Comparison

8! Challenge vs Eat Bugs

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

8! Challenge

A brain-teasing puzzle game where you fill a 4x4 board with dice numbered 1-6. Rows or columns summing to 8 merge and disappear, requiring strategic play to avoid filling the board and losing.

Highlights
  • 4x4 board puzzle
  • Dice merging mechanic
  • Strategic gameplay
  • Brain training
  • Simple rules, challenging play
Features
Read full description

Fill a 4x4 board with dice. Whenever a row or column adds up to exactly 8, it clears. That's the whole rule. Staying alive is the hard part. Each turn you get a die (sometimes a double) and choose where to drop it. Every placement changes what the rows and columns add up to, so one careless move can lock the board up fast. Think a few steps ahead, set up chains, and keep cells open for whatever comes next. HOW TO PLAY • Drag the die from the stand onto any empty cell • A row or column that totals 8 clears and scores • Double dice take two cells at once, so place them with care • The game ends when the board is full and nothing adds up POWER-UPS Running out of room? Spend the coins you earn from each game on three tools: • Hammer: knock a single die off the board • Bomb: clear a 3x3 area in one go • Trash: throw away a die you don't want WHY PEOPLE KEEP PLAYING • Quick rounds that fit into a coffee break, or long runs when you're chasing a best score • Simple arithmetic that still makes you think, a nice little workout for your brain • One-handed play, no timer, no pressure • Works offline, so it's good for commutes and flights • A short tutorial gets you going in under a minute 8! Challenge is free to play and supported by ads.

About

Eat Bugs

A whimsical frog navigates challenging puzzles, gobbling bugs to achieve the highest score. This game strengthens arithmetic skills and encourages strategic thinking with randomly generated levels and special bugs. Enjoy a fun, replayable experience with increasing difficulty.

Highlights
  • Whimsical frog character
  • Bug-gobbling gameplay
  • Strategic pathfinding for high scores
  • Arithmetic skill enhancement
  • Randomly generated puzzles
  • Special bugs and wormholes
  • Multiple difficulty levels
Features
Read full description

Eat Bugs is a puzzle game that features a whimsical frog that gobbles up comical bugs of varying point values. The secret is to find path through each puzzle that will score the most points, and allow you to move on to the next puzzle. This can be very challenging. The game has 15 levels. Each level contains 3 puzzles and a bonus puzzle. Levels start out easy and get progressively harder. Three levels of difficulty, beginner, intermediate, and advanced. This often requires thinking like this: "hmmmm, if I go this way, I'll score 5 bugs worth 2 points each, which is 10 points. If I go this other way, I'll score 3 bugs worth 3 points each, which is 9 points. So the first choice is better". This teaches and strengthens arithmetic skills, encourages thinking ahead, and rewards those that do with higher scores. Or the thinking might go like this: "I don't want to think about it, so I'll just go this way". That's fine. It works for me (I wrote this game). I can make it though the entire game (15 levels, and 60 puzzles) if I give it some thought. Or I can just play, and enjoy myself. I often don't make it all the way to the end, but it's fun anyway. As levels progress, more bugs are introduced with higher point values. Special bugs come into play in higher levels, like the "x2" bug which doubles your score, or the "Restore" bug which causes all bugs that have previously been eaten to reappear so they can be eaten again. Worm holes are introduced in level 14. There are always two. When you go though one, you come out the other. This adds a new level of complexity to the game. Puzzles are randomly generated, so you will never see the same puzzle twice (at least it's highly unlikely). The computer figures out the maximum possible score for each puzzle and your job is to score at least 80% of that number of points. If you don't, you'll have to try again. And trying again costs a ticket. Each game starts with 5 tickets. Each game also comes with 10 hints which can be used at any time to tell you which direction is the best from your current position. If you run out of hints, you can use a ticket to buy 10 more.

Screenshots

8! Challenge4 screens
Eat Bugs4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Eat Bugs at weekly against 8! Challenge's every 97 months. Eat Bugs also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.8). 8! Challenge's advantage is ratings volume (4 vs 1). On price, review sentiment, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Eat Bugs holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 4 and 1 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

8! Challenge ships an update every 97 months, Eat Bugs weekly. The most recent releases landed on November 2, 2026 and November 6, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
8! Challenge versus Eat Bugs: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
Parameter8! ChallengeEat Bugs
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (4 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings4 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 97 monthsWeekly — better
AdsYesYes
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS13.013.0
Further details — not scored
Size65 MB45 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperThang VuScott Slocum

Customer experience

8! Challenge

All ratings4 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Eat Bugs

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

8! Challenge

No in-app purchases

None

Eat Bugs

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is 8! Challenge free?
8! Challenge is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Eat Bugs free?
Eat Bugs is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, 8! Challenge or Eat Bugs?
Eat Bugs is rated higher. 8! Challenge averages 4.8 out of 5 from 4 ratings, while Eat Bugs averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do 8! Challenge or Eat Bugs have ads?
Both 8! Challenge and Eat Bugs show ads.
Which is updated more often, 8! Challenge or Eat Bugs?
8! Challenge ships an update every 97 months, and Eat Bugs weekly. Most recently, 8! Challenge was updated on November 2, 2026 and Eat Bugs on November 6, 2026.

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