Way of the Turtle is a 2D platformer using 3D graphics. You play a turtle (male or female) trying to remove an island curse so you can leave and return home. As you wander the island you pick up gold and a few powers while avoiding or jumping on enemies and solving puzzles.

You get four powers

• Wall climbing by jumping between two walls.
• Blue shell - crouch and stop (otherwise you never stop moving unless you run into an obstacle)
• Green shell - zoom a short distance to get across big gaps
• Red shell - destroy enemies you touch

Each shell has two levels with the second level used to get through specifically marked walls (which also means you back to old areas to do spots you couldn't get to before). You can only change shells at save points which are frequent enough that a lot of times you can clear monsters with a red shell and then go back and use a green shell to do stuff.

The coins are used to buy upgrades like a map of the island so you can teleport a bit. You can also find shards (which are rare) and four shards lets you get an extra heart slot (you start with three). And finally you can find gophers to rescue (there are 42 of them and they don't provide any benefits but are Easter Egg accomplishments).

This game reminds me of a Super Mario World sort of game though a little simpler. Family friendly graphics and sometimes tricky but it's not too hard of a game. I played this with an XBox controller and it's freaking smooth gameplay (touch pad controls can be difficult in some of the tricky parts and sometimes seemed to slightly lag for me). This is the first iOS game I've played that, with an external controller, feels like a Nintendo console game.

Overall one of the better Apple Arcade games.