Highwind vs SicTransit
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Highwind
Control a paper plane with two buttons to shoot enemies and defend yourself. Upgrade your plane's capabilities and unlock new aircraft as you progress through randomly generated waves and different dimensions.
- Simple two-button controls
- Unlockable planes with different stats
- Upgradeable health, shield, and ammo
- Randomly selected enemy waves
- Multiple game styles including infinite mode
- Minigames with unique mechanics
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In Highwind you control a paper plane using only two buttons. You will destroy enemy planes and protect your own. Tapping the right side of the screen will shoot bullets and holding the left side will activate the shield. The shield blocks and reflects bullets back to your enemies. Fight different enemy planes and obstacles, each with different behavior. Travel to different dimensions and avoid obstacles on the way. As you progress through the game you will be able to purchase upgrades to your health, shield and ammo. Also, each time you beat a level you will get a power up that will help you defeat your enemies. Each time you play you will accumulate points that will unlock new planes and new game styles. Try to beat the game in each one of the different styles! Features -Simple controls: Play with only two buttons -Different game styles: Five variations of the game including an infinite mode -Minigames: Three additional sections with different mechanics -A different experience each play: Enemy waves are randomly selected from a predefined set -Upgrades and power ups: Purchase upgrades to your shield, ammo and health. Get a power up every level -Different airplanes: Unlock new airplanes with different stats
SicTransit
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SicTransit provides endless hours of fun with procedurally-generated levels — never play the same game twice! SicTransit throws you a classic retro-style challenge: can you fly a ship inertially within a closed level, without bumping around like a flipper ball, and just stay alive? To complete a level, you have to destroy all its rocky debris (asteroids and planets) within a certain amount of time, so the most important thing is to get acquainted with classic inertial controls — rotate left, rotate right, thrust. Plus shoot, of course: make sure to have a look at the Ctrl screen before playing. Once you've cleared a level, just return to the starting spot, and you'll advance to the next level. That is, assuming you still have enough shields for your ship — every collision hurts, so make sure to avoid all obstacles. Each level may contain any quantity of debris, as well as any number of force fields: these come in several types, and each type will seriously affect your ability to fly (and possibly to shoot). Levels also contain enemy bases, which might be triggered in several ways — once a base spawns an enemy and it starts chasing you, your best bet is just to blast it away. Levels also contain portals, which allow you to jump around to fixed positions much like a teleporter would do... just remember to watch out when jumping through a portal — who knows what's on the other side... Furthermore, levels may also contain electrified fences — while you can certainly cross them, it's not particularly recommended. SicTransit is highly configurable: the Pref screen contains all sorts of options that support playing in radically different ways. For instance, you can decide how and when enemies are spawned or force fields are activated. Actually, you can also change how a level is completed — you're highly encouraged to try out the various options, in order to find the combination that best suits you. Finally, when you're ready to start playing *really* seriously, have a look at the Shop — you'll find all sorts of powerful lasers, which will be of invaluable help once you reach a certain level size. Not to mention the absolutely crucial retro-rockets, which will allow you to fly really anywhere, in any situation... including the most intense combat ones! ••••• ORIGINAL MUSIC: Suddi Raval — https://www.suddiraval.com Davos Live Music — https://www.facebook.com/Davos.Live.Music Vincenzo Lucarelli — https://www.facebook.com/vincenzo.lucarelli.58 SOUND FX — https://www.freesound.org SPRITE MODELS — https://www.turbosquid.com UI FONTS — https://www.dafont.com
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: SicTransit at Free against Highwind's $0.99. SicTransit also leads on update cadence (fortnightly vs every 21 months) and iOS requirement (12.4 vs 15.6). Highwind's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 5) and ratings volume (11 vs 1). On rating, ads 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
SicTransit is free to download; Highwind costs $0.99 up front. SicTransit sells 5 one-off in-app purchases. Highwind asks for nothing beyond the download.
SicTransit holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Highwind has 11 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Highwind ships an update every 21 months, SicTransit fortnightly. Both last shipped on October 24, 2026.
| Parameter | Highwind | SicTransit |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.8 (11 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 71.4% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 11 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 21 months | Fortnightly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 | 12.4 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 169 MB | 83 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Selva Interactive | Dario Accornero |
In-app purchases
Highwind
No in-app purchases
SicTransit
- Double Lasers$0.99
- Triple Lasers$1.99
- Antimatter Lasers$2.99
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- Ray Lasers$3.99
- Retro-rockets$4.99









