Pixel Cave 2018 vs POOLS™
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Pixel Cave 2018
Experience a retro-style flight simulator through a pixelated cave. Enjoy real-time synthesized music and simple one-touch controls for an immersive retro gaming experience.
- Retro pixel graphics and effects
- Real-time synthesized music
- One-touch control
- Flight simulation gameplay
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Retro-style simulator of flight through the pixel cave. Features: * pixel graphics and effects; * real-time synthesized music (using SunVox); * one touch control (just touch the screen to take off).
POOLS™
This app offers a slow, reflective, and immersive experience focused on exploration and atmosphere. It evokes feelings of unease and curiosity through its unique environments, inspired by liminal spaces and internet phenomena. Discover changing worlds and subtle narratives without traditional gameplay mechanics.
- Slow, reflective exploration
- Atmospheric and immersive environments
- Inspired by liminal spaces
- Unfolding narrative through exploration
- Six distinct chapters
- Unique sound design
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Explore, admire and listen. That’s it. Uncanny. Relaxing. Unnerving. Eerie. Immersive. POOLS isn’t a traditional game. it’s slow, reflective, and intentionally uneventful, perhaps a bit like virtual museum. So take your time. Breathe. POOLS unfolds slowly, rewarding patience and quiet attention. No monsters chasing you or jumping at your screen. Yet it can feel oppressive at times by invoking quiet fears of getting lost, the dark, tight spaces and the strange beauty of liminal space architecture. There's no typical story. But as you explore and advance further, you start to notice that the game's world changes around you, deeper you go… Rooms look and feel… different. Base game features six chapters, each lasting 10-30 minutes. Inspired by the internet phenomena Liminal spaces, Found footage and The Backrooms, especially the Poolrooms concept. One of the original artists behind the Poolrooms concept is Jared Pike.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Pixel Cave 2018 at 5.0 against POOLS™'s 4.5. Pixel Cave 2018 also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 1) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 15.6). POOLS™'s advantage is update cadence (every 2 months vs every 27 months) and ratings volume (1.6K vs 6). On price, review sentiment, 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
Both are free to download. POOLS™ sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Pixel Cave 2018 asks for nothing beyond the download.
Pixel Cave 2018 holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: POOLS™ has 1.6K ratings behind it against 6, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 75% of Pixel Cave 2018's written reviews are positive against 79% of POOLS™'s, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Pixel Cave 2018 ships an update every 27 months, POOLS™ every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 4, 2026 and October 17, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Pixel Cave 2018 | POOLS™ |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (6 ratings) — better | 4.5 (1.6K ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 75.0% of reviews | 79.4% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 6 | 1.6K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 27 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, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 15.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 5 MB | 1.9 GB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 9+ |
| Developer | Alexander Zolotov | Tensori |
Customer experience
Pixel Cave 2018
POOLS™
Bugs and requests
Pixel Cave 2018
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
POOLS™
Reported bugs
2 issues- Unable to move on iPad Pro
- Glitches reported
Requested features
3 requests- Expand to different Backrooms-inspired themes
- Add a multiplayer mode
- Introduce more interactive elements (e.g., monsters, items to discover)
In-app purchases
Pixel Cave 2018
No in-app purchases
POOLS™
- POOLS: Full Game$9.99
