Apple has been quietly serious about gaming on iOS for a while now, and this week the company made one of its loudest statements yet. Indie Games Week on the App Store just kicked off with seven notable titles landing on iPhone and iPad, and the headliners are Sifu and No Man's Sky.

Sifu, the kung fu brawler, is a game built around parries, dodges, and a difficulty curve that punishes sloppiness. The idea that it's now running on a phone, the same device you use to check the weather, still feels strange to me. And No Man's Sky, a sprawling procedural universe of a game, is now expected to fit in your pocket. That's a lot of game for a device that mostly gets used for videos and group chats.

The full lineup runs seven titles deep, with Sifu and No Man's Sky joined by five other games getting the iOS treatment. This is Apple doing what it does best: curating a spotlight and putting real marketing muscle behind games that normally fight for attention in a sea of free-to-play releases. If you've ever scrolled the App Store's games tab looking for something that respects your time, you know how badly that curation is needed.

Sifu on a touchscreen is the one I'm most curious about. That game's combat is all about input precision, and touch controls are famously bad at anything requiring timing tighter than a fruit slice. I can't say from here how the developer handled controller support, so check the App Store listing before you buy. Honestly a controller is how you should play it anyway. If you've got a Backbone or one of the many mobile controllers floating around now, Sifu on a commute is a genuinely appealing pitch.

No Man's Sky feels like the safer bet of the two. Exploration and base building map reasonably well to touch, and the slower pace of that game gives you room to work around whatever control scheme the port uses. If you've never dipped in, a phone is not the worst place to start, though the big-screen experience is still the way it's meant to be seen.

A seven-game lineup like this also matters for what it signals. Apple keeps flirting with gaming, and whatever you think of the company's hardware, modern iPhone silicon has stopped being the excuse it once was. What I keep wondering is whether Apple commits to the platform long-term or lets it drift again like it has before. Weeks like this one suggest the company sees curated premium games as the wedge.

If you've been waiting for an excuse to treat your iPhone as a real gaming device, this is the week to open the App Store. Sifu alone is worth a look, and I say that as someone whose hands still remember every one of those boss fights.