Comparison

Recursive vs Sumaddle

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

Head to head
About

Recursive

A challenging puzzle game where you guide robots to collect gems by creating simple programs. Master recursion and logic with a minimalistic, easy-to-learn language and diverse level elements.

Highlights
  • Learn a simple programming language
  • Solve puzzles with robots and gems
  • Master recursion concepts
  • Explore diverse level elements
  • Challenging, hard puzzles
Read full description

Recursive is a puzzle game about recursion, patterns, and programming. It is the perfect game for people who love hard puzzles. Your goal is to help little robots complete their mission and collect all gems by finding the correct pattern and translating it into a short program. # Programming language (no prior knowledge required) The programming language is minimalistic and easy to learn. It doesn't require any prior programming knowledge and consists of only four instructions. - Move forward: Move one cell forward. - Rotate left: Rotate 90° left in place. - Rotate right: Rotate 90° right in place. - Change color: Load a chip of a specified color and execute the instructions it contains. And even with this simple programming language, robots can follow complex patterns thanks to the power of recursion and to other tricks that you can discover along with your progression in the game. # Rich levels Recursive offers a large variety of levels thanks to supporting multiple types of elements. - Robots: They can have different colors that reflect the chip they have loaded. - Gems: Your goal is to collect all of them. - Bugs: They destroy robots and make them disappear. - Chips: They make robots load a different program. - Teleportation gates: They make robots teleport to a different location. - Inactive robots: They are activated when touched by another robot. # Mastering recursion Recursion is said to be hard to understand as a famous quote attributed to Stephen Hawking says: "To understand recursion, one must first understand recursion." However, we believe that playing Recursive is another fun way to understand it or even master it.

About

Sumaddle

This logic puzzle game transforms pencil-and-paper challenges into interactive brain teasers. Fit number combinations to clues using pure logic, with no mental arithmetic required. Enjoy over 150 free puzzles of varying difficulty, with built-in help and offline play.

Highlights
  • Interactive logic puzzles
  • Number combination fitting
  • Pure logic solving
  • Built-in help and mistake correction
  • Over 150 free puzzles
  • Offline play
  • Ad-free experience
Features
Read full description

This type of logical puzzle was first seen in the Japan Puzzle Championship 2006 and is sometimes known as Doppelblock, or Smashed Sums. When played with pencil and paper, these puzzles can be hard work to solve. Sumaddle changes that by transforming the puzzles into interactive brain teasers that unfold before your eyes. Each puzzle has a unique solution. Finding the solution involves fitting the number combinations to the clues. The app makes it easy to view the possible combinations, you don’t need to do any sums in your head. Instead, you are able to focus on using logic to narrow down the combinations and find a fitting arrangement. The puzzles come in a range of sizes and difficulties, to suit all levels of skill and puzzling purposes. Choose a small puzzle to idle away a minute or two while waiting in a queue, or a big puzzle to give your brain some exercise during a coffee break! Some reasons why you will enjoy playing Sumaddle: • more than 150 puzzles are included for free • all puzzles can be solved with pure logic, no mental arithmetic required • the sophisticated built-in help can explain the logical reasoning at each step and also fix mistakes if you go wrong • the built-in help is completely free, use it as much as you like • works offline (great for long journeys) • a high standard of accessibility, including comprehensive support for VoiceOver • ad-free play - there are absolutely no ads! IGRS age rating (Indonesia Game Rating System): 3+ Designed and developed in Winterthur, Switzerland

Screenshots

Recursive4 screens
Sumaddle3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Sumaddle at Free against Recursive's $2.99. Sumaddle also leads on review sentiment (95% vs 71%) and ratings volume (769 vs 28). Recursive's advantage is update cadence (every 4 days vs every 3 weeks) and device support (4 vs 2). On 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Sumaddle is free to download; Recursive costs $2.99 up front. Recursive sells 3 one-off in-app purchases and Sumaddle sells 15 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.9 for Recursive against 4.9 for Sumaddle. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Sumaddle has 769 ratings behind it against 28, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 71% of Recursive's written reviews are positive against 95% of Sumaddle's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Recursive ships an update every 4 days, Sumaddle every 3 weeks. Both last shipped on October 29, 2026.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Recursive versus Sumaddle: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterRecursiveSumaddle
Price$2.99Free — better
Rating4.9 (28 ratings)4.9 (769 ratings) — better
Positive reviews71.4% of reviews94.9% of reviews — better
Number of ratings28769 — better
Update frequencyEvery 4 days — betterEvery 3 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS14.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size4 MB31 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperKidoriJonathan Buchanan

Customer experience

Recursive

All ratings28 ratings
Positive96.4%
Neutral0.0%
Negative3.6%
Written reviews7 reviews
Positive71.4%
Neutral0.0%
Negative28.6%

Sumaddle

All ratings769 ratings
Positive98.3%
Neutral0.7%
Negative1.0%
Written reviews98 reviews
Positive94.9%
Neutral1.0%
Negative4.1%

Bugs and requests

Recursive

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

Sumaddle

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Losing progress when minimizing the app
  • Inconsistent difficulty ratings

Requested features

4 requests
  • Ability to selectively pencil in notes
  • More difficult puzzle options
  • Synced progress across devices
  • Detailed statistics and leaderboard

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Recursive

One-time3
  • 10 hint credits$0.99
  • 20 hint credits$1.99
  • 40 hint credits$2.99
15 purchases

Sumaddle

One-time15
  • Quirky, Pack 5$0.99
  • Very Difficult Puzzles$0.99
  • Quirky, Pack 1$0.99
Show 12 more
  • Premium 9x9 Puzzles, Pack 1$0.99
  • Crafty, Pack 1$0.99
  • Crafty, Pack 2$0.99
  • Crafty, Pack 3$0.99
  • Sneaky, Pack 1$0.99
  • Sneaky, Pack 2$0.99
  • Sneaky, Pack 3$0.99
  • Tricky, Pack 1$0.99
  • Tricky, Pack 2$0.99
  • Tricky, Pack 3$0.99
  • Assorted Puzzles$0.99
  • Puzzle Generator$9.99

Questions

Is Recursive free?
Recursive costs $2.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is Sumaddle free?
Sumaddle is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Recursive or Sumaddle?
Sumaddle is rated higher. Recursive averages 4.9 out of 5 from 28 ratings, while Sumaddle averages 4.9 from 769 ratings.
Do Recursive or Sumaddle have ads?
Neither Recursive nor Sumaddle shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Recursive or Sumaddle?
Recursive ships an update every 4 days, and Sumaddle every 3 weeks. Most recently, Recursive was updated on October 29, 2026 and Sumaddle on October 29, 2026.

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