Sumaddle vs Star Battle Hoshi Puzzles
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- Interactive logic puzzles
- Number combination fitting
- Pure logic solving
- Built-in help and mistake correction
- Over 150 free puzzles
- Offline play
- Ad-free experience
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• “Brilliant puzzle game”, UK App Store review Apr 2025 • “Best Puzzle Game I’ve Ever Played”, US App Store review Jan 2025 • “The ONLY iOS game I've never gotten tired of”, Reddit review Apr 2024 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 adding the essential element of interaction. This transforms the puzzles into intriguing 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 can focus on using logic to narrow down the combinations and find a fitting arrangement. Some reasons why you will enjoy playing Sumaddle: • puzzles range in size and difficulty from small and simple to large and mind-blowing • 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
Star Battle Hoshi Puzzles
This logic puzzle game challenges you to fill a grid with stars, ensuring no two stars touch, even diagonally. It offers daily and weekly challenges with varying difficulty levels and tracks your progress.
- Daily puzzle challenges
- Leaderboards for competitive play
- Weekly challenges for advanced players
- Multiple difficulty levels
- Puzzle packs for beginners
- Solving strategy guide
- Player stats and progress tracking
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Hoshi (星, Japanese for star) is a free and competitive Star Battle game with daily challenges. Star Battle, also known as "Two Not Touch", is a classic pen-and-paper logic puzzle published in newspapers and puzzle magazines worldwide. If you enjoy playing tricky puzzles and brain-teasing games and seek a new challenge, then you should give Hoshi a try. If you have never played the Star Battle logic game before, don’t worry the rules are straight forward: Similar to other logic puzzles you have a grid that you need to fill. In a normal 2 star “Two Not Touch” game each row, column, and region must have exactly 2 stars. Stars are not allowed to touch, even not diagonally. Hoshi includes Star Battles with 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 stars, but games with more stars are yet to come ;) Hoshi offers you: - Everyday we release a new number game (daily puzzle challenge) - Track your solving time and compete against other players (leaderboards) - There is also a weekly challenge for geniuses (3 star plus games) - There are 5 different difficulties (easy to diabolical) - Packs with hand-selected logic puzzle (e.g. for beginners) - Guide with solving strategies - Profile with stats about your skill level & progress Coming soon: - Add your friends and play with them a numbers puzzle - Star Battle games with more than 5 stars Privacy policy: https://guriddo.app/hoshi/legal/privacy Terms of use: https://guriddo.app/hoshi/legal/tos
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Sumaddle at 95% against Star Battle Hoshi Puzzles's 59%. Sumaddle also leads on ads (none vs shown) and rating (4.9 vs 4.7). On price, ratings volume, update cadence 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
Both are free to download. Sumaddle sells 15 one-off in-app purchases and Star Battle Hoshi Puzzles sells 30 in-app purchases, starting at $0.79 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Sumaddle holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.7. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 767 and 263 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 95% of Sumaddle's written reviews are positive against 59% of Star Battle Hoshi Puzzles's.
Sumaddle ships an update every 3 weeks, Star Battle Hoshi Puzzles every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 21, 2026 and September 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Sumaddle | Star Battle Hoshi Puzzles |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.9 (767 ratings) — better | 4.7 (263 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 94.9% of reviews — better | 59.1% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 767 — better | 263 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 | 15.6 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 30 MB | 75 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | +4 |
| Developer | Jonathan Buchanan | Simon Schuster |
Customer experience
Sumaddle
Star Battle Hoshi Puzzles
Bugs and 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
Star Battle Hoshi Puzzles
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Sumaddle
- Quirky, Pack 5$0.99
- Very Difficult Puzzles$0.99
- Quirky, Pack 1$0.99
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- 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
Star Battle Hoshi Puzzles
- Supporter (Weekly)$0.797 Days
- Supporter (Monthly)$2.491 Month
- Supporter (Annual)$14.991 Year
- Beginner Pack 8$0.99
- Beginner Pack 10$0.99
- Beginner Pack 14$0.99
Show 24 moreShow fewer
- Beginner Pack 12$0.99
- Beginner Pack 11$0.99
- Beginner Pack 9$1.99
- Beginner Pack 6$1.99
- Beginner Pack 3$1.99
- Beginner Pack 5$1.99
- Beginner Pack 4$1.99
- Beginner Pack 7$1.99
- Expert Pack 7$1.99
- Expert Pack 6$1.99
- Advanced Pack 6$1.99
- Expert Pack 5$2.99
- Advanced Pack 5$2.99
- Advanced Pack 8$2.99
- Advanced Pack 4$2.99
- Expert Pack 4$2.99
- Advanced Pack 2$2.99
- Advanced Pack 3$2.99
- Expert Pack 3$2.99
- Expert Pack 2$2.99
- Genius Pack 4$2.99
- Genius Pack 3$3.99
- Wizard Pack 1$3.99
- Genius Pack 2$3.99
Questions
Is Sumaddle free?
Is Star Battle Hoshi Puzzles free?
Which has better reviews, Sumaddle or Star Battle Hoshi Puzzles?
Do Sumaddle or Star Battle Hoshi Puzzles have ads?
Which is updated more often, Sumaddle or Star Battle Hoshi Puzzles?
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