# Star Battle Hoshi Puzzles — user reviews > 42 indexed App Store user reviews of Star Battle Hoshi Puzzles by Simon Schuster, rated 4.70/5 from 261 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/star-battle-hoshi-puzzles/id1663477610/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/star-battle-hoshi-puzzles/id1663477610.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 225 · 4★ 17 · 3★ 10 · 2★ 4 · 1★ 5 ## Newest reviews (13 of 42) ### 4/5 — Gutes Knobelspiel, aber … *2026-06-19* Eigentlich ein super Denkspiel, leider wird das cheaten nicht unterbunden. Es ist unmöglich eine Aufgabe, wo 20 Sterne gesetzt werden sollen in 13 Sekunden ohne zu tricksen zu lösen. Wenn das Schummeln unterbunden wird, gibt es den 5 Stern und das Abo zurück. ### 4/5 — So fun! *2026-05-08* My only complaint is that you have to buy a lot of the puzzles. Other than that, great game, very relaxing. ### 3/5 — Game great; ads are the WORST *2025-10-20* The ads on this game are like 2 full minutes long. Can’t deal with it anymore. **Developer response:** Ouch, that doesn't sound like fun. The ads come from an external network, so I can’t control what kind of ads are shown. I know it can be ultra frustrating if they don’t work as expected or are too long, but sadly there is nothing I can do about it 🙈 ### 4/5 — Big Fan of the App Itself - Not the Subscription Model *2025-10-07* This app is absolutely gorgeous, the graphics and UI design is very pleasing and being able to save a game mid-puzzle to come back to later is amazing. The variety of puzzle-modes is great as well. That being said, the fact that you can’t buy additional puzzle packs outright and need to subscribe to access them caused me to uninstall. To be fair, the fee is very reasonable, but I’ve done this with subscription games before and I dislike the fact that I will abruptly lose access to the additional packs I got if I step away from the game for a while and then pick it back up ### 3/5 — Good game. Buggy loading. *2025-08-29* It’s a good game. I play it daily, and paid for ad removal. But for several weeks (or maybe months?), the load time is very long; you have to wait sometimes 30 seconds or more before any puzzles show up in the UI. Pull-to-refresh, switching tabs, restarting app… nothing helps. ### 3/5 — Trade off *2025-08-20* The puzzles are great but the ads are often longer than it takes to solve them. It is not a reasonable price to purchase the ad-free experience either ### 4/5 — Addictive! *2025-07-21* It is addictive but not worth the price. Still, I play it every day. ### 3/5 — The ads need to be fixed *2025-04-16* Update to the developers comment - I just played it and had to wait 50 seconds then hit done and waited another 15 seconds. It is better but shouldn’t be more than 30 seconds. For that I’m changing this review from 2 to 3 thanks. Original review: The developer responded to another review saying it’s out of their control but that’s not true. In the past the app had shorter ads and other similar apps have shorter ads. I paid full year for another of your apps and I don’t get ads now which is great. I also paid for a pack here and I still get insane ads. There also aren’t that many games to play to justify these ads. After awhile there’s nothing else to play. **Developer response:** Hey Me94atany, thanks for the feedback! ❤️ I wouldn’t lie about ads—honestly, there was a misconfiguration that made some rewarded ads unskippable, but I’ve fixed that! Now, they’re skippable after 30 seconds. As for the puzzles, there are 356 daily puzzles per year, which should keep you busy for a while? 😊 ### 2/5 — Daily puzzles; ridiculous ads *2025-04-03* First, the good: the puzzles are usually very good. I like the daily puzzles and the streak aspect. It is fun to play every day. The UI is good and easy to use. The bad: the ads are frankly insane. The daily puzzles requires a token to play, one every day. Of course you can pay, or you can choose to watch ads. When you watch ads you get three tokens, meaning three puzzles. But that’s not the real problem. It’s that the ads are not 15, 20 or even 30 seconds, they are usually a minute long! For me this is a ridiculous amount of time for three puzzles which usually take less and a minute each to play. If the puzzles are really easy (which they sometimes are) the ads can be longer than the puzzles. The daily puzzles are also