Ancient Games vs Shut
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Ancient Games
Explore and play a collection of ancient board games brought back to life with modern app design. Enjoy offline and online play, collect customizable game pieces, and tackle fun challenges. Save progress across all games with cloud saves.
- Play multiple ancient games in one app
- Offline and online multiplayer
- AI, friend, and random player matches
- Collectible game pieces and boards
- Challenges with rule variants
- Free cloud saves across games
Read full descriptionHide full description
/!\ If you play more than one of my Ancient Games, I suggest you delete the individual apps and install this one. It will allow you to play them all and save disk storage. /!\ -Languages : English, French, Portuguese, Italian, Arabic, Spanish, German, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Russian, Turkish. The past is full of fascinating games that haves been mostly forgotten. The Ancient Games collection aims to resurrect them as a meticulously crafted mix between what a player wants from an historical game and what he/she expects of a modern application. Features : -Play against the IA, friends and random players from around the world (Coming back soon) -Play Online & Offline. -Multiple collectibles : boards, game pieces, dice, nameplates, etc. -Challenges (Fun rule variants) -Free cloudsave across the collection : your progress in one game is available in all the others. -Much more features to come! Currently, the collection is comprised of four games : the Royal Game of Ur, Senet, XII Scripta and Puluc, but 40 games are in the works! You can see the roadmap here : https://trello.com/b/QYtOXwJi/ancient-games-roadmap Each game will be added to the Ancient Games app and will have its own individual app as well. The privacy policy has been updated in accordance to the latest data protection laws.
Shut
Enjoy the classic dice game on your mobile device. Test your luck and strategy with this portable version of a popular pub game. Perfect for quick play sessions anywhere.
- Portable dice game
- Classic pub game experience
- Quick play sessions
- Dice rolling simulation
Read full descriptionHide full description
Play shut the box anywhere you go!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Shut at none against Ancient Games's 11. Shut also leads on ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (every 2 days vs every 3 weeks). Ancient Games's advantage is ratings volume (287 vs 1). On price, 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. Ancient Games sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. Shut asks for nothing beyond the download.
Shut holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Ancient Games has 287 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 78% of Ancient Games's written reviews are positive against 100% of Shut's.
Ancient Games ships an update every 3 weeks, Shut every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 14, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Ancient Games | Shut |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (287 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 78.3% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 287 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | Every 2 days — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 | 11.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 212 MB | 199 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Sullivan Bousiniere | Carson Hellman |
Customer experience
Ancient Games
Shut
Bugs and requests
Ancient Games
Reported bugs
11 issues- Game freezes after match completion
- Screen goes dark and becomes unresponsive post-game
- Ad removal purchase only lasts one game
- Paid ad removal still shows advertisements
- Game continues playing after player wins
Show 6 moreShow fewer
- Cannot make legal moves despite availability
- XII Scripta piece stacking rules not enforced correctly
- Purchased board content inaccessible due to subscription requirement
- Report button links to Mail app instead of App Store
- Text rendering issues making content hard to read
- Online play frequently unavailable or non-functional
Requested features
10 requests- Two-player local multiplayer mode
- Friends list and challenge system
- Leaderboards and ranking system
- Win/loss statistics and game history tracking
- Ability to play offline while waiting for online opponents
Show 5 moreShow fewer
- Permanent one-time purchase option instead of subscription
- More ancient games added to collection
- Harder difficulty levels beyond current maximum
- Better XP progression for unlocking boards
- Improved customer support contact options
Shut
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Ancient Games
- AG+$3.991 Month
- Ancient Artifact$0.99
- Purchase Game Edition2 variants$1.99
- Dawn of Civilization DLC$2.99
Show 6 moreShow fewer
- Purchase Game Edition$2.99
- Skeleton Key$2.99
- Ur Divine Edition$3.99
- Purchase Game Edition$3.99
- Purchase Game Edition$10.99
- Royal Pass$12.99
Shut
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Ancient Games free?
Is Shut free?
Which has better reviews, Ancient Games or Shut?
Do Ancient Games or Shut have ads?
Which is updated more often, Ancient Games or Shut?
Other comparisons
