Comparison

Magic Research vs Unnamed Space Idle

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

Head to head
About

Magic Research

Lead a new magic institution to discover the secrets of magic and achieve fame. Research spells, build your campus, manage staff, and uncover hidden storylines to win the Tournament of Magic. Enjoy a complete game experience with no ads.

Highlights
  • Cast over 100 spells
  • Research magic in various schools
  • Build and manage campus
  • Manage researchers and apprentices
  • Discover hidden features and storylines
  • Retirement bonuses for faster progress
Features
Read full description

In Magic Research, you are the headmaster of a newly-created institution of Magic with one goal: to learn as much as possible about this power and get enough fame to be able to compete, and win, the prestigious competition of schools: the Tournament of Magic. But what will you discover along the way? * Cast over a hundred different spells with various effects * Research magic in various magical schools to discover new, surprising ways to use this power * Accumulate resources and build the school campus * Manage a team of researchers and apprentices to lead your school to fame * Discover tons of hidden new features - when will you unlock the next one? * Find over eight dozen secret storylines with permanent, game-altering effects * Restart the game and make faster progress each time with retirement bonuses * Optimized both for iPhone and iPad * No ads! This is the full, complete game. You can transfer save data from the demo by using the Export / Import Save feature available in both the demo and in the full game.

About

Unnamed Space Idle

Engage in an endless sci-fi idle game battling alien waves. Customize your ship with unlockable weapons and defenses, and strategically upgrade various systems to increase your power. Make impactful decisions to counter enemy types and progress through a well-paced unfolding experience.

Highlights
  • Destroy alien waves
  • Customize ship with weapons/defenses
  • Unlockable systems and upgrades
  • Strategic decision-making
  • Progression and prestige systems
  • Craft and improve modules
Features
Read full description

No ads! Destroy unending waves of alien ships in this long form, unfolding, sci-fi idler. Unnamed Space Idle is an unfolding sci-fi idle game that plunges you into a relentless battle against an alien menace that has decimated humanity. Voted r/incremental_games "Best F2P game" 2024 & 2025. Customize your ship with an array of progressively unlocked weapons and defenses, strategically tailored to counter specific enemy types. With a plethora of unfolding systems and abundant options, you'll face crucial choices as you steadily increase you power through progression and prestige. A Myriad of Different Systems Discover over 10 distinct systems, each offering unique mechanics that evolve and expand over time. Core - Upgrade your Weapon, Defense and Utility cores with salvage gathered from enemies. Compute - Improve your combat stats over time in traditional Idle Game fashion Synth - Craft and improve modules and recipes to increase your power in various ways. Void Device - Slot in void shards dropped by enemies for different combinations of upgrades. Prestige - Unlock different ships, weapons, defenses and utilities. Reactor - Feed void matter into your reactor to power various system boosts. Research - Harness the research data obtained from different sectors to unlock various upgrades. And More... Impactful, Understandable Decisions Choose wisely when equipping your ship with weapons and defenses, selecting power-altering modules, or determining the optimal combination of shards to use. The distinction between optimal and sub-optimal choices can significantly impact your progress. But while there are a lot of decisions to be made, they are all plainly understandable so that the optimum, or at least very near optimum decision making is within your grasp! Consistent Progress and Unlocks Well paced progression combined with the amount of different systems, upgrades and enemies, means something new is frequently just around the corner.

Screenshots

Magic Research4 screens
Unnamed Space Idle4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Unnamed Space Idle at Free against Magic Research's $3.99. Magic Research's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 10) and review sentiment (95% vs 77%). On rating, ratings volume, update cadence and ads 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

Unnamed Space Idle is free to download; Magic Research costs $3.99 up front. Unnamed Space Idle sells 10 one-off in-app purchases. Magic Research asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Magic Research holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.6. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 186 and 243 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 95% of Magic Research's written reviews are positive against 77% of Unnamed Space Idle's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Magic Research ships an update every 4 days, Unnamed Space Idle every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and November 4, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Magic Research versus Unnamed Space Idle: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMagic ResearchUnnamed Space Idle
Price$3.99Free — better
Rating4.7 (186 ratings) — better4.6 (243 ratings)
Positive reviews95.1% of reviews — better77.2% of reviews
Number of ratings186243 — better
Update frequencyEvery 4 daysEvery 2 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.615 — better
Further details — not scored
Size25 MB126 MB
Age rating12+9+
DeveloperMatias Ezequiel ColottoJDOG CORP

