Comparison

Pocket City 2 vs THE MACHINE

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

Head to head
About

Pocket City 2

Construct and explore a vibrant 3D metropolis, managing zones, landmarks, and special buildings. Live the life of a mayor, from building your own house to surviving disasters and hosting events. Enjoy a dynamic world with seasons, a day-night cycle, and engaging minigames.

Highlights
  • Build unique cities with zones and special buildings
  • Explore your city as an avatar
  • Dynamic environment with seasons and day/night cycle
  • Play minigames like street racing and plane flying
  • Survive disasters and host fun events
  • Customize avatar and become a homeowner
  • Collaborate on cities in real-time
Features
Read full description

Build and explore your own city in this 3D sequel to the original Pocket City! Create using roads, zones, landmarks, and special buildings. Drop your avatar into the world and roam freely. Buy your own house, host events, survive disasters, and live the life of a successful mayor! No microtransactions or long wait times, everything is unlocked and rewarded through gameplay! FEATURES - Build a unique city by creating zones and new special buildings - Explore your city by controlling your avatar directly - Enjoy a dynamic environment with seasons and a day night cycle - Play minigames like street racing, plane flying, and much more - Trigger fun events like block parties, or disasters like tornadoes - Complete quests to earn XP and money - Customize your avatar with clothing and tools - Become a homeowner and furnish your own house - Visit buildings in your city to buy items and find loot - Invest and build long-term mega projects - Encounter and help NPCs around your city - Spend research points to gain valuable perks - Invite a friend to collaborate on your city in real-time - Unlock special rewards by competing against rival towns - Unleash your creative side in Sandbox Mode - Play in both landscape and portrait mode

About

THE MACHINE

Engage with a mechanical puzzle box focused on experimentation and understanding cause and effect. Install and reorder parts to observe signal flow and solve objectives. Discover new hardware and deeper systems as the machine awakens.

Highlights
  • Mechanical puzzle box gameplay
  • Experimentation and cause/effect mechanics
  • 34 unique mechanism families
  • Stateful, order-sensitive puzzles
  • Tuning and Fusion systems
  • Offline play
  • Single optional purchase for full content
Features
Read full description

THE MACHINE is a mechanical puzzle box about experimentation, cause and effect, and learning a system by touching it. Install parts. Change their order. Send an input. Watch the signal travel through the machine. Every mechanism transforms, stores, redirects, amplifies, or relieves something. Solve each puzzle by making the whole machine satisfy its objectives. As THE MACHINE awakens, new hardware, tuning, fusion, routing, and deeper systems emerge. The rules stay consistent. The possibilities do not. • 34 mechanism families, each with its own behavior and physical identity • Stateful, order-sensitive puzzles where timing matters • Tuning and Fusion systems that turn familiar parts into new hardware • Five escalating Series, including the branching DUPLEX architecture • No ads, no subscriptions, no account required • Play offline on iPhone and iPad Series I and II are included. A single optional purchase unlocks Series III–V and everything beyond. Change something. Try again. Awaken THE MACHINE.

Screenshots

Pocket City 24 screens
THE MACHINE4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: THE MACHINE at Free against Pocket City 2's $4.99. THE MACHINE also leads on update cadence (daily vs weekly) and rating (5.0 vs 4.6). Pocket City 2's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and ratings volume (808 vs 1). On ads and device support 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

THE MACHINE is free to download; Pocket City 2 costs $4.99 up front. THE MACHINE sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Pocket City 2 asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

THE MACHINE holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Pocket City 2 has 808 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Pocket City 2 ships an update weekly, THE MACHINE daily. The most recent releases landed on November 7, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard8 real differences · 3 level
Pocket City 2 versus THE MACHINE: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPocket City 2THE MACHINE
Price$4.99Free — better
Rating4.6 (808 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews79.7% of reviews—
Number of ratings808 — better1
Update frequencyWeeklyDaily — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank#28 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS13.0 — better16.0
Further details — not scored
Size304 MB12 MB
Age rating9+4+
DeveloperCodebrew Games Inc.IAN FABIAN FAGERSTROM

Customer experience

Pocket City 2

All ratings800 ratings
Positive90.3%
Neutral4.8%
Negative5.0%
Written reviews536 reviews
Positive79.7%
Neutral10.4%
Negative9.9%

THE MACHINE

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Pocket City 2

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Crashes when entering certain buildings
  • Graphical glitches and disappearing elements
  • Freezing and performance issues with larger cities
  • Bugs with regional city and money transfer features
  • Issues with road building and placement

Requested features

6 requests
  • More building styles and architectural variety
  • Improved traffic management and transportation options
  • Expanded regional city functionality
  • Mayor customization and more interactive features
  • Better save/load and cross-device syncing
Show 1 more
  • Optimization for older devices

THE MACHINE

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Pocket City 2

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

THE MACHINE

One-time1
  • THE MACHINE$4.99

Questions

Is Pocket City 2 free?
Pocket City 2 costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is THE MACHINE free?
THE MACHINE is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Pocket City 2 or THE MACHINE?
THE MACHINE is rated higher. Pocket City 2 averages 4.6 out of 5 from 808 ratings, while THE MACHINE averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Pocket City 2 or THE MACHINE have ads?
Neither Pocket City 2 nor THE MACHINE shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Pocket City 2 or THE MACHINE?
Pocket City 2 ships an update weekly, and THE MACHINE daily. Most recently, Pocket City 2 was updated on November 7, 2026 and THE MACHINE on October 31, 2026.

Other comparisons