Cube Runner vs Lantern
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Cube Runner
Navigate a dynamic landscape, skillfully dodging an array of hazardous cubes. Experience exhilarating flight through tight gaps and canyons with highly responsive, intuitive controls. Enjoy multiple gameplay modes and customizable visual themes.
- Intuitive controls
- Obstacle avoidance
- Multiple difficulty levels
- First and third-person views
- Zen mode for endless play
- Customizable themes
- Original soundtrack
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Fly across a landscape whilst avoiding the many treacherous cubes which lie in your path. Swoop through narrow gaps and fly through canyons with the greatest of ease using intuitive controls. FEATURES: - Simple and responsive controls - Various levels of difficulty - First and third person view - Zen mode - just fly forever - Different themes including retro mode and custom - make Cube Runner look how you want it! - The classic Cube Runner music written and produced by Nick Burstein and Nate Belasco of Fancy Hat Productions. - All other music by Bjornar Kibsgaard - https://bjokib.com
Lantern
Control a deep-sea vessel with one finger, drawing loops to defeat enemies and survive increasingly challenging depths. Upgrade your fleet, weapons, and ship to conquer the ocean's creatures and compete on a global leaderboard.
- Loop enemies to crush them
- Upgrade fleet and weapons
- Explore 20 challenging depths
- Collect 21 unique sea creatures
- Compete on a world leaderboard
- Play offline
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Draw a loop around your enemies and crush them. Lantern is a deep-sea survival game you play with one finger. Your ship leaves a glowing trail behind it. Fly a full circle around a group of sea monsters and close the loop. Small creatures inside are destroyed, and bigger ones take heavy damage. There is no fire button and nothing to aim. You just drag to steer. A dive takes about fifteen minutes. Reach the bottom or sink trying. DRAW TO FIGHT • Loop: fly a circle around enemies to crush everything inside • Wave: move side to side to push enemies away • Spiral: fly three circles in a row to fire shots all around you • King Tide: close three loops to flood the water around you YOUR FLEET Helper ships follow behind you and fire at enemies. When something hits you, the last ship in the line takes the hit instead. Lost ships come back after a short time, and you can upgrade how many ships you can have. EVERY DIVE • 20 depths, each harder than the last, with a boss at the bottom of each one • 8 weapons and 20 upgrades to choose from as you level up • 4 pairs of weapons that combine into something stronger • 21 kinds of glowing sea creatures, from jellyfish to a giant anglerfish and the Kraken • Endless mode once you clear a depth • A world leaderboard to compare your best score with players everywhere WHAT YOU KEEP • 16 permanent upgrades you buy between dives • 5 ships to fly, with 4 of them earned by playing • Pets that swim with you and gear for your ship • A creature book that fills in as you explore • Close the game mid-dive and pick up right where you left off PLAY YOUR WAY • Free to play. Ads only play when you choose to watch one. • Play offline. No account and no login needed.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Lantern at 5.0 against Cube Runner's 4.0. Lantern also leads on update cadence (every 3 days vs every 5 months) and review sentiment (100% vs 80%). Cube Runner's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 6) and ads (none vs shown). 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. Lantern sells 6 one-off in-app purchases. Cube Runner asks for nothing beyond the download.
Lantern holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Cube Runner has 504 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 80% of Cube Runner's written reviews are positive against 100% of Lantern's.
Cube Runner ships an update every 5 months, Lantern every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 22, 2026 and October 13, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Cube Runner | Lantern |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.0 (504 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 80.3% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 504 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Every 5 months | Every 3 days — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 16.2 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 36 MB | 32 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Andy Qua | Stepx LLC |
Customer experience
Cube Runner
Lantern
Bugs and requests
Cube Runner
Reported bugs
3 issues- Crashes when downloading level packs
- Incompatible with older iOS versions
- Calibration issues on newer devices
Requested features
5 requests- Customizable control sensitivity
- Retro visual mode
- Option to toggle original soundtrack
- Vertical gameplay mode
- Level editor and sharing
Lantern
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Cube Runner
No in-app purchases
Lantern
- 10 Shards$4.99
- 340 Tokens$4.99
- 24 Shards$9.99
Show 3 moreShow fewer
- 820 Tokens$9.99
- 60 Shards$19.99
- 2,050 Tokens$19.99