Customer experience

Magic Research

All ratings188 ratings
Positive93.6%
Neutral1.6%
Negative4.8%
Written reviews61 reviews
Positive95.1%
Neutral0.0%
Negative4.9%

Unnamed Space Idle

All ratings203 ratings
Positive86.7%
Neutral2.0%
Negative11.3%
Written reviews101 reviews
Positive77.2%
Neutral5.9%
Negative16.8%

User reviews

Magic Research

From 186 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Great idle/incremental game
  • 💡 Deep and complex systems
  • 🚀 Well-paced progression
  • 💰 Worth the price
  • ✨ No ads or microtransactions

Room to improve

  • 🐛 UI layout issues
  • 🐌 Can be grindy
  • 🔋 High battery consumption
  • 🐛 Text running off page/scrolling issues
  • 🐛 Wood resource bug

Unnamed Space Idle

From 243 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Addictive gameplay
  • 👍 Deep and complex mechanics
  • 👍 Constantly evolving game
  • 👍 Frequent updates
  • 👍 Free-to-play friendly

Room to improve

  • 📱 Tiny UI elements
  • 📱 Small font size
  • 📱 Unreadable text on mobile
  • 📱 UI not optimized for mobile
  • 📱 Difficult to interact with buttons

Bugs and requests

Magic Research

Reported bugs

8 issues
  • On new iPhones, switching away and back causes UI unresponsiveness
  • Text running off the page, preventing interaction with buttons
  • Wood resource counting backwards
  • Becoming stunned for a full minute, unable to act
  • Bosses running away from fights
Show 3 more
  • Exploration difficulty jump
  • UI layout issues on iPad Pro (long scrolling panels, cut-off inventory views, difficult spell favorite scrolling, useless event panel)
  • Text pages not scrolling, making discoveries unreadable

Requested features

12 requests
  • Add background music
  • Add Chinese language support
  • Make monsters pixelated
  • Adjustable times for apprentice auto-casting
  • Display monstium collection counter during exploration
Show 7 more
  • Allow apprentices to auto-craft potions
  • Make the game accessible to the blind
  • Add a way to start further into dungeons
  • Automate crafting
  • Improve quality of crafted items (armor, weapons)
  • Add a 'Magic Smithing' school
  • Allow players to avoid or cure silence effects

Unnamed Space Idle

Reported bugs

15 issues
  • UI is too small on mobile devices
  • Font size is too small, making text unreadable
  • Game crashes during fleet auto battles
  • Cannot open on iPadOS 14.8.1
  • Game freezes when playing on mobile network
Show 10 more
  • AI Smart Crafting not working
  • Module queue automation doesn't correctly identify materials
  • Buttons for base upgrades not working after last update
  • Small text and UI elements make interaction difficult
  • Game stuck in landscape mode
  • Dark red text on black background is hard to read
  • UI elements overlap or are difficult to press
  • Some text and buttons are too small to read or interact with on smaller phones
  • The game is not optimized for mobile screens, leading to unreadability and difficulty in control
  • Inability to copy and paste

Requested features

12 requests
  • UI rework for mobile
  • Improve UI readability
  • Optimize UI for smaller screens
  • Add French translation
  • Add Turkish language support
Show 7 more
  • Option to restart game
  • Better mobile screen utilization
  • Adjust module queue automation
  • Fix AI smart crafting
  • Improve collision detection for projectiles
  • Consider fantasy-oriented theme
  • Add audio to the game

In-app purchases

None

Magic Research

No in-app purchases

10 purchases

Unnamed Space Idle

One-time10
  • 200 AI Points$1.99
  • QOL Bundle$2.49
  • Spacemas Bundle$2.99
Show 7 more
  • Spaceversary Bundle$3.99
  • Steampunk Cosmetic$3.99
  • 550 AI Points$4.99
  • Essentials Bundle$4.99
  • 1200 AI Points$9.99
  • Advanced Bundle$9.99
  • 2600 AI Points$19.99

Questions

Is Magic Research free?
Magic Research costs $3.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Unnamed Space Idle free?
Unnamed Space Idle is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Magic Research or Unnamed Space Idle?
Magic Research is rated higher. Magic Research averages 4.7 out of 5 from 186 ratings, while Unnamed Space Idle averages 4.6 from 243 ratings.
Do Magic Research or Unnamed Space Idle have ads?
Neither Magic Research nor Unnamed Space Idle shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Magic Research or Unnamed Space Idle?
Magic Research ships an update every 4 days, and Unnamed Space Idle every 2 days. Most recently, Magic Research was updated on November 3, 2026 and Unnamed Space Idle on November 4, 2026.

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