Bleak Sword vs Retrocade
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.
Retrocade
Relive the golden age of arcades with a collection of legendary 80s games. Enjoy classic titles, compete on global leaderboards, and unlock achievements. Supports Bluetooth controllers for an authentic experience.
- Collection of 80s arcade games
- Global leaderboards
- Unlockable achievements
- Bluetooth controller support
- Authentic gameplay experience
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Your All-Access Pass to the Golden Age of Arcades Step into the neon glow of the 80’s and relive the thrill of the arcade like never before. Retrocade brings the most popular and legendary games of classic arcades together in one place! The Arcade Legends ASTEROIDS - Blast through space in iconic, geometric vector style BUBBLE BOBBLE - Trap enemies in bubbles and help Bub & Bob rescue their girlfriends BUBBLE BUSTER - Shoot bubbles, match colors, and pop in the puzzle challenge BREAKOUT - Smash every brick with precise paddle control. CENTIPEDE - Stop the insect swarm with trackball precision. DIG DUG: Control DIG DUG to spear and pop monsters, crush with rocks, and score big! FROGGER - Dodge highway traffic and treacherous rivers to hop your way home GALAGA - New fighter with rapid-fire missiles battles aliens; rescue ships for dual fire! HAUNTED CASTLE - Whip your way through Dracula’s domain to save your bride PAC-MAN - Players clear stages by eating Pac-Dots while avoiding four unique ghosts PUZZLE BOBBLE - Shoot bubbles, match colors, and pop in the puzzle challenge SPACE INVADERS - Defend Earth from wave after wave of Invader attack TEMPEST - Survive the spinning vortex of this high-speed vector shooter. TRACK & FIELD - Shatter world records with rapid-fire button mashing QIX - Control the Marker and enclose at least 75% of the playfield while avoiding Qix and Sparx! Compete and Win Climb global leaderboards Unlock achievements for every game Feel the Controls Use your favorite Bluetooth controller for authentic gameplay The arcade is open. And the quarters? Unlimited ASTEROIDS®&© 1979 Atari Interactive, Inc. All rights reserved. BREAKOUT®&© 1976-2026 Atari Interactive, Inc. All rights reserved. CENTIPEDE®&© 1981 Atari Interactive, Inc. All rights reserved. TEMPEST®&© 1981 Atari Interactive, Inc. All rights reserved. © 2026 Atari Interactive, Inc. ATARI and the ATARI logo are trademarks of Atari Interactive, Inc. in the US and other countries. All rights reserved. GALAGA™& ©Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc. PAC-MAN™& ©Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc. DIG DUG™& ©Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc. FROGGER ©Konami Digital Entertainment. HAUNTED CASTLE ©Konami Digital Entertainment. TRACK&FIELD ©Konami Digital Entertainment. © TAITO CORPORATION. TAITO, TAITO logo, BUBBLE BOBBLE, PUZZLE BOBBLE, SPACE INVADERS and QIX are trademarks or registered trademarks of TAITO CORPORATION.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is monetization model: Retrocade at free against Bleak Sword's paid. Retrocade also leads on update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 8 months) and ratings volume (7.5K vs 899). Bleak Sword's advantage is review sentiment (80% vs 65%) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 18.0). On price, rating, ads and in-app purchases 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.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.5 for Bleak Sword against 4.5 for Retrocade. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Retrocade has 7.5K ratings behind it against 899, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 80% of Bleak Sword's written reviews are positive against 65% of Retrocade's.
Bleak Sword ships an update every 8 months, Retrocade every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 13, 2026 and October 16, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Bleak Sword | Retrocade |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (899 ratings) | 4.5 (7.5K ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 79.9% of reviews — better | 65.2% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 899 | 7.5K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 8 months | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple TV | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Vision Pro — better |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 467 MB | 752 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 9+ |
| Developer | Devolver | Resolution Games AB |
Customer experience
Bleak Sword
Retrocade
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
Retrocade
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Bleak Sword
No in-app purchases
Retrocade
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Bleak Sword free?
Is Retrocade free?
Which has better reviews, Bleak Sword or Retrocade?
Do Bleak Sword or Retrocade have ads?
Which is updated more often, Bleak Sword or Retrocade?
Other comparisons
