Midgaard by SmartMonsters vs MUDBasher
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Midgaard by SmartMonsters
Experience a retro text-based MUD adventure with a focus on community and accessibility. Explore a magical world, manage your character, and interact with thousands of players globally in a friendly, blind-friendly environment.
- Retro text-based MUD emulation
- Graphical character state displays
- In-app game and account functions
- Blind-friendly accessibility
- Friendly and inclusive community
- Cross-world character movement
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Swords! Dragons! Castles! Magical fireballs! Inns with ale! Retro gaming at its most retro! Midgaard is our homage to the text MUDs of decades past. Running on the TriadCity platform, it's an emulation of the classic DikuMUD adventure tradition circa 1994. Midgaard is a labor of love for us. It's where many of us first encountered MUDs and were astonished by their engrossing play and extraordinary potential. It's full of clever ideas, many of which became standards as the tradition evolved. Most importantly, it's fun! It's completely FREE to play, is blind-friendly, and has more women players than men. Best of all, it's friendly! For twenty years SmartMonsters has been free of the flame wars, misogyny, and mean-spiritedness prominent in some other environments. Even our bulletin boards are safe! Visit us today - we can't wait to meet you! As a member of the SmartMonsters universe, Midgaard is one linked World among others. Your characters can move freely between Midgaard, TriadCity, Dungeon, and future Worlds all with quite different "laws of physics". Meet you there! * Simple, straightforward graphical interface with minimal controls. * All major game and account functions available in-app, without having to exit to the Web site. * Graphical displays of character state: health, energy, attributes, skills, etc. * Manage chat channels, natural language parsing, and other features. * Character maintenance: health, energy, experience, Skills. * Store login creds in the Keychain; share them among devices via iCloud. * Access the Players' Guide, FAQ, Message of the Day and other website resources directly within the app. * Create new characters. * Fully mobile: works happily over WiFi or cellular data. * Blind-friendly: thoroughly tested with Voice Over by volunteers from audiogames.net and elsewhere. * Female-friendly: we've had more women players than men for over 20 years. * Very friendly community - apparently all the mean people go to WoW 'cos we have none; even our bulletin-boards are safe! * Thousands of players from all over the world.
MUDBasher
Experience a reimagined classic text-based adventure game. This app offers a faster, more visually appealing, and feature-rich version of a beloved program from 2012, built for modern devices. Dive into new adventures with enhanced performance and design.
- Classic text-based gameplay
- Rebuilt for modern iOS
- Faster performance
- Improved visuals
- Enhanced features
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"A Classic Returns, Reimagined" The story of MUDBasher is the story of MUDRammer—a beloved app created with love in 2012, named after a friend's ridiculous character name, that brought joy to text gamers for years. When it could no longer keep up with modern iOS, rather than let it fade away, it was completely rebuilt from the ground up. Same heart, new soul. Faster, prettier, more features, and ready for the next decade of adventures.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Midgaard by SmartMonsters at 3.5 against MUDBasher's 2.9. MUDBasher's advantage is review sentiment (28% vs 0%) and update cadence (every 6 days vs every 3 weeks). 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Midgaard by SmartMonsters holds the better App Store score, 3.5 against 2.9. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: MUDBasher has 26 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 0% of Midgaard by SmartMonsters's written reviews are positive against 28% of MUDBasher's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Midgaard by SmartMonsters ships an update every 3 weeks, MUDBasher every 6 days. The most recent releases landed on October 9, 2026 and October 4, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Midgaard by SmartMonsters | MUDBasher |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.5 (4 ratings) — better | 2.9 (26 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 0.0% of reviews | 27.6% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 4 | 26 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | Every 6 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 16.6 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 5 MB | 23 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | SmartMonsters, Inc. | Andrew Goldfinch |
Customer experience
Midgaard by SmartMonsters
MUDBasher
In-app purchases
Midgaard by SmartMonsters
No in-app purchases
MUDBasher
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Midgaard by SmartMonsters free?
Is MUDBasher free?
Which has better reviews, Midgaard by SmartMonsters or MUDBasher?
Do Midgaard by SmartMonsters or MUDBasher have ads?
Which is updated more often, Midgaard by SmartMonsters or MUDBasher?
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