Comparison

Wild West Pinball vs Visual Pinball

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

Head to head
About

Wild West Pinball

Experience a realistic 3D pinball simulation with a Western theme. Enjoy accurate physics, missions, and multiball modes. Customize camera views and compete for high scores locally and globally.

Highlights
  • Realistic 3D physics engine
  • Western-themed environment
  • Missions and checkpoints
  • Multiball mode
  • Adjustable camera modes
  • Local and world score tables
  • Table tilting
Features
Read full description

DON'T MISS OUR NEW GAMES: - Pinball HD Collection - War Pinball HD - Jungle Style Pinball - The Deep Pinball -------------------------------------- "Going Tilt: Wild West Pinball offers a pretty faithful recreation of the pinball machine experience on your iPhone." -- Jeff Phillips, Macworld.com "The game is earning high praise from pinball fans who have been looking for a more authentic experience. Several users have commented on the accurate physics model and "real feel" of Wild West Pinball." -- Arnold Kim, TouchArcade.com "The physics and sounds of the game are specifically designed to make the game "feel right" and give pinball fans the closest feel to actually being on a machine." -- Erik Fikkert, AppVee.com "...it's a very good game indeed and probably the best digital pin table I've seen in a long time." -- Sir Digby, AllAboutTheGames.co.uk "Fantastic 3D pinball table and animations. Very crisp visuals, and a buttery smooth frame rate. It doesn’t get any more realistic than this." -- Matt Dunn, iPhoneGamesNetwork.com "...there's no title screen, no front end interface or needless menu navigation. You tap, and you're instantly in. It's really clean, and as long as you aren't expecting some sort of epic experience in your pinball, it's perfect given the nature of mobile gaming." -- Mark Bozon, IGN ABOUT THE GAME Wild West Pinball team - more than 3 000 000 players around the world! Welcome to Wild West Pinball - world first professional pinball simulator for the iPhone. With fast 3D graphics and realistic physics this game will blow your mind. All parts of pinball table are real objects and you can see how it works! Western style locations and environment gives you a lot of fun. IMPORTANT • You can find SOUND, MUSIC and THEME options in standart iPhone “Settings” section. • During the game pinch your fingers together or apart to toggle camera mode from live to fixed. HOW TO PLAY When running the app, you are presented with a 3D simulated camera zoom, pan and fly-over of one of the games. Swiping right brings up Gameprom news and swiping left brings up the local score screen. Tapping on a game's fly-over screen starts game play. Controls in game: • Tap ANYWHERE on the left side of screen to control the left flipper and ANYWHERE on the right side to control the right flipper. • Shake your iPad to realistically shake the pinball table, but not too much or you'll tilt. • Tap on the "electronic caption" at the top of the screen to pause or resume your game. • During the game pinch your fingers together or apart to toggle camera mode from live to fixed. Features and capabilities of the game: – New improved 3D engine – Missions and Checkpoints – Hidden locations – Realistic physics – Multiball – Camera effects with two modes – Save/load game – Unique sounds – Original soundtrack – Table tilting – Local scores table – World scores table

About

Visual Pinball

Experience the full virtual pinball simulator with realistic physics, lighting, and sound. This open-source app offers a redesigned interface, enhanced table management, and the complete desktop experience for mobile devices. Enjoy a vast library of tables without ads or in-app purchases.

Highlights
  • Realistic physics, lighting, and sound
  • Redesigned interface with Liquid Glass
  • Full in-game menu for graphics and controls
  • Support for various backglass and display types
  • Easy table import and management
  • Optimized memory usage
Features
Read full description

The official Visual Pinball app. Built by volunteers since 2000 and open source since 2010, Visual Pinball is the simulator the virtual pinball community has been playing for over two decades. More than 70 people have contributed to it, and this app runs the same engine as the desktop version, so every table plays with the physics, lighting and sound its creator intended. No ads. No in-app purchases. No tracking. Made by volunteers. Two years of work from the Visual Pinball volunteers, in one update. Thank you for your patience, and for playing! A FRESH NEW LOOK • Redesigned for iOS 26 with Liquid Glass • Favorites and recently played tables at the top of your list • Search, sorting and three tile sizes • Light, Dark or System appearance • New loading screen that shows progress THE FULL DESKTOP EXPERIENCE • The complete Visual Pinball in-game menu for graphics, sound, controls and table options • Remap every button on keyboards and game controllers • Save settings for every table, or just the one you're playing MORE TABLES, LOOKING BETTER • Show the backglass and score display (DMD, alphanumeric or reels) on screen, right where you want them • Support for PUP packs, FlexDMD, B2S backglasses, video playback and VNI colorizations • All the latest physics and rendering improvements from the desktop version • Much lower memory use: textures are compressed on first load, then cached EASIER TABLE MANAGEMENT • Import .zip files, along with .vpx and .vpxz • Share any table as a single .vpxz file • The web file manager can now upload whole folders, extract archives, edit scripts and settings, and show the log live AND MORE • Many stability and memory fixes This version requires iOS 26.6 or later.

