Minecraft runs without any problems, so if you have an iMac, its game on Take away: If you have a high-end Mac, you can expect to smoothly play this game at the highest settings.

With a variety of different modes to play with, Minecraft on Mac can be a sandbox game allowing you build undisturbed, a multiplayer game where you can cooperatively build your world with friends, or a game you play on servers where survival is the goal (my sons favorite used to be a Hunger Games server).

In this review: Mac system requirements The Test: Benchmarks on several Macs The Results: Can your Mac run it Should you get it And while Minecrafts purchase by Microsoft in 2014 caused some concern, so far the game has remained true to its roots.

With a huge modding community, the ability to join or create your own servers, and the ability to create actual working machines within the game, Minecraft created what many believe to be a new genre of games, but perhaps one in which it is the only true member.

Metascore Minecraft A genre-creating game, Minecraft continues to allow us to scratch our creativity itch on the computer.

Minecraft never gets old.

Buy from Official Site First things first, is the game any good Having sold 176 million copies across all platforms, Minecraft is considered the best selling game of all time, so that should tell you something.

With an impressive 93 Metacritic score from critics and a 7.6 from users, theres no sign of its popularity waning any time soon: Minecraft even boasts a number of rare 100 scores from critics, including from Eurogamer, which said: Minecraft is a towering achievement in the very possibilities of gaming, and it does this without losing itself to either esoterica or cynicism.

It is a game anyone can play and anyone can get something out of, no matter how skilled or imaginative they are.

They will make something and they will have an experience that feels like theirs and theirs alone.

In another 100 review, Gamespy similarly gushed over the freedom to create, maybe literally, anything: I remember the first time my friends and I discovered Minecraft.

For a short span, it became the center of our incredibly nerdy existence Should Saurons all-seeing eye go next to the Millennium Falcon, or over by the half-finished attempt at recreating The Wall from Game of Thrones It was all we did.

We each dreamed up increasingly elaborate super lairs and then built them from the ground-up All of it was ours, though.

And we were proud.

If you want a truly open world where you can build whatever you want, with friends or alone, with monsters trying to destroy your creations or not, Minecraft is truly the game for you.

To that end we have one Mac from each of three levels: High-end Macs (the 27-inch iMac).

These are the settings we used to test Minecraft using our in-house FPS counter Count It for a fixed duration of 5 minutes: 1280800 resolution Graphics: Fancy VSync: On Why these settings Remember, we are testing vastly different machines.

Some high-end, some not.

Medium settings wont impress anyone, but they are acceptable and should meet the requirements of the average gamer.

The Results: Build Away While Minecrafts huge, open worlds might make you think a high-powered machine is needed to take full advantage, the blocky graphics help keep the game running smoothly.

The target This chart includes the average frames per second (FPS) recorded on each machine.

We usually aim for 30 FPS, because 30 FPS is enough to guarantee a smooth and fluid experience.

Some readers argue that 30 FPS is not high enough, but its still what current-gen consoles aim for, and considering most Macs were not built for gaming, 30 FPS is a good target.

As a reminder, this is how we describe the different levels of performance: Below 20 FPS: Unplayable: Laggy gameplay, full of stutters and slowdowns.

FPS: Borderline: Can be OK in slow-paced games.

Still, not optimal.

FPS: Playable: Acceptable for most (most gaming consoles do this).

FPS: Smooth: Fluid gameplay, with no perceivable stutters.

FPS: Very Smooth: For hardcore and professional players, a luxury for most.

All three of our test machines aced the 30 FPS challenge, but read on further to see how far you may be able to go.

Can my Mac run Minecraft While our 2014 iMac may be getting a little old, it is the only one of our test machines with a dedicated graphics card.

Because of this, we didnt expect it to have any problems with Minecraft, and we were right.

Best Mac For Minecraft