# Ark Nova — user reviews > 123 indexed App Store user reviews of Ark Nova by Dire Wolf Digital, rated 4.80/5 from 1,166 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ark-nova/id6449233549/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ark-nova/id6449233549.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 1,048 · 4★ 74 · 3★ 25 · 2★ 9 · 1★ 10 ## What do users think of Ark Nova? Overall sentiment: positive **Pros** - 🚀 Great implementation overall - 👍 Lots of fun - 👍 Good animations - 👍 Choice of modes - 👍 Clean, modern and enjoyable design - 👍 Plays well on mobile **Cons** - 🐛 Tile placement/rotation issues on iPad - 🐛 Building placement UI issues - 👎 Difficult to read board state on mobile - 👎 Lack of simultaneous view for key game info - 👎 Cumbersome to create games with friends **Commonly reported bugs** - iPad Flash exit issue - Rewards screen being blocked by other UI elements **Most requested features** - Option to enable larger UI buttons for modal panels - Full screen mode - Option to reverse zoom direction - Improved card readability/zoom ## Newest reviews (19 of 123) ### 3/5 — Fun but buggy *2026-08-11, version 1.0.6* The game crashes too much on ipad ### 4/5 — Super fun! Highly recommend! Some areas for improvement but I’m along for the ride! *2026-08-10, version 1.0.6* This game offers a unique experience for every gameplay with many different ways to approach strategy and variable components to monitor throughout. There is definitely a learning curve, but it is worth the time investment for a game that doesn’t start to feel like it’s on repeat after a few plays. I have both the physical and app version. The app version makes learning much easier because it blocks unqualified moves (such as not enough money or action power for a particular move) and highlights what you can do (such as the additional cost for playing an animal from the display). These details are more challenging to monitor on the physical board game. The game is highly customizable with many offline solo options and either async or real-time online options. There are a few points for improvement as development continues. 1- First and foremost… PLEASE ADD THE MARINE EXPANSION PACK TO THE IOS APP!!! 2- Also, the chat function is very handy, but you cannot see what you are typing beyond the initial line which can make it challenging to use, especially because the typing field is so tiny to begin with. It would be very nice if this could pop out into a separate maneuverable window or at least expand to show your full message in the typing field like a text message bubble would on any smart phone. 3- There is also a culture of players that like to go at warp speed, which is fun sometimes, other times a bit frustrating. It would be nice if the time per turn was an additional customizable component. This would likely mitigate some tensions for those who think a little longer and those who want to whip through turns at the speed of light. 4- Finally, the app does crash sometimes, has somewhat long loading times, and drains my phone/tablet battery pretty quickly. I imagine that operating such a detailed game does require significant power but the freezing during online games can be disruptive and sometimes kick you out of the game if you can’t reload quickly enough. For asynchronous games, if I open a different app on my phone with this game still up in the background, when I return to it I have to close it out and reopen it for it to register my opponents moves and allow me to take my turn. So it does not really run in the background which makes turn taking pretty inefficient. Overall, these issues don’t impede gameplay so significantly that it curbs my desire to play, it is still very enjoyable, but solutions would be nice if possible! Creative suggestion… it would be really cool to have animal facts on the cards like we see in some other animal/nature games. Even cooler if they can somehow correlate with the animal’s power in the game. I have a degree in Wildlife Biology so I see a lot of opportunities for this in the card deck. Might even be nice to see an icon or animation of what animal is in which enclosure for easier scanning and engaging UI. Super cool game, highly recommend!! ### 4/5 — Errors *2026-08-01, version 1.0.6* I really like playing this game, however, there are errors within this app. When placing an animal with the appropriate partnership zoo, the reduction