# Cardwheel — user reviews > 40 indexed App Store user reviews of Cardwheel by nitzan.games LLC, rated 3.70/5 from 38 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/cardwheel/id6752916305/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/cardwheel/id6752916305.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 21 · 4★ 1 · 3★ 6 · 2★ 4 · 1★ 6 ## Newest reviews (14 of 40) ### 2/5 — Too many ads *2026-06-13, version 1.0.20* The game is a lot of fun and has a great concept. However, having an ad after EVERY. SINGLE. SPIN. Is a bit ridiculous. I understand you have to make your money and that’s fine but you need to reduce the number of ads it is almost unplayable 1 spin and I’m watching a 30 second ad. ### 3/5 — Good idea bad game mechanics *2026-06-12, version 1.0.20* The idea is really cool but i feel it only works with good enough ball physics half your runs you lose to the balls getting stuck or just defying physics rather than learning and improving with each run like a typical rouguelite your just left feeling scammed out of a good run the poor ball physics can get really infuriating alongside the fact the ads can feel abit overwhelming at times i often find myself playing this game with the wifi turned off to avoid them ### 3/5 — Cool concept, needs work *2026-04-17, version 1.0.20* This game has good bones but a lot of tune up is needed. Kind of feels like it was released before it was done. Having 32 different wheels but a broken randomizer is weird. Curious to see future updates. ### 2/5 — Unable to remove ads *2026-03-09, version 1.0.19* Not only is there a ton of ads, but the “remove ads” button doesn’t even work… ### 3/5 — OK, a bit frustrating + re-roll bug *2026-03-03, version 1.0.18* I like the design, and the UI is nice. If you pay for no ads it’s good. There are a couple frustrations though. Re-rolls in the shop change some of the offered cards, but not the card on the lower left (which is a permanent upgrade for the current one). You’re forced to buy that card, it won’t re-roll. What that means is that you will lose. Why? Because if you can’t pull the card that allows for boss re-rolls, you’re gonna lose, because you’ll get a boss that’s opposite of your build with no way around it because you can’t re-roll. I deleted the game because of this (even though in a lot of ways I liked the game). It’s just too limited, which becomes frustrating. If these issues were addressed I’d try it again though. I recommend this with these caveats. And ads are too many, know that going in you’ll need to buy the ad-free purchase or you’ll be watching more ads than playing. The ad frequency is another huge issue. Way too many. ### 2/5 — Too many ads *2026-02-21, version 1.0.17* After you get through the first few games it bombards you with ads after every game. The ads take as long to get through as the game itself. Game was great until the ads started ### 3/5 — fun game but some levels are frustrating *2026-02-17, version 1.0.16* the fewer colors you have in the wheel the more your chances of beating a level rely on luck. the single color wheels are near impossible unless you happen to draw perfect pulls every time. the number of times i’ve had to restart after the first wheel because nothing available in the shop allows me to beat the second wheel. fix this and it’s a 5. at the least make the single color wheels the final wheels to beat. right now i can’t imagine having to not only beat one single color wheel but four of them in order to get to the remaining wheels. ### 2/5 — AD Farmer *2026-02-16, version 1.0.16* Fun game awesome addictive roguelike plagued by ads. If you have a good run going you tend to beat levels in 1 spin, so mathematically I’m playing for around 5 seconds but I’m watching ads for 30 seconds at a certain point the gameplay loop is watching commercials and occasionally pressing the “drop” button and then right back to commercials ### 2/5 — Fun game, ads got crazy. *2026-02-05, version 1.0.16* Fun, roulette, balatro type game but the ads got horrendous. At first you can get through a whole game before an ad. Then you get through a round of 3 before an ad, then it’s after every single play. Sometimes just 30 seconds apart. I get the need for ads but there’s too many. ### 2/5 — Too many adds *2026-01-16, version 1.0.14* The game isn’t good enough to warrant that many adds. ### 4/5 — So Much Potential, But a Few Issues *2026-01-12, version 1.0.13* I’ve had a lot of fun with this game, and I think it has a ton of potential should one major issue be addressed; that being the fact that the different rounds which consist of different combos of colors (i.e. green, red, orange but no blue; orange and blue but no green or red, etc.) work exactly the