# Wavecade — user reviews > 54 indexed App Store user reviews of Wavecade by Andrew Spalato, rated 3.69/5 from 70 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/wavecade/id1661057707/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/wavecade/id1661057707.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 40 · 4★ 2 · 3★ 6 · 2★ 6 · 1★ 15 ## Newest reviews (15 of 54) ### 4/5 — Very unique! *2025-07-02, version 1.9* Very unique. Unlike any shmup I’ve played. Congrats!! I don’t like the Ads but I understand the strategy for mobile. I see the game is on Steam with a demo and full version to purchase at a reasonable price. I suppose I’ll purchase on Steam instead if I like it enough. I am just one person but I’d prefer not to have ads 80-dollar “jewel” packs or whatever. Amazing work on the game design!! Cheers! ### 4/5 — Such promise *2025-03-06, version 1.8.51* Very unique. Unlike any shmup I’ve played. Congrats!! Bug: when I got to the Zomero boss by skip disappeared! He just fires at nothing and I can’t lose a ship or progress! Quirk: Zomero’s dialog doesn’t progress after he speaks the next line, near the end of the “conversation” and I keep having to press “skip” I don’t like the Ads. Keep fixing the bugs!! Cheers! ### 4/5 — Needs work *2025-01-14, version 1.8.51* Very confused with boss, game doesn’t tell you how to kill it, couldn’t find a single use for the blue coins, and the add spam after every game is pretty bad. Would be better if ur game didn’t have to be smooshed at the top of screen, u don’t get enough time to react (yes it goes faster) but it’s very unbalanced. Oh and one other thing on hit game mode is completely impossible. ### 2/5 — Buggy *2024-06-03, version 1.8.51* Keeps telling me to press SPACE to continue, but I’m on iPhone.. any chance we can fix this? Literally can’t play it. ### 3/5 — One major problem… *2024-03-14, version 1.8.31* This seems like a really fun game but I tried to play it with a ps4 and Xbox controller but I was unable to move left and right. If you could fix this then I would be happy to update my review ### 4/5 — Absolute awesome retro shoot em up mix *2023-12-14* There is one issue for me .. when you score a combo or any +1500 in Addition...the displaying of that number (..+2000)...is overshown and it blurs the action your ship is going through... Please could you find another way of DISPLAYING these +numbers of won xp's.. The effects are nice but this issue really weakens the feel of this game..thanks for noticing..then you'll get 5 stars for sure **Developer response:** Please try the latest version v1.7.2! ### 2/5 — Spiel mit Potential *2023-06-12* Gutes Spiel mit coolen Fähigkeiten. Leider stürzt das Spiel in allen Situationen ab, sodass es nicht möglich ist hochzulvln, das Schiff zu optimieren, oder generell einfach das Spiel zu genießen. In seltenen Fällen aktiviert man eine Fähigkeit und es passiert nichts. Es ist zum jetzigen Zeitpunkt unspielbar und ich hätte mir gewünscht dass es zu Beginn wenigstens kostenlos wäre! **Developer response:** Please try the latest update, please email spalatobros@gmail.com if you have any problems. ### 3/5 — Disappointing *2023-06-10, version 1.5.1* Enjoyed this game at first but updates have made it more buggy and crash prone. And also upset that a bunch of IAPs were added to a premium game. Also, can you please add actual relative touch? This means you move the ship relative to your finger’s position — not that it’s always under your finger. There are many other shmups on the App Store that do this correctly. (Like the Phoenix games for example) ### 2/5 — Nearly trash *2023-05-26, version 1.5.1* This game could not run without being logged into game center for some reason, and every time I was able to get to a playable moment a large command code pop up box appeared on the left of the screen I could not remove. Loss of $. ### 4/5 — Problème crash application *2023-05-20* Bonjour, L’application crash lorsque je lance le jeu et parfois pendant que je joue. De plus le setting contrôle n’est pas adapté à iOS. Sinon voilà un beau jeu et très sympa. Merci ### 2/5 — Latest Update *2023-04-24, version 1.5* The latest update doesn’t allow me to get past the first screen; it immediately crashes. This is at least a four-star game so I’ll adjust the rating once fixed. ### 2/5 — Amazing until it CRASHES *2023-04-09, version 1.4.4* I really enjoy this game. It has a great layout, simple. The fast/ slow movement gameplay makes for amazing control. The colors and music add to the experience - awesome! Why 2 stars? THE APP KEEPS RANDOMLY CRASHING IN THE MIDDLE OF GAMEPLAY. I’ll be up to 3 million, doing great and the app crashes….what the what!? ### 2/5 — Needs some Adjustments: *2023-03-21, version 1.4.4* Here are the Pros and Cons of the current game: *I’m using an iPad Pro 6th Generation* Cons: - Lag Often - Lag Spikes - Game shuts down - iPad gets very hot after very short time of playing - Somehow unable to use a Keyboard as the control even though there is a setting to see what to press to play the game - The touch control is not often instant - Decreases battery quickly Pros: - Incredible Graphics - Very clean visuals ( when the game don’t bug ) Things to Change including changes to the cons: - Add a switch to play the game with or without ProMotion ( 120hz ) - Fix Keyboard Support - Make the spaceship move quicker when using touch controls or any control - Add Apple Pencil support *Will update this review in the coming updates* Thanks! Game does not launch anymore, very disappointed. Please fix ### 2/5 — Doesn’t without Game Center *2023-03-20, version 1.4.4* Hey guys would love to play but you gotta give us a way to do so without Game Center. I’m just stuck on “Signing in to Game Center”. ### 3/5 — Frequently Crashes *2023-03-15, version 1.4.4* The game is fun overall. Unfortunately, it consistently crashes on me whenever I’m playing for 5 min or more. I hope this issue gets fixed. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — ‘Press Space to continue’ *2025-04-20, version 1.8.51* Errm, ok?! ### 1/5 — Unable to play the game *2024-05-17, version 1.8.50* On my device iPhone 15 pro max, when starting the game it just says press space to enter. I can’t enter becuase I don’t have a keyboard ### 1/5 — Crashes on all devices *2024-02-13, version 1.8* I cannot play this on my iPad Pro 5th gen, my M3 Max MacBook Pro or my iPhone 15 Pro. It crashes every single time. Sometimes it plays for five minutes sometimes it crashes immediately. I’ve closed all other apps, restarted, uninstalled and reinstalled, and tried to make it work, but it just fails. Do not recommend. ### 1/5 — Doesn’t seem to work right, it’s not quite ready. *2023-05-26, version 1.5.1* If I could get my money back I would, but you can’t. ### 1/5 — Won’t run on iPhone 14 Pro Max *2023-05-12, version 1.5* Wish I knew what was going on. LOVE this game, but the Title Screen comes up and then the app closes within a few seconds. Sigh. ### 1/5 — Crashes. *2023-05-02, version 1.5* Has been crashing on iPhone 12 mini for the last couple updates. Please fix. ### 1/5 — Crashes Constantly - don’t buy *2023-03-14, version 1.4.4* Playing on an iPhone 14 Pro and crashes every time I’ve played. Disappointing to pay for something so buggy. ### 1/5 — Buggy mess *2023-03-14, version 1.4.4* I have an iPhone 14 pro max. This thing has closed out multiple times in the middle of playing. The menus are a mess. Filled with glitchy laggy pop ups. Not worth $3. ### 1/5 — Won’t open *2023-03-14, version 1.4.4* Game won’t open. Frozen at the “photosynthesis warning” page. Please refund my money. ### 1/5 — Can’t even open the game *2023-03-05, version 1.4.2* I spent money on this and your just going to shut it down fix this ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Nice game *2024-08-27* I downloaded the game. its a very good game ### 5/5 — Stunning *2024-04-11, version 1.8.45* Thanks for fixing gamepad issue ❤️ ### 5/5 — This game should be rated higher *2024-03-24, version 1.8.33* Every review you look at is from over a year ago, where the game was $2 and in a very underdeveloped state. Here is my take on the most recent version of the game as of writing this review, which is almost an entirely different game than what it used to be. If you are confused as to what the game is, read this review, but if you are just quickly looking for my opinion, yes, I HIGHLY recommend this. GAMEPLAY First of all, this game is an arcade shooter, but with a more modern twist. The goal of the game is to destroy blocks, enemies, and bosses in waves and increase your score. There are plenty of game modes to try, each with different challenges or changes. The interesting twists to the gameplay is that as you move up and down, the speed of the game slows down or speeds up, like the game superhot. The second biggest aspect is the powerups, which are extremely powerful modifiers to your ship (also could be a crab) that are designed to release dopamine inside your brain. You can stack powerups, and they are all useful. And to wrap up this gameplay summary, the soundtrack is phenomenal, you must play this game with sound. MULTIPLAYER This game has multiplayer, and it is cross platform, too. You can either play on a local network, or create an online lobby to play with others (but as of writing this review, the player base is extremely small). I have played with my friends on an online network, because we