Apple Vision Pro is getting Gears & Goo, the AR tabletop tower defense game of your dreams

We got hands-on time with Gears & Goo, the first AR tabletop tower defense game coming to Apple Vision Pro users via Apple Arcade on January 9, 2025

Gears & Goo is a tabletop tower defense game for Apple Vision Pro, coming to Apple Arcade on January 9 (Image credit: Resolution Games)

• 🥽 Apple Vision Pro will occupy your coffee table with its first tower defense game

• 🪖 Build bases, deploy troops, and defend against waves of enemies in AR

• ♟️ It comes from Resolution Games, which made Vision Pro hit Game Room

• 🤏 Vision Pro’s advanced cameras can pick up on which fingers you pinch

• 📆 Gears & Goo launches on January 9, 2025, to Apple Arcade subscribers

I got a chance to preview Resolution Games’ third Apple Vision Pro title following its success with Game Room and Demeo, and I have good news for real-time strategy game fans. Gears & Goo is the Apple Vision Pro tower defense game of your dreams and could become one of the best Apple Arcade games when it launches.

It plays exactly like we’ve collectively imagined an RTS game in the spatial computing era: I was looking down at a real-life coffee table and micro-managing a virtual game board, feverishly building up bases and troops to repel an endless wave of enemies. All of this relied on me gathering resources from nearby rocks and trees, of course, like any good real-time strategy game.

You won’t really need additional “resources” (read: money) to buy Gears & Goo when it launches on January 9 – if you already subscribe to Apple Arcade. This game will be part of Apple’s $6.99/mo that has more than 200 ad- and micro-transaction-free games. I get it as part of my Apple One Premier family plan, and you may, too.

Classic tower defense with a twist

Gears & Goo plays like a classic tower defense game with a twist. Thanks to the Apple Vision Pro headset, I seamlessly pinched and zoomed around the virtual game board while staying aware of the transparent world around me. I could lord over my base and troop build-up with a 40,000-foot view without ever sensing that I left my couch. That “locked in” feeling while wearing a normal VR headset wasn’t present here.

What’s cool, and this didn’t dawn on me until after my demo, is that I had to pinch my thumb and middle finger together to spin and zoom into the game board. The Vision Pro has a dozen cameras embedded inside of the headset, and it’s proving to be more than just a cool stat. The camera array is advanced enough to know when my thumb and index finger come together to pick up and move troops and when my thumb and middle fingers come together to rotate the game board. Wild.

Resolution Games has filled Gears & Goo with some unique charm. I dug the colorful graphics, the playful animations, and the light-hearted story – what I’ve seen of it so far. You’re basically mining a planet for soda resources before your rival does. We’ve seen a few Meta Quest 3S tabletop RTS games, but nothing with this level of creativity and polish.

Gears & Goo is exactly the sort of game I want to play on my Apple Vision Pro. It’s the type of content – like Submerged, filmed in Apple Immersive Video – that you can’t experience anywhere else. Sure, the $3,500 headset won’t hit critical mass until an inevitable Apple Vision Pro 2 launches with a cheaper price tag. But Gears & Goo is the sort of game that early adopters will thoroughly enjoy in January and be ready and waiting for everyone else in the future.