Bleak Sword vs Hot Lava
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Bleak Sword
Embark on a dark fantasy adventure across cursed diorama battlefields. Battle creatures through nine chapters, lifting a legendary curse by upgrading your hero with magic and items. Challenge yourself further in Arena Mode with unlockable achievements.
- Diorama battlefields
- Nine tense chapters
- Powerful magic invocation
- Item discovery
- Character leveling and stat upgrades
- Arena Mode
- Unlockable achievements
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Developed by more8bit Bleak Sword is a dark fantasy action game tasking players to struggle across compact, cursed diorama battlefields. Through nine tense chapters, heroes must lift the curse of the legendary Bleak Sword by striking down all manner of creatures in every forest, swamp, castle, and dungeon on their journey. Invoke powerful magic, uncover helpful items, and level up your character to upgrade your stats before facing down menacing guardians. Once the curse has been lifted the challenging Arena Mode and thirty unlockable achievements await even the most accomplished warrior. Bleak Sword is designed to be able to play it easily with elegant controls allowing heroes to roll, parry, attack and counter-attack using basic movements on gamepads and touch controls. Scored by award-winning composer Jim Guthrie with sound by famed designer Joonas Turner.
Hot Lava
Experience the thrill of childhood imagination in this first-person adventure game. Run, jump, and climb through nostalgic environments, avoiding molten lava and other hazards. Play solo or with friends in a game of skill and ingenuity.
- First-person parkour gameplay
- Nostalgic environments
- Multiplayer with friends
- Leaderboards for speedruns
- Obstacle avoidance challenges
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Hot Lava transports you back to your childhood imagination. Relive those moments of excitement, joy, and chaos. Run, jump, climb, and surf in first person across nostalgia-packed environments flooded with hot molten lava. Explore alone, or join your friends. This is a game of dexterity and ingenuity, you will have to use all your skills to complete the treacherous obstacles that await. But whatever you do… Don’t Touch The Floor FEATURES Together: Conquer challenging worlds with up to four of your friends with drop in-drop out multiplayer. Traverse: Run, jump, climb, swing, boost, and surf in first person across lava filled worlds. Mastering execution will take dedication and skill. Explore: Detailed environments jam packed with childhood nostalgia. Compete: To find the fastest route using shortcuts and expert execution on the friends leaderboard. Avoid: Lava, toxic waste, bottomless pits, and crushers. Danger is around every corner.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Bleak Sword at 4.5 against Hot Lava's 4.1. Bleak Sword also leads on review sentiment (80% vs 68%). Hot Lava's advantage is update cadence (every 3 months vs every 8 months) and ratings volume (3.1K vs 903). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Bleak Sword holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 4.1. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 903 and 3.1K respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 80% of Bleak Sword's written reviews are positive against 68% of Hot Lava's.
Bleak Sword ships an update every 8 months, Hot Lava every 3 months. Both last shipped on October 29, 2026.
| Parameter | Bleak Sword | Hot Lava |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (903 ratings) — better | 4.1 (3.1K ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 79.9% of reviews — better | 67.9% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 903 | 3.1K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 8 months | Every 3 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple TV | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple TV |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 | 13.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 467 MB | 2.6 GB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Devolver Digital, Inc. | Klei |
Customer experience
Bleak Sword
Hot Lava
User reviews
Bleak Sword
From 903 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Smooth and responsive controls
- 👍 Satisfying combat mechanics
- 🎨 Unique and atmospheric pixel art style
- 🕹️ Challenging but fair gameplay
- 🕰️ Suitable for short play sessions
Room to improve
- 🐛 Occasional save data loss issues
- 🔍 Difficulty in tracking character on screen
- 🤕 Overly punishing difficulty curve
- 🧠 Lack of progression and upgrade systems
- 🔍 Blurry visuals on some devices
Hot Lava
From 3.1K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Great game
- 🚀 Awesome graphics
- 👍 Fun gameplay
- 👍 Nostalgic vibes
- 👍 Good for speedrunning
Room to improve
- 🐛 Crashes and bugs
- 🐛 Glitchy controls
- 🐛 Difficulty issues
- 🔋 Drains device battery
- 👎 Lacking multiplayer features
Bugs and requests
Bleak Sword
Reported bugs
2 issues- Controls becoming unresponsive after app switch
- Inconsistent blocking mechanics
Requested features
5 requests- Landscape mode support for tablets
- Ability to skip credits after first completion
- More enemy and boss variety
- Customizable controls
- Expanded story and lore
Hot Lava
Reported bugs
5 issues- Crashes on launch
- Freezing and performance issues
- Disappearing save data
- Unresponsive controls
- Gyroscope problems
Requested features
5 requests- Add multiplayer mode
- Improve controls and sensitivity
- Add more levels and content
- Provide controller support
- Allow custom music playback
In-app purchases
Bleak Sword
No in-app purchases
Hot Lava
No in-app purchases
