Comparison

Play, Cat, Play 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

Play, Cat, Play

A tablet game designed for feline entertainment, featuring four distinct modes like mouse chase and laser pointer. It offers an immersive, ad-free, and purchase-free experience for cats.

Highlights
  • Four unique game modes
  • No scorekeeping
  • Full screen immersive play
  • No in-app purchases
  • No advertisements
  • No malware
Read full description

This is a tablet game for your cat! I know there are a few out there already, but this one has a few unique qualities that both you, and your cat, are sure to enjoy. *No score! Cats don't keep score, they just want to play! *No in-app purchases! You get the WHOLE game (all 4 modes) for one very low price! *No advertisements! Advertisements for cats?!?! How ridiculous! *No malware! I can't believe I even have to say this! *Full screen, immersive play so your cat can't leave the game on you! So, on with the game! There are four modes for your kitty to enjoy: Mouse Chase - Watch the mouse run in-and-out of its holes! Whack-A-Mole - See if your cat is fast enough to bop the mole! Laser Pointer - A classic crowd pleaser! Bell-Toy - A feathered toy with jingly bells on the end of it! This game is rated E for Every Cat!! If you and your feline friends enjoy this game, please rate and review it!

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

The official Visual Pinball app. Built by volunteers since 2000 and open source since 2010, Visual Pinball is the simulator the virtual pinball community has been playing for over two decades. More than 70 people have contributed to it, and this app runs the same engine as the desktop version, so every table plays with the physics, lighting and sound its creator intended. No ads. No in-app purchases. No tracking. Made by volunteers. Two years of work from the Visual Pinball volunteers, in one update. Thank you for your patience, and for playing! A FRESH NEW LOOK • Redesigned for iOS 26 with Liquid Glass • Favorites and recently played tables at the top of your list • Search, sorting and three tile sizes • Light, Dark or System appearance • New loading screen that shows progress THE FULL DESKTOP EXPERIENCE • The complete Visual Pinball in-game menu for graphics, sound, controls and table options • Remap every button on keyboards and game controllers • Save settings for every table, or just the one you're playing MORE TABLES, LOOKING BETTER • Show the backglass and score display (DMD, alphanumeric or reels) on screen, right where you want them • Support for PUP packs, FlexDMD, B2S backglasses, video playback and VNI colorizations • All the latest physics and rendering improvements from the desktop version • Much lower memory use: textures are compressed on first load, then cached EASIER TABLE MANAGEMENT • Import .zip files, along with .vpx and .vpxz • Share any table as a single .vpxz file • The web file manager can now upload whole folders, extract archives, edit scripts and settings, and show the log live AND MORE • Many stability and memory fixes This version requires iOS 26.6 or later.

Screenshots

Play, Cat, Play4 screens
Visual Pinball3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Visual Pinball at 79% against Play, Cat, Play's 33%. Visual Pinball also leads on price (Free vs $0.99) and rating (4.3 vs 3.0). Play, Cat, Play's advantage is update cadence (every 6 weeks vs every 12 months) and iOS requirement (17 vs 26.6). On ads, in-app purchases and device support 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; Play, Cat, Play costs $0.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Visual Pinball holds the better App Store score, 4.3 against 3.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Visual Pinball has 74 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 33% of Play, Cat, Play's written reviews are positive against 79% of Visual Pinball's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Play, Cat, Play ships an update every 6 weeks, Visual Pinball every 12 months. The most recent releases landed on October 19, 2026 and October 22, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Play, Cat, Play versus Visual Pinball: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPlay, Cat, PlayVisual Pinball
Price$0.99Free — better
Rating3.0 (2 ratings)4.3 (74 ratings) — better
Positive reviews33.3% of reviews78.6% of reviews — better
Number of ratings274 — better
Update frequencyEvery 6 weeks — betterEvery 12 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17 — better26.6
Further details — not scored
Size14 MB120 MB
Age rating4+9+
DeveloperRobert KeiferJason Millard

Customer experience

Play, Cat, Play

All ratings2 ratings
Positive50.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative50.0%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive33.3%
Neutral0.0%
Negative66.7%

Visual Pinball

All ratings73 ratings
Positive80.8%
Neutral6.8%
Negative12.3%
Written reviews56 reviews
Positive78.6%
Neutral12.5%
Negative8.9%

Bugs and requests

Play, Cat, Play

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

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

None

Play, Cat, Play

No in-app purchases

None

Visual Pinball

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Play, Cat, Play free?
Play, Cat, Play costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Visual Pinball free?
Visual Pinball is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Play, Cat, Play or Visual Pinball?
Visual Pinball is rated higher. Play, Cat, Play averages 3.0 out of 5 from 2 ratings, while Visual Pinball averages 4.3 from 74 ratings.
Do Play, Cat, Play or Visual Pinball have ads?
Neither Play, Cat, Play nor Visual Pinball shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Play, Cat, Play or Visual Pinball?
Play, Cat, Play ships an update every 6 weeks, and Visual Pinball every 12 months. Most recently, Play, Cat, Play was updated on October 19, 2026 and Visual Pinball on October 22, 2026.

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