same mechanically, and ultimately just feel like repeating the same task multiple times. There are two ways that come to mind to fix this: 1. Remove all the different combos and just have one for each number of colors in the wheel, which would decrease the amount of content but would make the existing content less repetitive; Or what I’d consider the better and more interesting option, 2. Add unique joker cards that synergize with different colors. At the moment, all jokers that synergize with a particular color have variations that synergize with every color in the game, which means that every color is mechanically indistinguishable. An example of what I mean would be the four uncommon Suit jokers in Balatro, (one gives +7 mult for each club scored, one gives +50 chips for every spade scored, one gives $1 for every diamond scored, and one gives a 1 in 2 chance for x1.5 mult for every heart scored). This could obviously be expanded significantly given that this game has less options for hand types, meaning that colors could be made even more mechanically complex than suits are in Balatro. Still, despite this issue, the game is a ton of fun; I just think that it could be so much better if colors were diversified! ### 4/5 — Enjoyable use of the Balatro formula *2026-01-07, version 1.0.13* Enjoyable use of the Balatro formula ### 3/5 — Fun but a little buggy *2025-12-31, version 1.0.13* With the core gameplay involving physics, you'd think that it would use a fixed-timestep simulation for determinism. Unfortunately that does not seem to be the case. If my phone is hot or doing something in the background, the balls will bounce wildly around the wheel, a telltale sign of simulation instability. ### 2/5 — Fun but ad time is longer than game time *2025-12-24, version 1.0.13* Gameplay is fun, but the frequency of ads is too high. Maybe if it was reduced to one ad block per 3 levels it would be manageable, but right now it is two ads between every level. I had to watch 6 ads to get to level 2-1. Will look for a future update when ads are reduced. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Bad Balatro copy *2026-04-16, version 1.0.20* It’s apparent that the creator stole from balatro and added a quick coat of paint. They’re even called Jokers even though there’s no card theme in this game. Ads are also terrible, I got none for the first 2 runs but then it’s an ad on every single stage now that you’re “hooked” ### 1/5 — Oppressive ads *2026-03-22, version 1.0.20* I was getting one ad per spin after the second game. No thank you ### 1/5 — Awful *2026-03-16, version 1.0.20* This is a terrible game. The scoring and power-ups are almost directly copied from Balatro, but with absolutely none of the thought or clever planning involved. You can’t just steal scoring mechanics and apply them to a completely different concept and format. It’s based entirely on luck. No skill is involved whatsoever. It’s ugly to look at and unsatisfying to play. The ads on social media also use AI, so it’s clear that no one in the development of this had a single artistic bone in their bodies. Half of the game is stolen from Balatro and the original half is abysmal. I highly suspect that the developers are using bots and fake accounts to promote this game. If they’re willing to use AI and blatant theft of a better game’s mechanics, what would stop them from that? ### 1/5 — Balatro rip-off but worse *2026-03-12, version 1.0.19* Exactly like Balatro- they stole every concept except the base scoring system. The music is simple and way too repetitive. The first run is ad-free, and every single round after that plays an ad; that's 8 to 24 ads per run- diabolical and greedy af. Easily not worth watching the ads, or even having to skip the ad every time- it just ruins the entire game, and it's not worth spending money on to disable ads. Just buy Balatro instead ### 1/5 — Bad at math somehow? *2026-02-28, version 1.0.18* 4x2 does not equal 6. The first mod for a ball I got was a times 4 to the multiplier. Base multiplier says “x2.0” This isn’t a language barrier, they don’t know math ### 1/5 — WAY to many ads *2026-02-17, version 1.0.16* Really fun take on balatro but a horrendously bad amount of ads causes the game to be not fun to play as 90% of screen time in spent waiting to skip an ad. Do better. ### 1/5 — Ok game *2026-02-17, version 1.0.16* This game is pretty good just needs a little more work and a lot less ads. Like honestly why are there ads after every round that’s insane. ### 1/5 — More ads than gameplay *2026-02-15, version 1.0.16* When I first got this game back in late November, it was a fun, addictive game with zero ads! But now, there is an ad after every 15 seconds - I timed it! You can’t skip them, you’re literally watching more ads than actually playing this once great game! I understand the occasional ad here and there for revenue, but this developer got VERY greedy! Sure enough, I looked at the reviews and the description and it was around the last couple of updates that they added all of these ads literally every 15 SECONDS!!! That’s just greedy and evil! Way to go devs… I hope this game bombs harder than Howard the Duck!!! 