often way too easy. They are often “one star” puzzles. These really take no thought. **Developer response:** Hi stl44853, thanks for your detailed feedback! I’m really glad you enjoy the puzzles and the daily streaks! ❤️ As for the ads, I totally get your frustration with the long ones, but I don't have control over their length—they come from an ad provider. I rely on ads to keep Hoshi free, as there are high maintenance and development costs. For the easier daily puzzles, I’ll definitely work on mixing it up to keep things interesting, usually there are only 1-2 one star games per week ✌️ ### 2/5 — Way too many ads, not much depth *2025-03-20* The ads are insane. I paid actual money for a pack and as soon as I finished a puzzle got a full screen ad. I couldn’t dismiss it either, was automatically pushed to the App Store page. The weekly challenges have even more ads somehow. Full screen mini game ads that take over your phone for quite some time. The difficulty levels don’t seem to be consistent. Some 5 star puzzles are easy and some 1 star puzzles require a lot of trial and error. The puzzles are clearly stamped out automatically. After you get the hang of it they are all the same. The idea that this is competitive is odd. It seems like engagement bait. Uninstalled. **Developer response:** Hi Surheidbekw, thanks for your feedback! I just want to clarify—there shouldn’t be any ads in purchased packs. If you saw one, that’s definitely not intended. As for other ads, I don’t control their exact content since they come from an ad provider. Ads and paid packs help cover the high maintenance costs, but I get that they can be frustrating. I appreciate you giving Hoshi a try! 😊 ### 4/5 — Accès aux conseils *2025-03-13* Bonjour, le jeu est super intéressant. Par contre je n’ai pas pu accéder aux conseils alors qu’il y a la possibilité de les activer. Est-ce en cours de développement ou …? ### 4/5 — Très bon jeu *2025-01-05* Très bon jeu, bien réalisé. Très dommage qu’il faut acheter l’abonnement annuel pour avoir accès à l’intégralité. ### 3/5 — Packs are just bad *2024-10-18* Why are 1-star puzzles in the packs so basic and easy? ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Tips don’t reset *2026-07-21* My tips don’t reset anymore and are permanently stuck on -1. I bought the full version and expect it to work properly. **Developer response:** Hey, hints should refill and never go negative, so that's a bug I definitely want to fix 😅 The review section isn't the best place to debug it though, so please shoot me a mail at help.hoshi@gmail.com with your debug information (About Hoshi → scroll to the bottom). Then I can take a look at your account directly. ### 1/5 — Scam ads in game *2026-06-08* I really enjoyed the game until I finished a puzzle and got an ad that said “your account has been hacked!”. I can’t believe a company would allow that type of predatory scam ads on their app. I instantly deleted the app and came here to give the review. **Developer response:** Hi, I hear you on those ad scenes, they really don't match the cozy puzzle vibe I'm going for. Sadly I don't get to handpick the ads (they come from an external network), and with millions of new creatives rolling in, blocking the bad ones is a bit like playing whack-a-mole 😅 I do block whole categories where I can (like alcohol or gambling), but monitoring all ads is simply not possible. ### 1/5 — Poor update *2026-04-02* Edit: I have now cancelled my annual subscription. I like this game so much I have a paid subscription but I really don’t like the new update. The placement of the “hint” button has lead me to click on it multiple times. Please move it to the right hand side instead of keeping it on the left! It makes me not want to play the game anymore due to frustration. **Developer response:** Autsch, that hurts ... only because that evil developer moved a button? I totally get how frustrating it is to accidentally click it when your muscle memory is used to the old layout. I really appreciate that you loved the game enough to subscribe in the first place. For the future, the support mail is usually the best way to get in touch with me directly to share layout feedback. Hope to win you back someday ✌️😊 ### 1/5 — Poor update *2026-02-05, version 1.6.3* I like this game so much I have a paid subscription but I really don’t like the new update. The placement