in price (-3) is not validated by the game. Also, certain conditions on the cards are not recognized and applied in this digital game. ### 4/5 — Fast perfekt *2026-07-17* Leider fehlen die Zusatzpacks. ### 3/5 — Leider gänzlich ohne Ton und instabil *2026-07-08* An sich ist das Spiel toll umgesetzt. Allerdings geht auf meinem iPad der Ton nicht und hin und wieder gibt es Abstürze ### 4/5 — Performance à améliorer *2026-07-04* Le jeu est bien opérationnel. Quelques rares crash et bugs visuels, mais très accessible par rapport à la richesse du jeu. Par contre gros problème de performance pour un jeu de tour, le téléphone chauffe, la batterie se vide trop vite. Peut être que pouvoir désactiver des animations ou optimiser avec le l’IA le code de l’IA serait à envisager… ### 4/5 — Some bugs and glitches *2026-06-17, version 1.0.5* It has few of those that can ruin your game if play comp. ### 3/5 — Crashes all the time *2026-06-17, version 1.0.5* For an app I paid for, I would expect it not to crash every game. Disappointed , but 3 stars for a great game! ### 4/5 — Great game! *2026-06-03, version 1.0.5* I love this game and this is a very excellent digital implementation. I only have it four stars because the game does get better with the Marine Worlds expansion. As soon as Dire Wolf releases that expansion I’ll bump it up to five stars. Can’t wait! ### 5/5 — A great euro style game. *2026-06-02, version 1.0.5* Love this game on my IPad. Great at house keeping and scoring. ### 5/5 — Best game, best app! *2026-05-27, version 1.0.5* Challenges are incredibly difficult and fun. ### 5/5 — Gute Umsetzung *2026-05-27* Ich habe kürzlich bei Freunden das Brettspiel gespielt und war begeistert. Jetzt bin ich sehr froh darüber es auf dem iPad auch alleine spielen zu können. Die Umsetzung ist gelungen. ### 5/5 — The Mobile App is Worth it! *2026-05-24, version 1.0.5* Amazing app. Phenomenal transition from table top to app. Ready for the sea life expansion to be added! ### 4/5 — Bug with association action *2026-05-17, version 1.0.5* When you have a flipped association card, the game does not let you do two actions for the value of X. ### 5/5 — Einfach schön *2026-05-17* Das Spiel läuft gut und flüssig. Es sieht sehr schön aus. Es macht einfach Spaß, genau wie das Brettspiel ### 5/5 — Excelente adaptação *2026-05-04* versão digital excelente! a interface está linda, funcional e rápida. Os sons ajudam na imersão ao tema ### 5/5 — Great Board Game, Buggy UI *2026-04-22, version 1.0.5* Love the game but having to leave the game to comeback to make options appear is very poor for a paid product. Issues with “Resolve your effects. dialogue pop up, but not being presented with the effects. Had to leave the game twice to eventually get the options to reappear and undo moves constantly to get the UI to appear. ### 5/5 — Can’t scale the cards *2026-04-22* The game doesn’t scale the cards, even the tutorial is stuck cause it doesn’t expand the card to see it fully… ### 5/5 — My most played board game app *2026-04-15, version 1.0.5* This is a great implementation of the board game - the ui is intuitive, the ai players present a good challenge, and the difficulty tuning is something over and above the original board game. Would love to see the additional map packs and marine worlds content added. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Please help *2026-02-03, version 1.0.5* After latest iPadOS update, the game freezes on green screen after intro. iPad Air 5th gen, iPadOS latest version. Please fix. ### 1/5 — Bugged and unplayable *2025-12-26, version 1.0.5* I cant view/inspect any of my cards on my 16 pro max. This breaks the game and makes it unplayable. You tap on a card and it doesnt do anything ### 1/5 — Beautiful but.. *2025-12-25, version 1.0.5* This game is so complicated that it makes Magic The gathering look like child’s play. When you spend more time closing windows that obscure the play field, you know there’s a problem. How anyone could play this on the phone is beyond me, and I was using an iPad. Every time you think you understand something more details are added that look like somebody just thought them up and said oh “that sounds good.” I want my games to be fun and enjoyable not complicated and frustrating. I had to ask for a refund on this one. And I rarely ask for refunds on any of my apps. I’ve played many Dire wolf games and most of them are great. This