The Mac gaming library expands with each passing week, bringing an array of new experiences to sink your teeth into—and if you want to game on the cheap, that’s truly no problem at all. Let this collection serve as a prime example: Each game on this list sells for $9.99 or less, and all are certainly worth more than that. This isn’t a definitive “best of” or even a comprehensive list—we had dozens of games in mind for this, and the selection is far too vast to try and rank them against each other. Instead, consider this a curated starting point: See what catches your eye here, and then go exploring on Steam, the Mac App Store, and other gaming stores. You’ll find a lot of awesome titles that deliver incredible bang for your buck. Attempting to get around the world in a steampunk version of 1872 sounds like a tough task—one that could power a lively, wild action game, naturally.
80 Days ($9.99; ) is lively and wild, but it’s no action game: It’s primarily a text adventure in which your various decisions help shape both the outcome and the journey itself. Getting around the world requires a mix of transportation types and careful selection of routes from city to city, with time and money both crucial considerations.
Best Mac emulators| How to play old games & run classic software on macOS. Meaning you can now play games for that system. Best Mac emulators guide: Emulate arcade games with MAME. Best Classic Mahjong Connect is an innovative puzzle game that takes the classic mahjongg style gameplay to the next level. As with mahjongg, the goal of the game is remove all tokens from the board by connecting two matching tiles.
But there’s more to it than just completing the trip on time, as the conversations along the way entertain and help build out your character all the while. For fans of games that are a bit edgy or unnerving, The Binding of Isaac ($4.99; ) is essential. Hailing from one of the same minds behind the gruesome but brilliant, The Binding of Isaac is an arcade-style shooter but you play as a naked child who is fighting monsters in his basement as he evades his violent, deranged mother. Like we said, it’s unnerving to say the least. Between that unique premise and the half-gross, half-gory aesthetic, The Binding of Isaac has a distinctive hook—but it’s also a really fun dungeon-crawling shooter.
You’ll shoot your own tears at the creepy creatures within and seek out upgrades as you try to survive the underground labyrinth, and the challenge continually prods you to improve. Indie darling Braid ($9.99; ) looks properly old-school, but has its own unique twist on the classic platform-action formula.
While the game uses familiar Mario-esque building blocks for its stages, Braid allows you to rewind time at will—at first to correct mistakes, but eventually there’s much more to it. It’s clever and downright diabolical at times, but like some other games on this list, Braid is memorable for far more than its unique gameplay design.
It has a deeply philosophical edge, and unravels a heartbreaking story bit by bit—plus the dreamy, hand-painted aesthetic really sells the surreal tone of the experience. Creating Fez ($9.99; ) might have been an arduous, overlong endeavor (as documented by the great ), but actually playing through this inventive platform game is largely a total joy. That’s not to say that it’s a total breeze: Some of the puzzles and hidden secrets are cleverly designed to stump and frustrate. While Fez looks like a retro throwback, it has a very modern, fresh twist: The seemingly 2D pixel settings can be rotated 90 degrees to shift around elements in the world, which is essential to figuring your way through each new area. It’s a crucial mechanic that gives the game a lot of extra depth—in more ways than one. In space, nobody can hear you scream—but your agonized yelps might wake family, roommates, or neighbors once you start digging into the brutal challenge of FTL: Faster Than Light ($9.99; ). Given a spaceship to command and a hazard-filled galaxy to explore, you’ll set off into the tense, randomly-generated areas.
FTL is inspired by dungeon-crawling “roguelike” games, which means there’s plenty of uncertainty found in each new location—and when your crew members die, they’re gone for good. Whether it’s encountering enemies, making decisions to keep your ship afloat, or trying to outrun some pursuing threat, this deep, retro-flavored quest can be utterly enthralling. Although followed up by a trio of larger, more ambitious games, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City ($9.99;, ) remains one of the most iconic entries in the open-world action series, setting a crime tale set against the now-hilarious excess of the 1980s. As Tommy Vercetti, a Mafia hitman just out of jail, you’ll reemerge into a Miami-inspired city to cause a little mayhem. Endlessly roaming the city—whether it’s to take on missions, lead police on wild chases, or see what other fun can be found—is a blast. And Vice City certainly looks and sounds the part: The pastel colors, amazing era-appropriate soundtrack, and constant skewering of ‘80s culture makes for a hilarious, absorbing experience. First-person shooters become bigger and brasher with each passing year, yet 2004’s Half-Life 2 ($9.99; ) remains a serious benchmark for the entire genre.
