TIS vs Recursive
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
TIS
Engage in an assembly language programming game where you rewrite corrupted code to fix a fictional computer. Explore a detailed manual, solve over 20 challenging puzzles, and design your own custom levels. Uncover the secrets of this unique retro-style computing experience.
- Assembly language programming puzzles
- Code rewriting and debugging
- Over 20 challenging puzzles
- Design custom challenges
- Explore retro computer manual
- Unlock game secrets
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TIS-100 is an open-ended programming game by Zachtronics, the creators of SpaceChem and Infinifactory, in which you rewrite corrupted code segments to repair the TIS-100 and unlock its secrets. It’s the assembly language programming game you never asked for! * Print and explore the TIS-100 reference manual, which details the inner-workings of the TIS-100 while evoking the aesthetics of a 1980’s computer manual! * Solve more than 20 puzzles, competing against your friends and the world to minimize your cycle, instruction, and node counts. * Design your own challenges in the TIS-100’s 3 sandboxes, including a “visual console” that lets you create your own games within the game! * Uncover the mysteries of the TIS-100… who created it, and for what purpose?
Recursive
A challenging puzzle game where you guide robots to collect gems by creating simple programs. Master recursion and logic with a minimalistic, easy-to-learn language and diverse level elements.
- Learn a simple programming language
- Solve puzzles with robots and gems
- Master recursion concepts
- Explore diverse level elements
- Challenging, hard puzzles
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Recursive is a puzzle game about recursion, patterns, and programming. It is the perfect game for people who love hard puzzles. Your goal is to help little robots complete their mission and collect all gems by finding the correct pattern and translating it into a short program. # Programming language (no prior knowledge required) The programming language is minimalistic and easy to learn. It doesn't require any prior programming knowledge and consists of only four instructions. - Move forward: Move one cell forward. - Rotate left: Rotate 90° left in place. - Rotate right: Rotate 90° right in place. - Change color: Load a chip of a specified color and execute the instructions it contains. And even with this simple programming language, robots can follow complex patterns thanks to the power of recursion and to other tricks that you can discover along with your progression in the game. # Rich levels Recursive offers a large variety of levels thanks to supporting multiple types of elements. - Robots: They can have different colors that reflect the chip they have loaded. - Gems: Your goal is to collect all of them. - Bugs: They destroy robots and make them disappear. - Chips: They make robots load a different program. - Teleportation gates: They make robots teleport to a different location. - Inactive robots: They are activated when touched by another robot. # Mastering recursion Recursion is said to be hard to understand as a famous quote attributed to Stephen Hawking says: "To understand recursion, one must first understand recursion." However, we believe that playing Recursive is another fun way to understand it or even master it.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Recursive at 4.9 against TIS's 4.1. Recursive also leads on review sentiment (71% vs 57%) and device support (4 vs 1). TIS's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 3) and iOS requirement (6.0 vs 14.0). On ratings volume, ads and monetization model 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
TIS costs $3.99 and Recursive $2.99 up front. Recursive sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. TIS asks for nothing beyond the download.
Recursive holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.1. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 66 and 28 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 57% of TIS's written reviews are positive against 71% of Recursive's.
| Parameter | TIS | Recursive |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $3.99 | $2.99 — better |
| Rating | 4.1 (66 ratings) | 4.9 (28 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 56.9% of reviews | 71.4% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 66 — better | 28 |
| Update frequency | — | Every 4 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Devices | iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 6.0 — better | 14.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 77 MB | 4 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Metaversal Studios | Kidori |
Customer experience
TIS
Recursive
Bugs and requests
TIS
Reported bugs
4 issues- Latest version has hitches/freezes
- Keyboard cutoff on iPad Mini
- Custom keyboard is clunky
- Half keyboard accessible on some devices
Requested features
6 requests- Add external keyboard support
- Improve on-screen keyboard usability
- Allow text scaling/zoom
- Make manual accessible in-app
- Support iPhone
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- Add dark mode
Recursive
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
TIS
No in-app purchases
Recursive
- 10 hint credits$0.99
- 20 hint credits$1.99
- 40 hint credits$2.99









