Comparison

Swift as the Wind vs Visual Pinball

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

Head to head
About

Swift as the Wind

Navigate a boat through challenging levels, collecting coins and boosts while avoiding obstacles. Master intuitive controls to steer your vessel and adjust sails for the ultimate sailing experience.

Highlights
  • 3 challenging levels
  • Collect coins and boost items
  • Avoid dangerous swirls
  • Intuitive finger controls
  • Rotate boat and sails
Features
Read full description

Swift as the Wind is inspired by my WWDC19 scholarship winner playground. It features 3 challenging levels with coins and boost items to be collected by the player as well a dangerous swirl to be avoided. Controls: To guide the boat, move your fingers around the ship’s wheels. The left wheel rotates the boat, the right one rotates the sail. This game is dedicated to my mother. Happy mothers day, mõe! Credits: The soundtrack was composed by me with GarageBand. The graphic elements, including maps, boat, ship’s wheels, coins, buttons and animations were also designed by me. The fish and lightning inside the coins were downloaded from freepik.com. The sound effects were obtained from zapsplat.com.

About

Visual Pinball

Enjoy a realistic pinball simulation with hundreds of community-created tables. Experience immersive haptic feedback and customize your gameplay with intuitive settings and controller support. Advanced options are available for power users.

Highlights
  • Hundreds of community-developed tables
  • Haptic feedback for immersive gameplay
  • Customizable settings and POV adjustments
  • Game controller support
  • External DMD and AltColor/AltSound support
  • Touch overlay and instructions
Features
Read full description

The official Visual Pinball app. Built by volunteers since 2000 and open source since 2010, Visual Pinball is the simulator the virtual pinball community has been playing for over two decades. More than 70 people have contributed to it, and this app runs the same engine as the desktop version, so every table plays with the physics, lighting and sound its creator intended. No ads. No in-app purchases. No tracking. Made by volunteers. Two years of work from the Visual Pinball volunteers, in one update. Thank you for your patience, and for playing! A FRESH NEW LOOK • Redesigned for iOS 26 with Liquid Glass • Favorites and recently played tables at the top of your list • Search, sorting and three tile sizes • Light, Dark or System appearance • New loading screen that shows progress THE FULL DESKTOP EXPERIENCE • The complete Visual Pinball in-game menu for graphics, sound, controls and table options • Remap every button on keyboards and game controllers • Save settings for every table, or just the one you're playing MORE TABLES, LOOKING BETTER • Show the backglass and score display (DMD, alphanumeric or reels) on screen, right where you want them • Support for PUP packs, FlexDMD, B2S backglasses, video playback and VNI colorizations • All the latest physics and rendering improvements from the desktop version • Much lower memory use: textures are compressed on first load, then cached EASIER TABLE MANAGEMENT • Import .zip files, along with .vpx and .vpxz • Share any table as a single .vpxz file • The web file manager can now upload whole folders, extract archives, edit scripts and settings, and show the log live AND MORE • Many stability and memory fixes This version requires iOS 26.6 or later.

Screenshots

Swift as the Wind3 screens
Visual Pinball3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Swift as the Wind at 5.0 against Visual Pinball's 4.3. Swift as the Wind also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 79%) and update cadence (every 5 months vs every 12 months). Visual Pinball's advantage is ratings volume (74 vs 1). 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

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

Swift as the Wind holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Visual Pinball has 74 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 100% of Swift as the Wind's written reviews are positive against 79% of Visual Pinball's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Swift as the Wind ships an update every 5 months, Visual Pinball every 12 months. The most recent releases landed on October 6, 2026 and October 22, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Swift as the Wind versus Visual Pinball: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSwift as the WindVisual Pinball
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better4.3 (74 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews — better78.6% of reviews
Number of ratings174 — better
Update frequencyEvery 5 months — betterEvery 12 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS10.0 — better26.6
Further details — not scored
Size27 MB120 MB
Age rating4+9+
DeveloperHugo LispectorJason Millard

Customer experience

Swift as the Wind

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

Visual Pinball

All ratings73 ratings
Positive80.8%
Neutral6.8%
Negative12.3%
Written reviews56 reviews
Positive78.6%
Neutral12.5%
Negative8.9%

Bugs and requests

Swift as the Wind

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

Visual Pinball

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Tables don't load for some users
  • Certain complex/intensive tables error out or run at low FPS

Requested features

6 requests
  • List of most played tables
  • Ability to reposition DMD
  • Option to skip startup checks for some tables
  • Ability to edit table scripts on the app
  • Direct link to table depository
Show 1 more
  • iPad version with more screen space

In-app purchases

None

Swift as the Wind

No in-app purchases

None

Visual Pinball

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Swift as the Wind free?
Swift as the Wind is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Visual Pinball free?
Visual Pinball is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Swift as the Wind or Visual Pinball?
Swift as the Wind is rated higher. Swift as the Wind averages 5.0 out of 5 from 1 ratings, while Visual Pinball averages 4.3 from 74 ratings.
Do Swift as the Wind or Visual Pinball have ads?
Neither Swift as the Wind nor Visual Pinball shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Swift as the Wind or Visual Pinball?
Swift as the Wind ships an update every 5 months, and Visual Pinball every 12 months. Most recently, Swift as the Wind was updated on October 6, 2026 and Visual Pinball on October 22, 2026.

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