😡😡😡 ### 1/5 — Latest updates shows ads after each round. *2026-02-04, version 1.0.16* Latest updates shows ads after each round. That’s too excessive. ### 1/5 — Too many ads, unplayable *2026-01-16, version 1.0.14* They start off with no ads to try to get you to review it, then they quickly add an ad after every single roll you make. So that’s 5 seconds of gameplay between ads. Shame on this developer. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Great game (if you remove ads) *2026-07-21, version 1.0.20* I like the cool design and the roulette wheel, that gives it a gambling/arcade game feel. Everything is really smooth and intuitive. I like that the file size isn’t big and that you can easily go to the menu and it saves progress so you can continue later, makes it perfect for short spurts. It’s really a good game for a very fair price to remove ads. I see many saying the ads are too much (and the developer would keep those players probably if the ad frequency were lessened, that way you’d get players that are fine with some ads as well as players who prefer to pay to have no ads), but if you pay the small price to remove ads the game is very enjoyable. I don’t regret buying the no ad version, it’s a fair price, not a subscription. You’ll get bad luck sometimes and it’s game over, but that’s to be expected. It’s a fun casual game, perfect when you have a moment for a break here and there. And the overall vibe is sophisticated and cool. I like it. ### 5/5 — Deserves more attention *2026-05-17, version 1.0.20* I don’t even remember how I found this but I’m glad I did. It has balatro vibes but is a completely different game Rules are surprisingly simple, yet it gets hard quite quick ### 5/5 — Love it! My favorite Balatro-like game! *2026-01-27* I immediately paid the fair IAP to remove ads and support the developer after playing just one game. Everything is done right here. You can get far if you plan ahead. It’s casual but still strategic. A great arcade-like gambling feel. The design is gorgeous, the UI so easy and smooth. Everything works well and it’s good on battery and storage too. And, thank God, it’s in portrait mode, and you can save and continue a run later. The developer thought of everything and executed it very well. I highly recommend this very enjoyable game. Thank you developer for doing such a high-quality job and monetizing it so fairly. And I appreciate the data collection policy too. This game deserves to be successful! ### 5/5 — Finally a good unique Balatro like! *2026-01-06, version 1.0.13* Only thing that really needs to change is the ability to see your current balls/wheel/jokers when buying new packs! ### 5/5 — Balatro-like in all of the good ways, yet still very unique to itself. *2025-12-04, version 1.0.10* Honestly an awesome little gem considering it’s free, there’s no oppressive IAP’s or ads, and it has a dev who’s consistently working on improving it. It’s a game I’d easily spend $5-10 on. My only gripe is a personal one in that I can’t play for extended amounts of time because the spinning gives me slight motion sickness. Totally a me-issue, but that’s the only critique I have for now. ### 5/5 — Really fun game with a lot of potential *2025-11-13, version 1.0.7* Overall great game. Took a bit over 5 hours to beat all the difficulties and there’s not much after that. It would be cool to have some more unique challenge modifiers because a lot of them are pretty easy to mitigate if you get a good skip early on. Definitely give it a try if you like balatro. ### 5/5 — Pretty much a balatro re skin *2025-11-10, version 1.0.5* But I’m here for it. Great job! Please add endless mode. ### 5/5 — Pretty much a balatro re skin *2025-11-08, version 1.0.5* But I’m here for it. Great job! ### 5/5 — It’s free, fun, and haptic *2025-11-01, version 1.0.4* Obviously balatro inspired but one of the more honest takes on it. It’s rough around the edges and quite difficult but hard to complain when it’s as polished as it is and in portrait mode and once again FREE with no ads. A rare thing nowadays. Haptics are SO satisfying ### 5/5 — Hidden gem *2025-11-01, version 1.0.4* Man this game is fun it’s like Balatro but it also has some skill to it --- *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 2026-08-30.*