of the “hint” button has lead me to click on it multiple times. Please move it to the right hand side instead of keeping it on the left! It makes me not want to play the game anymore due to frustration. ### 1/5 — Flawed *2025-02-02* First level I tried tells me there are no errors but one row, one column and one colour zone have no possible star placement. Happy to send a screenshot! **Developer response:** Hey Zonerstar, after more than 20.000 downloads it would be really strange if you were the first player that found a "flawed" level in the beginner packs ;) Feel free to shoot me a mail to help.hoshi@gmail.com with a screenshot of your game board, most of the time when user report such a problem to me they oversaw an error on the game board or didn't get the rules. Usually a small mail conversion is more helpful than writing a 1 star review :D ### 1/5 — Ads before and after you play *2024-12-30* Ads to refill play tokens, ads autoroll after every game. I’m shocked you don’t have to watch an ad to install the app. **Developer response:** Hey, thanks for your feedback! I totally understand that ads can be frustrating, but just to clarify—there isn’t an ad after every game. Interstitial ads actually have a cooldown of several days. Are you using the latest version and closing the ads properly? On a side note, ads help keep Tawa running, as the app currently costs more to maintain than it earns. Without them, there wouldn’t be a Hoshi at all! We always try to keep the balance fair, but I appreciate your thoughts and will take them into account. Thanks for giving the game a try! 😊 ### 1/5 — Flawed game, tells you there are no errors *2024-10-21* I recently downloaded and the first level tells me I have no errors but if I place the last star in the only available cell it says it is wrong… **Developer response:** Hey Concon23, after more than 20.000 downloads it would be really strange if you were the first player that found a "flawed" level in the beginner packs ;) Feel free to shoot me a mail with a screenshot of your game board, most of the time when user report such a problem to me they oversaw an error on the game board or didn't get the rules. Usually a small mail conversion is more helpful than writing a 1 star review :D ### 1/5 — Paid for ad free membership for a year and still have the ads *2024-03-25* I paid the $20 but it did nothing. It’s supposed to remove the ads but it didn’t. **Developer response:** Feel free to shoot me a mail to help.hoshi@gmail.com, usually such problems can be fixed easily with a bit more of information from your side. As you can guess, reviews are not the best way to get support :/ ### 2/5 — Many games hints are wrong *2026-08-22* Way too many of the games are mapped wrong. It won’t properly give hints. I paid for the year sub to unlock the packs & be able to use hints and they’re broken on many games. ### 2/5 — The ads need to be fixed *2025-04-10* The developer responded to another review saying it’s out of their control but that’s not true. In the past the app had shorter ads and other similar apps have shorter ads. I paid full year for another of your apps and I don’t get ads now which is great. I also paid for a pack here and I still get insane ads. There also aren’t that many games to play to justify these ads. After awhile there’s nothing else to play. **Developer response:** Hey Me94atany, thanks for the feedback! ❤️ I wouldn’t lie about ads—honestly, there was a misconfiguration that made some rewarded ads unskippable, but I’ve fixed that! Now, they’re skippable after 30 seconds. As for the puzzles, there are 356 daily puzzles per year, which should keep you busy for a while? 😊 ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Gutes Spiel! *2026-02-10* Nachdem ich das Spiel über mein iphone für ein Jahr gekauft hatte, hatte ich zunächst Probleme, auf allen Geräten die Packs kostenlos zu bekommen. Nach zwei Tagen ging es plötzlich. Die App gefällt mir sehr gut, lediglich die Farbaufteilung sollte so sein, dass benachbarte Bereiche nicht gleichfarbig sind. **Developer response:** Hi Backofengemüse, natürlich kannst du deine Subscription auf mehreren Endgeräten gleichzeitig nutzen. Wenn du das selbe Profil auf beiden Geräten nutzt, wird die Subscription ohne Probleme geteilt. In meiner Mail an dich am 15.01.2026 habe ich dir auch eine ausführliche Anleitung geschickt, auf die ich nie eine Antwort bekommen habe. Woran scheitert es? Frust in den Reviews raus zu lassen, hat meistens noch nie geholfen :D ### 5/5 — Anspruchsvolles Logikrätsel *2025-06-20* Schön umgesetzte App, fairer Werbeeinsatz, fesselnd ohne zu viel Zeit zu fressen. Nur wenn ein Daily ganz einfach ist (Level 1-2), bin ich etwas enttäuscht. **Developer response:** Hallo _henrik, vielen Dank für die 5 Sterne und das tolle Feedback! Es freut mich sehr, dass dir die Umsetzung und der faire Werbeeinsatz gefallen. 