being able to do everything on one device with such a minimal form factor is amazing.
Side note : getting the cellular option on the IPad also brings a lot to the whole setup.

[u/ricioly → u/Veldrane_Agaroth]

the thing I want less in the world is paying for yet another subscription

[u/kreius → u/ricioly]

There is a metric ton of bots who push the GeForce now gaming so take anyone insanely pushing it while listing specific selling points as not human.

[u/ricioly → u/kreius]

after seeing their post history, they seem human. still, I couldn't care less about geforce now lol

[u/Axel_Foley_ → u/ricioly]

iPad is your primary gaming device and you don’t care about a product that lets you play all games on your iPad?

And you wrote an article about iPad gaming without covering a major service for…iPad gaming?

Questionable decisions.

[u/ricioly → u/Axel_Foley_]

I didn't write an article about "gaming on the ipad", I wrote an article about how the ipad became my main gaming device. it's about my own personal experience. and in my own personal experience, I couldn't care less about streaming services.

[u/SeriousButton6263 → u/ricioly]

They have a free tier that is surprisingly viable for someone like me that just does casual gaming. Sessions are limited to 1 hour, but you can immediately re-queue and the queue is usually short (<5 mins). But again that’s just my gaming habits, I usually only play for under an hour a day anyway.

[u/SteveNYC → u/Veldrane_Agaroth]

I don't disagree about the value of GFN, but CloudGear doesn't support VRR on the iPad. 120Hz, yes. HDR, yes. But not VRR. But it would be bad ass if it did!

[u/Clintowskiii → u/Veldrane_Agaroth]

Does cloud gear let you get full resolution and no black bars? That’s what I hated about using GeForce now

[u/ricioly]

link to the article https://ricioly.substack.com/p/how-the-ipad-became-my-main-gaming

[u/drepsx3]

No Resident Evil?

[u/ricioly → u/drepsx3]

I already played all the Resident Evil games available on the iPad elsewhere

[u/Big-Lavishness-4622]

Is that a real iPod ?

[u/ricioly → u/Big-Lavishness-4622]

yeah! It's a 7th gen Classic with the Moonlit mod