Comparison

Lights Off vs How I Hate Halloween

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

Head to head

Lights Off

The original game

Free

🎮 Games

★ 4.538 ratingsView app →

How I Hate Halloween

2D Shooter

Free

🎮 Games

★ 4.84 ratingsView app →

About

Lights Off

A classic puzzle game where the objective is to turn off all the lights to advance. Enjoy smooth animations, sound effects, and beautiful artwork in this engaging time-killer.

Highlights

Turn off all lights to win
Progress through stages
Smooth animations
Sound effects
Beautiful artwork

Read full description

The classic game inspired by Tiger Electronic's 'Lights Out' is back for the App Store and better than ever! Lights Off is a simple game in which the goal is to turn all the lights off to progress to the next stage. Featuring smooth animations, sound effects and beautiful artwork, Lights Off is the perfect way to kill some time and see how far you can get. Spiritual successor to the original Lights Off game by Lucas Newman and Adam Betts, 'Lights Off' is completely built from scratch with a brand new engine and more of Adam's great artwork.

About

How I Hate Halloween

A 2D Halloween-themed shooter where players defend against trick-or-treaters. Armed with various projectiles, you help a grumpy old man enjoy some peace on Halloween night.

Highlights

Halloween theme
2D shooter gameplay
Defend against trick-or-treaters
Variety of projectiles
Single-player experience

Features

Read full description

This is a fun 2D Shooter set at Halloween. Once a Year evil takes the unexpected form of a grumpy old man. Concealed in darkness, he spends his Halloween playing tricks of his own. Armed to the false teeth with everything from eggs to onions, he has a special treat in store for anyone who comes knocking at his door. Can you help an old man get some peace and quiet?

Screenshots

Lights Off4 screens

How I Hate Halloween4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: How I Hate Halloween at 100% against Lights Off's 72%. How I Hate Halloween also leads on rating (4.8 vs 4.5) and iOS requirement (10.0 vs 18.0). Lights Off's advantage is ratings volume (38 vs 4) and device support (4 vs 2). On price, update cadence, ads 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Lights Off sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and How I Hate Halloween sells 6 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

How I Hate Halloween holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Lights Off has 38 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 72% of Lights Off's written reviews are positive against 100% of How I Hate Halloween's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Lights Off ships an update every 5 months, How I Hate Halloween every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level

Lights Off versus How I Hate Halloween: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
Parameter	Lights Off	How I Hate Halloween
Price	Free	Free
Rating	4.5 (38 ratings)	4.8 (4 ratings) — better
Positive reviews	72.4% of reviews	100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings	38 — better	4
Update frequency	Every 5 months	Every 3 months — better
Ads	No	No
In-app purchases	Yes	Yes
Monetization	Free with in-app purchases	Free with in-app purchases
Devices	iPhone, iPad, Mac, Vision Pro — better	iPhone, iPod
Requires iOS	18.0	10.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size	11 MB	145 MB
Age rating	4+	12+
Developer	Steven Troughton-Smith	Little Whirlwind Software

Customer experience

Lights Off

All ratings38 ratings

Positive89.5%

Neutral0.0%

Negative10.5%

Written reviews76 reviews

Positive72.4%

Neutral6.6%

Negative21.1%

How I Hate Halloween

All ratings2 ratings

Positive100.0%

Neutral0.0%

Negative0.0%

Written reviews1 reviews

Positive100.0%

Neutral0.0%

Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Lights Off

Reported bugs

9 issues

Touchscreen misalignment
Buttons not working
App crashes on launch
Level selector not working
Game stops working after beating all levels

Show 4 more

GUI sluggish and doesn't register taps
Not toggling all sides
Incompatible with iPhone XS Max
Level 213 issue

Requested features

8 requests

Add more levels
Native iPad version
Color options
Hint button
Level selector improvements

Show 3 more

Replay function
Tutorial
Dark mode

How I Hate Halloween

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Lights Off

One-time1

Lights Off (Essentials)$0.99

6 purchases

How I Hate Halloween

One-time6

Sweet Bundle 1$1.99
Remove all ads$3.99
Sweet Bundle 2$4.99

Show 3 more

Sweet Bundle 3$9.99
Sweet Bundle 4$19.99
Sweet Bundle 5$49.99

Questions

Is Lights Off free?

Lights Off is free to download, with in-app purchases available.

Is How I Hate Halloween free?

How I Hate Halloween is free to download, with in-app purchases available.

Which has better reviews, Lights Off or How I Hate Halloween?

How I Hate Halloween is rated higher. Lights Off averages 4.5 out of 5 from 38 ratings, while How I Hate Halloween averages 4.8 from 4 ratings.

Do Lights Off or How I Hate Halloween have ads?

Neither Lights Off nor How I Hate Halloween shows ads.

Which is updated more often, Lights Off or How I Hate Halloween?

Lights Off ships an update every 5 months, and How I Hate Halloween every 3 months. Most recently, Lights Off was updated on October 23, 2026 and How I Hate Halloween on October 24, 2026.