😊✌️ Deinen Punkt zu den leichten Dailys verstehe ich total. Die Schwierigkeit variiert bewusst, damit für jeden etwas dabei ist – aber klar, als Profi wartet man ungeduldig auf die nächste harte Nuss! Vielen Dank für deinen Support ❤️ ### 5/5 — Fun game *2025-06-18* Love this game! Please add more Genius (3 Star) packs!! ### 5/5 — Pleasantly Puzzling *2025-05-12* I tried a couple of other apps for this type of puzzle but none had the same sort of elegance in design. The included packs have kept me busy for hours and I love the weekly challenges. The real standout here is the clean user interface where you can mark your guesses and sub-guesses with a variety of colors. There’s even a relaxing music track which I put on when playing at night. Great game, great app. Very happy with my purchase. **Developer response:** Thank you so much, Bucho! 😊 Your review made my day. As a solo developer, I put a lot of love into the small things — clean UI, flexible note-taking, a bit of calm music — so it’s really rewarding to hear that those details stood out to you. Glad Hoshi found a cozy place in your puzzle routine! ❤️✌️ ### 5/5 — Good colour *2025-05-08* I loved that they did colours and how you can turn it off it really help I appreciate that you can do your own profile picture ### 5/5 — Really great game *2025-02-08* One of my favorites to play and develop new strategies for. Well worth it, the developer is responsive to changes. **Developer response:** Happy to hear, have fun playing! ❤️ ### 5/5 — Entretenido a la par que bonito *2025-01-20* Da gusto jugar a Hoshi. Tienes un montón de puzzles gratuitos y cuando te suscribes tienes muchos más, no tiene pinta de que los vaya a terminar en un futuro cercano porque añaden nuevos todos los días. La progresión de dificultad es adecuada y es de los pocos que incluyen guías para aprender a jugar. Además, la estética acompaña, el arte y las animaciones son las justas y necesarias para hacer la experiencia agradable y añade valor al juego. La opción de tener modo oscuro también se agradece. Como sugerencia creo que estaría bien añadir la opción del auto completar la línea al menos en el modo una estrella, al igual que se cancelan las de alrededor de la estrella, así el juego se hace más dinámico para los que lo prefieran. ### 5/5 — Great game *2024-10-16* Good interface, solid challenge ### 5/5 — Great game but somewhat ruined by unlimited checks *2024-08-05* Allowing unlimited checks is basically cheating, which makes the weekly competition pointless. If the checks are required because some games are too hard (as in not solvable by logic), those should be reworked/removed. Edit: for clarification, I wanted to say daily challenges, where your time is compared to other’s. As people can use unlimited checks, it’s not fair. The weekly challenge indeed has limited checks, although you can also cheat with those to a limit. I even felt I had to sometimes as I couldn’t progress otherwise. **Developer response:** Hey bandeszhu, I am not sure if I did get you right, but the weekly competition always has a check limit? Feel free to shoot me a mail with some more details ### 5/5 — Love the UI *2024-07-01* Great classic Star Battle puzzle app, ads aren’t too intrusive, and I like that there are daily and weekly puzzles with stats for how you compare with other users. My favourite part is the UI. It’s very easy to use and the highlighting is very helpful for solving. (Only gripe is that some of the colours are very similar in dark mode). I also appreciate the responsiveness of the developers. I reported a bug on their related Akari app, and got a very prompt response and fix. Unfortunately, I feel the puzzle packs are a bit expensive. I know of other puzzle apps where you can get 100 puzzles for $4.99 whereas it’s about twice the cost here. --- *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 2026-09-09.*