Nova Island vs CombatChess
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Nova Island
Engage in strategic card battles with cute anime-inspired characters. Collect friends, powers, and skins while competing in PvP matches or embarking on an adventure. Build decks and master unique playstyles.
- Collectible card battles
- Strategic deck building
- PvP and PvE modes
- Character collection
- Cosmetic customization
- Daily challenges
- Draft mode
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Discover friends and card duels in this exciting strategic adventure game! Nova Island is an anime inspired card game with cute characters, amazing strategy, and an engaging adventure! And totally ad free! Looking for a unique collectible card game that combines strategy & chance? On Nova Island, you can take on challenges, play quick matches with friends, or compete against players from around the world to climb the leaderboard. Play cards to gain strength, deal damage, plan ahead, and disrupt opponents in ways they’ll never see coming. It’s fun! Try it out for free and discover its complete strategic freedom! Alert! A new Nova Researcher has arrived on the island! With your help and the various Pros by your side, collect all of the Friends, Powers, and customizable Skins found on this colorful island. Go out on an adventure of a lifetime and see all of the fun in store for you! Quick PvP Matches in Every Mode Compete in fast online Ranked Matches versus players around the world. Try out your strategic thinking in a unique single-player experience with new themes popping in the Daily Challenges. The Best of Your Favorite TCG and CCG Experiences Train your skills with the Turbo Chaos Draft Challenge against players around the world in a fast-paced draft mode. Challenge yourself with a PVE singleplayer journey around the island and tricky limited time game modes. Level up on Research Road and collect over 100 cards and over 1500 cosmetics, including: - 8 Pros, each with a thematic soundtrack and unique playstyle. - Over 70 Friends with cute animations, sound effects, and custom skins to change their look! So get in there and build your deck with strategy and style! Pick Your Prize or Try Your Luck: Use your winning Tokens on the Vending Machines to collect rewards, level up your favorite strategies, and unlock new cards. You’ll learn more about Nova Island, the Pros and Friends inhabiting the districts, and the challenges that await you as you explore! We have a growing community who love to chat! Discuss tips and tricks with some real Nova Island Pros! Join in for all fun things NOVA ISLAND! Discord: https://play.novaisland.com/discord Need SUPPORT? Visit our Website: https://novaisland.com or Email us: hello@thirteengames.com Just some important legal information: PRIVACY POLICY: https://novaisland.com/privacy-policy TERMS OF SERVICE: https://novaisland.com/terms-of-service
CombatChess
Experience chess with a twist: captures lead to real-time pixel brawls where the winner claims the square. Manage action cards strategically to win fights and defend your pieces. Features a robust chess engine and arcade-style combat mechanics.
- Real-time pixel brawls for captures
- Action cards for strategic combat
- Persistent damage on pieces
- Six-button arcade combat system
- King can fight to avoid checkmate
- Full-rule chess engine (Stockfish)
- Turn-based online multiplayer
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It's chess. With fists. Combat Chess is real, full-rules chess until a capture is contested. Then both pieces drop into a real-time brawl, and the winner keeps the square. No piece goes quietly. Not even the king. ACTION CARDS: FIGHT FOR THE SQUARE You start every match with 3 Action Cards. When your piece is captured, spend one to force a fight instead of just losing it. Win the brawl and the capture is repelled your piece holds the square and the attacker is removed. Cards are spent win or lose and never refill mid-match, so card management is a whole extra layer of strategy. Run dry, and captures land like ordinary chess. FIGHTS THAT MATTER - Fighting power scales with chess value: pawns brawl at 75 HP, knights and bishops at 125, rooks at 175, queens at a monstrous 275, kings at 300. - Damage persists for the ENTIRE match. Wound the queen now, hunt her down later a health bar follows every piece that has fought. - A pawn can topple a queen. It just takes near-flawless play. SIX-BUTTON ARCADE COMBAT - Left punch (fast jab) and right punch (slow, heavy cross). - Side-matched blocking read the tell and guard the correct side to absorb 80% of the hit. - Timed dodges perfect timing negates all damage and charges your meter. - A stamina system that punishes button-mashing. Burn out and you're exhausted: unable to act and taking 1.5x damage. - Land perfect dodges to unlock the SUPER a single power shot worth 2.5x a heavy punch. Spam loses. Reads win. THE KING NEVER FALLS QUIETLY - In check, you can move out of danger or spend a card to send your king to fight the checking piece directly. - Checkmate isn't automatically the end. It triggers a mandatory final fight: your king duels the mating piece at 300 HP, no card needed. Win the last stand and the mate is broken. This cuts both ways: to beat you, your opponent must finish the job in the ring. A REAL CHESS ENGINE UNDERNEATH - Complete standard chess: castling, en passant, promotion, check, checkmate, and every standard draw rule. - Powered by the Stockfish engine, tunable from 600 to 3190 Elo - friendly beginner to superhuman, with a strength slider for every difficulty in Settings. - Single-player works fully offline. Sound and haptics are yours to toggle. CHALLENGE FRIENDS ONLINE - Turn-based multiplayer through Game Center: invite friends, run several matches at once, and take your time. - Get notified when an opponent moves, captures, or starts a fight with daily reminders before the 4-day forfeit window closes a stalled match. - Built for turn-based play: when you contest a capture, the fight resolves instantly on your own device against a computer-controlled version of your opponent's piece fighting with its true HP and power, including damage it already carries. No waiting around, and your opponent sees a full recap on their turn. EVERY MATCH ON RECORD - Match history with wins, losses, draws, win rate, streaks, per-difficulty records, fight stats, and your biggest upset.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: CombatChess at 5.0 against Nova Island's 4.3. CombatChess also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 60%) and in-app purchases (none vs 68). Nova Island's advantage is ratings volume (237 vs 5). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement 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. Nova Island sells 66 one-off in-app purchases. CombatChess asks for nothing beyond the download.