one needs a little less minutia. ### 1/5 — Crash frequently *2025-10-12* plz fix it **Developer response:** Hello, we had some network issues recently, which have now been cleared up. If you were experiencing connection issues, you should have a better experience now. Our apologies for the inconvenience! ### 1/5 — UI Issue *2025-08-03, version 1.0.4* After the recent update if you click on cards it doesn’t show you the full card overlay on screen. Similar with the actions, doesn’t show you the overlay which shows what each action does. This needs to be patched very soon. At this moment you are playing without knowing what each card does. The game is unplayable with this ### 1/5 — Very buggy *2025-07-07, version 1.0.2* Ran into some bugs that were bad enough for me to give up and call it quits. One of my actions would disappear, cards would get stuck in my hand and be unplayable, you are forced to release animals from the smallest exhibit regardless of where you played them originally and some minor stuff like tooltips were wrong. Might be worth picking up if they decide to fix these things someday. For now just save yourself a headache and play on BGA. ### 1/5 — Flash exit *2025-06-21, version 1.0* ipad Flash exit，please fix it ### 1/5 — Constant crashing *2025-06-21, version 1.0* Hopefully this gets fixed as I love the idea of this app but it continuously crashes and is currently unplayable for me on iPad ### 2/5 — Review *2026-05-02, version 1.0.5* AI goes too hard on challenges, consider doing a higher game ending cap. ### 2/5 — Full of bugs *2026-02-24, version 1.0.5* The game has bugs including not keeping track of available places to build. It even let me build on top of other buildings. Other than those sort of things happening, the game is great. It’s just not playable. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Excellent *2026-08-27, version 1.1.1* A* implementation of an A* board game. ### 5/5 — Great tutorial *2026-08-22, version 1.0.6* Tutorial is really well put together to help new players quickly learn the rules of the game and experienced players lean the quirks of the app ### 5/5 — Perfect adaptation *2026-08-20, version 1.0.6* This is a great adaptation of my favourite board game. I play daily against the AIs, who do a solid job of simulating the multiplayer experience. It would be wonderful if the Marine Worlds expansion was available as an add-on. ### 5/5 — I looking forward to play every day *2026-07-31, version 1.0.6* Just stunning game lot of chalanges and you can even play with someone, graphic is amazing and its so much satisfying than real board game so glad it’s so cheap and I can play it all the time I want love this game thank you for making it so nice and exciting developers ### 5/5 — Brilliant adaptation *2026-07-19, version 1.0.6* Really enjoyable adaptation of this brilliant board game. ### 5/5 — Zoo on the go! *2026-07-19, version 1.0.6* Great app implementation of the board game. Top notch. ### 5/5 — Great game! *2026-07-12, version 1.0.6* Smooth and challenging game! Visuals are excellent! ### 5/5 — Expansion??? *2026-07-12, version 1.0.6* I need expansions or new map packs of challenges soon please ### 5/5 — Super Umsetzung *2026-07-04* Tolles Spiel. Ich habe das Brettspiel nie gespielt und hab ein wenig gebraucht um reinzufinden und jetzt komme ich nicht mehr davon los. Richtig gutes Spiel und vor allem als Solo Spieler herausfordernd genug. Nur zu empfehlen. ### 5/5 — Excellent adaptation despite weird glitches *2026-06-09, version 1.0.5* This is perhaps the best adaptation of a board game I’ve ever played on iPad. It really is fantastic. It is so fantastic that I am giving it five stars even though it has weird little glitches that pop up in most games. Crucially, I have never ONCE lost progress because of this; if I restart the app, my game is exactly as it should be, and that saves my enthusiastic rating. But weird things like enclosures appearing in the wrong spot, action cards disappearing, not being able to hover over cards, or even game freezes are fairly frequent. These little blips were so weird that I even got a new iPad to see if they would still happen. They do, though less frequently. If Dire Wolf can fix these things — which, again, are annoying but don’t actually affect gameplay — then this will be a near-perfect board game adaptation. --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-05.*