Lava Llama vs Hamster Maze
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Lava Llama
Guide a llama through an 8-bit world, escaping rising lava and avoiding obstacles. Explore new levels with retro graphics and immersive music. Stay alive as long as possible in this fast-paced arcade runner.
- 8-bit graphics and music
- Procedurally generated levels
- Obstacle avoidance
- Multiple llama characters
- Increasing difficulty
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Llama, meet lava. Now run away from that lava...as quickly as you can! Enter into an 8-bit world with exciting 8-bit graphics and immersive 8-bit music as you guide your llama to 8-bit safety. Discover new levels at altitudes high and low! Watch out for pineapples, pigeons and more! What caused this massive volcanic eruption anyway? How far will the lava go? Don't question the premise -- JUST STAY ALIVE! Future app updates will include new levels, music, obstacles, llamas...and more!
Hamster Maze
Guide a cute hamster through challenging mazes filled with interactive obstacles. Customize your pet with various accessories and unlock new items as you progress. Experience thrilling new gameplay mechanics like gliding and bubble riding.
- Navigate mazes with obstacles
- Climb stairs, swing, crawl, roll
- Intuitive one-hand control
- Hamster customization and rescue
- Glider and bubble gameplay
- Unlockable customizations
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Guide your funny and cute hamster through the maze full of obstacles. Climb stairs, balance on swing, crawl over balls, roll through tubes and pass many other funny and interactive barriers. Nothing can stop you on your way to the desired food! Lead the hamster with intuitive one-hand control and enjoy the funny animations of your pet. Customize your hamster however you want! Rescue the hamsters to choose them. Change their clothes, accessories, hats and even moustache. Combine them to get the most stylish or the funniest hamster. Progress through the game to unlock even more customizations. Feel the speed and the freedom of the flight with the new glider gameplay. Jump into a pool full of soap bubbles to ride one and reach the higher places. Can you beat the obstacle course and escape the maze? No hamster was harmed during the development of this game!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Lava Llama at none against Hamster Maze's 10. Lava Llama also leads on review sentiment (89% vs 62%) and iOS requirement (9.0.0 vs 12.0). Hamster Maze's advantage is ratings volume (48K vs 20). On price, rating, update cadence 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
Both are free to download. Hamster Maze sells 8 one-off in-app purchases. Lava Llama asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.5 for Lava Llama against 4.7 for Hamster Maze. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Hamster Maze has 48K ratings behind it against 20, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 89% of Lava Llama's written reviews are positive against 62% of Hamster Maze's.
Lava Llama ships an update every 3 months, Hamster Maze every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on November 2, 2026 and November 7, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Lava Llama | Hamster Maze |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (20 ratings) | 4.7 (48K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 88.9% of reviews — better | 62.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 20 | 48K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Every 2 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 9.0.0 — better | 12.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 74 MB | 331 MB |
| Age rating | 9+ | 9+ |
| Developer | Great Intrigue LLC | ZPLAY (HK) TECHNOLOGY CO., LIMITED |
Customer experience
Lava Llama
Hamster Maze
Bugs and requests
Lava Llama
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Hamster Maze
Reported bugs
4 issues- Game freezes when trying to name new hamster
- Unable to progress past level 9 due to glitch
- Ads still present even after purchasing ad-free version
- Hamster getting stuck or unable to be saved
Requested features
4 requests- Ability to rename hamsters
- More customization options for hamster house
- Reduced ad frequency or ad-free mode
- Smoother progression and fewer game-breaking bugs
In-app purchases
Lava Llama
No in-app purchases
Hamster Maze
- Some Fruits$0.99
- No Ads$1.99
- A lot of fruits$3.99
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- Unicorn Skin Pack$4.99
- Sheriff Skin Pack$4.99
- Dress Up Pack$7.99
- House Upgrade$7.99
- Starter Pack3 variants$9.99
