Impulse One vs River Rider
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Impulse One
Pilot a spaceship to rescue stranded employees from a chaotic company. Navigate challenging environments with high gravity, timed conditions, and combat.
- Rescue stranded employees
- Impulse-driven spaceship piloting
- High gravity challenges
- Timed conditions
- Combat with incoming fire
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The soda fountains are on overload. Coffee service has been suspended. A technical state of panic exists. The employees are terrified by arbitrary design decision changes. Rescue stranded employees of the PLBM Games company and return them safely to home in your impulse-driven spaceship. This game is challenging... Can you land the spaceship safely? In high gravity? Under stressful timed conditions? In combat? With real bullets coming back at you?
River Rider
Navigate a treacherous river, collecting eggs to grow your school of fish. Dodge obstacles, unlock new characters with coins, and survive diverse regions in this endless procedural game.
- Infinite side-scrolling gameplay
- Procedurally generated levels
- Collect eggs to grow fish school
- Unlock new characters with coins
- Navigate treacherous river environments
- Destroy land and rock sections
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Dodge rocks and navigate tight river banks as you collect eggs and grow your school. Collect coins to unlock exciting new characters. In this infinitely side-scrolling procedural-generated inertia-driven action game, lead a band of brave Fish through a treacherous river. Increase your numbers by breaking open eggs along the way. Destroy sections of land and rocks while attempting to survive four unique regions.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Impulse One at 5.0 against River Rider's 4.4. Impulse One also leads on update cadence (every 11 months vs every 31 months). River Rider's advantage is ratings volume (7 vs 2). On price, review sentiment, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Impulse One holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.4. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2 and 7 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.
Impulse One ships an update every 11 months, River Rider every 31 months. The most recent releases landed on October 7, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Impulse One | River Rider |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better | 4.4 (7 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 2 | 7 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 11 months — better | Every 31 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 9.0 | 9.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 301 MB | 81 MB |
| Age rating | 9+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Kurt Dekker | Bret Black |
Customer experience
Impulse One
River Rider
In-app purchases
Impulse One
No in-app purchases
River Rider
No in-app purchases
