Mobile gaming is in an ugly spot, so a popular narrative goes, and that’s why Apple tried to tidy up the situation with its curated Apple Arcade subscription service. And we’re big fans of Apple Arcade! You should totally check out our list of the service’s best games once you’re done here.

It’s a flawed narrative, though. Look beyond the chaff of flavor-of-the-moment, ad-riddled games and microtransaction-heavy “freemium” titles, and you’ll find games that are every bit as good as what you’ll see on Apple Arcade. Some of them are even better. And this list doesn’t even count many of the fun freemium games that dropped in 2019, which include Nintendo’s Mario Kart Tour and Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls: Blades. You should check them out, too, but I find they’re a little too eager to dig into your pocketbooks for this list.