couldn’t figure out how to use the local one, and it worked very well and it was a blast. This game is both designed for solo and co-op, something other games do a hard job of. PROBLEMS The game is free now, so there are ads and micro transactions. When you lose all your lives (in certain game modes), the game offers you an extra life for an ad, which is a very scummy thing to do, but I don’t blame the devs, after you play a game, you are forced to watch a short ad. Overall, the ads aren’t spammy and ti keep it free, it is the best solution. To remove ads, you have to make any purchase. As of writing this review, you can only buy the purple gem things. They are used to purchase skins and textures to customize your ship, but you can gain these gems just by playing normally, so you aren’t locked by a paywall. I don’t know what the blue coin things are. PLAY THIS GAME IF YOU ARE EVEN CONSIDERING IT ### 5/5 — Must Play — @HE3AKOHHO *2024-03-19* Awesome game! The soundtrack, visuals, achievements and game modes are very cool. But I played on iPhone 11 Pro and the game didn't seem optimized for my phone because the game crashes after 5-10 minutes. I hope this will be fixed in the future. Thanks! Really enjoying the game. PSN/XBOX @HE3AKOHHO Twitter/X @HE3AKOHHO_ Telegram @HE3AKOHHO ### 5/5 — I like the game but right now you can’t play it *2024-01-03* I think you accidentally ported the pc version to mobile. It shows the text „Press [ _ ] to join…“ and you can’t do anything on mobile. I think adding some sort of portal or warp stops ability would be cool. Wait nvm the bug. I see the controls to gamepad. Maybe you should make the button always visible or something. I found it tho. **Developer response:** Please try the latest version v1.7.2! ### 5/5 — Excellent Shmup, responsive devs *2023-11-02, version 1.6.3* Fun shmup that I discovered at PAX AUS 2023. Small indie devs that have captured the fun side of blasting everything in site. Responsive to questions and quirks on their discord and regular updates makes this an easy ★★★★★ for me. ### 5/5 — Amazing arcade shooter *2023-11-01, version 1.6.3* If you like arcade shooters then Wavecade is for you! ### 5/5 — Great job! *2023-02-05, version 1.4* I love arcade-type games, and this is one of my favorites. The music is fantastic and the gameplay is really interesting and satisfying. Chaining power ups and obliterating blocks with these visuals is very beautiful and the customization of the ship is something I haven’t seen before. For $2, this game is a steal. I’m glad this game is still getting updates, and I have one concern regarding mobile controls. If you are right handed, chances are you move the ship with your right hand. But the Nade bombs and other abilities are also on the right side. So in order to press the ability button you have to either cross hands or stop the ship for a second or two. These are both super inconvenient to do, and results with me sometimes neglecting the abilities altogether, which are big parts of gameplay. I suggest adding a option in the settings that can change what side the abilities are on. Thank you so much for not making pay-to-win crap. Continue making stuff like this in the future! **Developer response:** Thank you for the review! We are hard at work improving the game and adding support for different play styles as well as content. Stay tuned for updates coming soon or join our discord found on our website http://wavecade.com.au ### 5/5 — Great game *2023-01-30, version 1.4* This is a awesome game ,theres a exp system aswell as a level up system. As you level up you unlock different ships,trails,etc.. this game is really fun in my opinion except there are some glitches that may need to be tweaked and fixed a bit ive stumbled across this bug that when I’ve made it far into a level/round and i die the Game crashes and i lose all of my progress please fix this devs. :) ### 5/5 — Honestly amazing *2023-01-09, version 1.3* I’ve played a few different shooters like this. Most you will play are pay 2 win crap. This here is a premium title, has MULTIPLE different game modes to play, no limit on how much you can play. Has CROSSPLAT multiplayer with mobile, switch, pc. Has leaderboards to grind for. Has a leveling up system, at the end of runs you get XP which can level your profile up and unlock new designs and customizations. That leads me to customization. This game offers it! Customize your ship, enemies, sound, abilities, colors etc. it’s honestly a blast. It has some bugs but the dev is always on top of it fixing up what needs to be fixed and adding things. Definitely worth a grab if this is a game you’d enjoy --- *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 2026-06-10.*