CombatChess holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Nova Island has 237 ratings behind it against 5, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 60% of Nova Island's written reviews are positive against 100% of CombatChess's.
Nova Island ships an update every 3 weeks, CombatChess every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on September 3, 2026 and September 9, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Nova Island | CombatChess |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.3 (237 ratings) | 5.0 (5 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 60.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 237 — better | 5 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | Every 5 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 261 MB | 99 MB |
| Age rating | 9+ | 9+ |
| Developer | Thirteen Games, LLC | PUNCHMAN, LLC |
Customer experience
Nova Island
CombatChess
Bugs and requests
Nova Island
Reported bugs
2 issues- Soft-locking tutorial
- Inconsistent performance on some devices
Requested features
4 requests- Offline mode or paid full version
- Ability to play with friends
- More character/card customization options
- Improved tutorial and onboarding experience
CombatChess
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Nova Island
- 90 Island Credits$0.99
- Researcher’s Starter Bundle$0.99
- Circuit Boiz Bundle 2$0.99
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- Circuit Boiz Bundle 1$0.99
- 4th Anniversary Emotes Bundle1$0.99
- Halloween Juice Emote$0.99
- Max Halloween Emote$0.99
- Artillery Pack$0.99
- Doodle Branehart Emote$0.99
- 75 Island Credits2 variants$1.99
- Welcome Bundle$1.99
- Power Outage Pack$1.99
- Researcher's Starter Bundle2 variants$1.99
- Circuit Boiz Pack$1.99
- Rerun Activate$1.99
- Sprynk Activate$1.99
- Hackmaster Activate$1.99
- Escape Pod Activate$1.99
- Novas Special BF$1.99
- Food Emote Bundle$1.99
- Cosmicosi Legendary Skin$1.99
- Cannonball Level Up$1.99
- Welcome Party Bundle$2.99
- Mage Rerun$2.99
- Oddball Filthy Clean Skin$2.99
- Giving Tree Unlock$2.99
- Giving Tree Level Up$2.99
- New Season Novium Special$2.99
- Greenhouse Pack$2.99
- Daily Login Bonus$3.99
- Rainbow Gemma Skin$3.99
- Gemma Activate$3.99
- EOY Winter Skins 2024$3.99
- Unlock Sparki$3.99
- Nova Tree Giving Tree$3.99
- Cosmicosi Activate$3.99
- Crystal Kitten$3.99
- Arcade Pack$3.99
- Ghost Blazer$3.99
- Candy Weade$3.99
- Frankenjazzy$3.99
- 575 Island Credits$4.99
- ULTIMATE Welcome Bundle$4.99
- Welcome Party Bundle$4.99
- Bloom King BC Special$4.99
- 80s Sparki$4.99
- Observatory Pack$4.99
- 225 Island Credits$4.99
- Intranet Pack$5.99
- Activation Starter Bundle$5.99
- One Cent and IP$6.99
- Khrys and Flutter$6.99
- Crystal Cats$8.99
- 1175 Island Credits$9.99
- Nova Tree Bundle$9.99
- Welcome Bundle 5$9.99
- Boost Pack C$9.99
- Hooligan Bundle$9.99
- Boost Pack B$9.99
- 480 Island Credits$9.99
- Ancient 9 Skins$14.99
- EOY Credits Special 2024$14.99
- 2400 Island Credits$19.99
- Super Boost Pack C$19.99
- 1020 Island Credits$19.99
- 2155 Island Credits$39.99
CombatChess
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Nova Island free?
Is CombatChess free?
Which has better reviews, Nova Island or CombatChess?
Do Nova Island or CombatChess have ads?
Which is updated more often, Nova Island or CombatChess?
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