Loco Looper vs Recursive
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Loco Looper
Engage your mind with a unique 3D train puzzle game. Connect track pieces to create perfect paths through charming, handcrafted dioramas. Enjoy cerebral fun with increasingly challenging levels.
- 3D train track puzzles
- Handcrafted diorama levels
- Challenging brain teasers
- Unique pen & ink art style
- Natural 3D effect
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Trains. Fluffy Clouds. Planets. Stars. Even a seagull. Cute, tricky cerebral fun. Get on the brain train with this original puzzle game! Make a perfect track using all the pieces. The harder the level, the more ways to solve. Handcrafted levels, each a pen & ink style love letter to mini dioramas and trains. A neat 3D effect makes the game naturally POP when holding your device (no face tracking required). Loco Looper is designed and written for iPhone & iPad using Swift and Metal. Move fast and make nice things!
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 in-app purchases: Loco Looper at none against Recursive's 3. Loco Looper also leads on review sentiment (88% vs 71%) and chart position (#195 vs unranked). Recursive's advantage is update cadence (every 4 days vs monthly) and rating (4.9 vs 4.7). On ads, monetization model, device support and iOS requirement 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
Loco Looper costs $4.99 and Recursive $2.99 up front. Recursive sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Loco Looper asks for nothing beyond the download.
Recursive holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.7. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 110 and 28 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 88% of Loco Looper's written reviews are positive against 71% of Recursive's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Loco Looper ships an update monthly, Recursive every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and August 29, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Loco Looper | Recursive |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $4.99 | $2.99 — better |
| Rating | 4.7 (110 ratings) | 4.9 (28 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 87.5% of reviews — better | 71.4% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 110 — better | 28 |
| Update frequency | Monthly | Every 4 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Best chart rank | #195 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 15.5 | 14.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 67 MB | 4 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | James Vanas | Kidori |
Customer experience
Loco Looper
Recursive
In-app purchases
Loco Looper
No in-app purchases
Recursive
- 10 hint credits$0.99
- 20 hint credits$1.99
- 40 hint credits$2.99
Questions
Is Loco Looper free?
Is Recursive free?
Which has better reviews, Loco Looper or Recursive?
Do Loco Looper or Recursive have ads?
Which is updated more often, Loco Looper or Recursive?
Other comparisons