Valve’s masterwork presents a tense single-player campaign through an alien-overtaken Earth, with the Gravity Gun opening up new gameplay possibilities beyond simply running and gunning. It’s storytelling that makes just as much of an impact as the action, however, with believable characters that really sell the weight of the conflict. If you dig Half-Life 2, don’t miss the and standalone expansions for $8 each—and heck, is $10, too. One of the most acclaimed indie games of recent years, Her Story ($5.99; or ) is a totally unique live-action adventure game that tasks you with reconstructing a story based on recordings of police interviews.
However, the interviews are all split into tiny clips, and you’re given no direction as you sort through this massive archive of footage. That lack of structure extends into finding meaning in the storyline, as the game doesn’t prod you with objectives or goals, and simply lets you draw your own conclusions based on what you watch and believe. It’s not real police footage, of course, but “Her” performance is compelling and the eventual narrative twists justify all of the digging that ultimately gets you there. If you haven’t already played the excellent Lara Croft Go ($9.99; ) on iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV, then you should definitely check it out on Mac. Croft is the legendary heroine of the franchise, of course, but this isn’t a vast action-adventure tale set in massive environments—it’s actually a turn-based puzzle game spread across loads of compact stages. Each level challenges you with overcoming enemies and environmental hazards by figuring out the best path ahead, all while flipping switches and stealthily dispatching foes.
Being able to play at your own pace made it, but the game holds up well on Mac: Lara Croft Go does a great job of transforming Tomb Raider’s essence into something new and fresh. While not a horror game by design, Limbo ($9.99;, ) delivers a pretty powerful sense of dread. The wordless side-scrolling game is set primarily in the shadows, with the main character—a young boy—tasked with solving an array of environmental puzzles as he encounters threats along the way. Amidst the darkness are real surprises and scares, but also a huge amount of charm: Limbo is so expertly designed that it doesn’t need an overt story or tutorials.
You’ll quickly learn the rules of the world and then piece together your own interpretation of what’s happening in the compact quest, right up through the affecting conclusion. We’ve of Mini Metro ($9.99;, or ), but this impressively streamlined subway simulation actually began life on computers—and you’ll find the same great experience no matter where you play. Mini Metro looks like a subway map, but actually running the trains on time requires quite a bit of tactical planning. Each little shape on the screen represents a station, and you’ll connect them by creating lines. As your transit system thrives, it’ll attract more and more riders—which ultimately leads to overcrowding if you are not careful, or don’t wisely spend your additional resources. How long can you stay in business across these various real-world maps? We can safely say that you’ve never played anything quite like Oh Sir!
The Insult Simulator ($1.99; or ). As the name suggests, this silly little game is all about delivering sick burns and devastating slams to an opponent, but it’s not just an excuse to pull your best taunts from the back of your mind—it’s actually a competitive game. You’ll face off against another player and take turns choosing terms out of a communal pile, attempting to build the best and most grammatically correct attack.
It has a strongly British tone to the humor, and while you can play solo against the computer, the most confident and cunning insult artists can hop online for richer competition. And it’s only two bucks! It’s funny: A game that might sound mind-numbingly dull in its core description actually delivers incredible, gut-churning drama and plenty of opportunity to examine your own morals under pressure. Papers, Please ($9.99; ) is, at its core, a game about looking over documents and stamping sheets of paper. But it’s really a game about power, sacrifice, and painful choices. As a new border agent for a fictional Eastern Bloc country in 1982, you’re tasked with closely scanning immigration documents for errors or red flags, and deciding who gets in. Your choices—and/or precision—may not only determine the fates of those you encounter, but also your own family.
It’s shockingly intense stuff. Long before Peggle ($4.99; ) became an ideal iOS obsession, it was a top Mac time sink—and it remains essential after all these years. Despite its light and fluffy exterior, PopCap’s game proves to be a powerful addiction, keeping you in its grip with each barely-missed peg and stage-clearing, “Ode to Joy” blaring fireworks show. Peggle essentially blends pinball and pachinko, tasking you with shooting a ball into a grid of colorful pegs. The goal is simply to clear all the orange ones before running out of balls—a task that turns difficult before long, and requires a fair bit of strategy to go along with all the lucky bounces you’ll notch along the way. Sequel is also $5 and just as wonderful.