Impulse One vs Highwind
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?
Highwind
Control a paper plane with two buttons to shoot enemies and defend yourself. Upgrade your plane's capabilities and unlock new aircraft as you progress through randomly generated waves and different dimensions.
- Simple two-button controls
- Unlockable planes with different stats
- Upgradeable health, shield, and ammo
- Randomly selected enemy waves
- Multiple game styles including infinite mode
- Minigames with unique mechanics
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In Highwind you control a paper plane using only two buttons. You will destroy enemy planes and protect your own. Tapping the right side of the screen will shoot bullets and holding the left side will activate the shield. The shield blocks and reflects bullets back to your enemies. Fight different enemy planes and obstacles, each with different behavior. Travel to different dimensions and avoid obstacles on the way. As you progress through the game you will be able to purchase upgrades to your health, shield and ammo. Also, each time you beat a level you will get a power up that will help you defeat your enemies. Each time you play you will accumulate points that will unlock new planes and new game styles. Try to beat the game in each one of the different styles! Features -Simple controls: Play with only two buttons -Different game styles: Five variations of the game including an infinite mode -Minigames: Three additional sections with different mechanics -A different experience each play: Enemy waves are randomly selected from a predefined set -Upgrades and power ups: Purchase upgrades to your shield, ammo and health. Get a power up every level -Different airplanes: Unlock new airplanes with different stats
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Impulse One at Free against Highwind's $0.99. Impulse One also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 71%) and iOS requirement (9.0 vs 15.6). Highwind's advantage is ratings volume (11 vs 2). On rating, update cadence, 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
Impulse One is free to download; Highwind costs $0.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Impulse One holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Highwind has 11 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 100% of Impulse One's written reviews are positive against 71% of Highwind's.
Impulse One ships an update every 11 months, Highwind every 21 months. The most recent releases landed on October 7, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Impulse One | Highwind |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $0.99 |
| Rating | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better | 4.8 (11 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better | 71.4% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 2 | 11 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 11 months — better | Every 21 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 9.0 — better | 15.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 301 MB | 169 MB |
| Age rating | 9+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Kurt Dekker | Selva Interactive |
Customer experience
Impulse One
Highwind
In-app purchases
Impulse One
No in-app purchases
Highwind
No in-app purchases









