Comparison

INKS. vs Visual Pinball

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

INKS.

Experience a fresh take on pinball where each play session becomes a unique work of art. Smash an ink-covered ball across colorful canvases, creating vibrant layers and a visual history of your gameplay. Enjoy over 100 unique tables with perfectly balanced mechanics.

Highlights
  • Artistic pinball gameplay
  • Over 100 unique tables
  • Color-bursting mechanics
  • Visual game history
  • Share levels and scores
  • Tactical challenges
Features
Read full description

** App Store Best of 2016 ** ** Apple Design Award Winner 2016 ** From the makers of BAFTA-winning Lumino City comes INKS. INKS updates pinball for a new generation. It combines the joy of pinball with skilful tactical challenges, and allows you to create wondrous works of art as the ball smashes around the canvas. Blocks of colour burst like beautiful fireworks across the surface, building up in vivid layers and recording a visual history of your game as you perfect your score. FEATURES: - Beautiful and elegant design - Over 100 unique tables to play - Perfectly balanced gameplay - Each canvas tells the story of your game - Share your favourite levels and high scores If you're enjoying INKS and want to extend the experience further you can also buy Powerups - slow-mo 'Precision' aim, and the 'Stopper' to prevent you from losing the first precious Gold Ball. “Amazing looking... vibrant, full of life. Are we excited about this.” Pocket Gamer Inspired by artists like Miro, Matisse, Jackson Pollock and Bridget Riley, each table becomes a unique work of art, sculpted by the player as they fire an ink covered ball around the canvas. With State of Play’s creative flare and skill at crafting beautifully elegant gameplay, INKS offers something new: art and gameplay as one, for everyone.

About

Visual Pinball

Enjoy a realistic pinball simulation with hundreds of community-created tables. Experience immersive haptic feedback and customize your gameplay with intuitive settings and controller support. Advanced options are available for power users.

Highlights
  • Hundreds of community-developed tables
  • Haptic feedback for immersive gameplay
  • Customizable settings and POV adjustments
  • Game controller support
  • External DMD and AltColor/AltSound support
  • Touch overlay and instructions
Features
Read full description

Experience the open source pinball simulator now on your iPhone! Features: - Play hundreds of community and hobbyist-developed tables. - Feel the action with haptic feedback for bumpers, targets, and flippers. - Customize your experience with a simple, intuitive interface for settings, table options, and POV adjustments. - Game controller support. - External DMD support for ZeDMD, ZeDMD-WiFi, and Pixelcade devices. - Serum AltColor support. - AltSound support. - Touch overlay shows touch areas. - Step-by-step touch instructions when playing a table. - Advanced options for power users, including script and log file exports. - Support for iOS 18 Game Mode.

Screenshots

INKS.4 screens
Visual Pinball3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Visual Pinball at Free against INKS.'s $1.99. Visual Pinball also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 6). INKS.'s advantage is ratings volume (1.8K vs 45) and device support (3 vs 1). On rating, review sentiment and ads 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Visual Pinball is free to download; INKS. costs $1.99 up front. INKS. sells 6 one-off in-app purchases. Visual Pinball asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for INKS. against 4.6 for Visual Pinball. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: INKS. has 1.8K ratings behind it against 45, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 76% of INKS.'s written reviews are positive against 79% of Visual Pinball's.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
INKS. versus Visual Pinball: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterINKS.Visual Pinball
Price$1.99Free — better
Rating4.7 (1.8K ratings) — better4.6 (45 ratings)
Positive reviews76.0% of reviews78.6% of reviews — better
Number of ratings1.8K — better45
Update frequencyMonthly—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS9.1 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size443 MB87 MB
Age rating4+9+
DeveloperState of Play GamesJason Millard

Customer experience

INKS.

All ratings1,831 ratings
Positive92.4%
Neutral3.6%
Negative4.0%
Written reviews463 reviews
Positive76.0%
Neutral11.4%
Negative12.5%

Visual Pinball

All ratings45 ratings
Positive91.1%
Neutral2.2%
Negative6.7%
Written reviews56 reviews
Positive78.6%
Neutral12.5%
Negative8.9%

User reviews

INKS.

From 1.8K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🎨 Beautiful and artistic design
  • 👍 Relaxing and calming gameplay
  • 🎨 Satisfying color splatter effects
  • 👍 Simple and intuitive controls
  • 🎨 Unique take on the pinball genre

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Unresponsive or laggy flipper controls
  • 🔋 Drains battery life quickly
  • 🐛 Occasional crashes or glitches
  • 🤔 Levels can be too short or repetitive

Visual Pinball

From 45 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Awesome way to play virtual pinball on the go
  • 👍 Super easy to set up with minimal file prep time
  • 👍 Insane that I can play favorite pins on just my phone
  • 👍 Fantastic portable implementation of VPX
  • 👍 Fun and exciting to archive the history of pinball

Room to improve

  • 🔧 More ability to adjust table settings needed
  • 🔧 Struggling to manage camera angle
  • 🔧 No fullscreen on iPad, plunger and outlanes cropped
  • 🔧 Some tables don't work or have issues

Bugs and requests

INKS.

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Flipper controls not registering properly
  • Game freezes or crashes on certain levels
  • Powerups not working as intended

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add more levels and gameplay variety
  • Implement a sandbox or freeplay mode
  • Include background music or sound options
  • Add support for tilt/shake controls

Visual Pinball

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Tables don't load for some users
  • Certain complex/intensive tables error out or run at low FPS

Requested features

6 requests
  • List of most played tables
  • Ability to reposition DMD
  • Option to skip startup checks for some tables
  • Ability to edit table scripts on the app
  • Direct link to table depository
Show 1 more
  • iPad version with more screen space

In-app purchases

6 purchases

INKS.

One-time6
  • VespaFree
  • PlushFree
  • 160 Credits$0.99
Show 3 more
  • 350 Credits$1.99
  • 800 Credits$3.99
  • Infinite Credits$11.99
None

Visual Pinball

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is INKS. free?
INKS. costs $1.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is Visual Pinball free?
Visual Pinball is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, INKS. or Visual Pinball?
INKS. is rated higher. INKS. averages 4.7 out of 5 from 1.8K ratings, while Visual Pinball averages 4.6 from 45 ratings.
Do INKS. or Visual Pinball have ads?
Neither INKS. nor Visual Pinball shows ads.

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