Screenshots

Wild West Pinball4 screens
Visual Pinball3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Visual Pinball at none against Wild West Pinball's 5. Visual Pinball also leads on update cadence (fortnightly vs every 2 months). Wild West Pinball's advantage is ratings volume (3K vs 75) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 26.6). On price, rating, review sentiment 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

Both are free to download. Wild West Pinball sells 5 one-off in-app purchases. Visual Pinball asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Wild West Pinball holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Wild West Pinball has 3K ratings behind it against 75, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 82% of Wild West Pinball's written reviews are positive against 78% of Visual Pinball's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Wild West Pinball ships an update every 2 months, Visual Pinball fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on November 8, 2026 and November 5, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Wild West Pinball versus Visual Pinball: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterWild West PinballVisual Pinball
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (3K ratings) — better4.3 (75 ratings)
Positive reviews82.1% of reviews — better78.0% of reviews
Number of ratings3K — better75
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsFortnightly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS12.0 — better26.6
Further details — not scored
Size94 MB134 MB
Age rating4+9+
DeveloperBrainVault Games, LLCJason Millard

Customer experience

Wild West Pinball

All ratings2,921 ratings
Positive89.5%
Neutral6.6%
Negative3.9%
Written reviews1,161 reviews
Positive82.1%
Neutral6.1%
Negative11.8%

Visual Pinball

All ratings74 ratings
Positive81.1%
Neutral6.8%
Negative12.2%
Written reviews59 reviews
Positive78.0%
Neutral11.9%
Negative10.2%

User reviews

Wild West Pinball

From 3K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Smooth gameplay
  • 🎯 Realistic physics
  • 👍 Addictive and fun
  • 🎨 Great graphics
  • 🕹️ Classic pinball experience

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Freezing/crashing issues
  • 💰 Intrusive ads during gameplay
  • 🔍 Unclear controls/mechanics
  • 🔄 Inability to continue games
  • 🔋 High battery consumption

Visual Pinball

From 75 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Awesome way to play virtual pinball on the go
  • 👍 Super easy to set up with minimal file prep time
  • 👍 Insane that I can play favorite pins on just my phone
  • 👍 Fantastic portable implementation of VPX
  • 👍 Fun and exciting to archive the history of pinball

Room to improve

  • 🔧 More ability to adjust table settings needed
  • 🔧 Struggling to manage camera angle
  • 🔧 No fullscreen on iPad, plunger and outlanes cropped
  • 🔧 Some tables don't work or have issues

Bugs and requests

Wild West Pinball

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Freezing after completing a game
  • Unresponsive controls at times
  • Inconsistent ball behavior
  • Compatibility issues with newer iOS versions

Requested features

5 requests
  • Multiplayer/leaderboard support
  • More variety in tables/modes
  • Ability to disable ads permanently
  • Improved camera/ball tracking
  • Optimization for newer devices

Visual Pinball

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Tables don't load for some users
  • Certain complex/intensive tables error out or run at low FPS

Requested features

6 requests
  • List of most played tables
  • Ability to reposition DMD
  • Option to skip startup checks for some tables
  • Ability to edit table scripts on the app
  • Direct link to table depository
Show 1 more
  • iPad version with more screen space

In-app purchases

5 purchases

Wild West Pinball

One-time5
  • Multiball x15$0.99
  • Ball Saver x15$0.99
  • Extra Ball x10$0.99
Show 2 more
  • Cheats Pack$1.99
  • Remove Ad$2.99
None

Visual Pinball

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Wild West Pinball free?
Wild West Pinball is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Visual Pinball free?
Visual Pinball is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Wild West Pinball or Visual Pinball?
Wild West Pinball is rated higher. Wild West Pinball averages 4.5 out of 5 from 3K ratings, while Visual Pinball averages 4.3 from 75 ratings.
Do Wild West Pinball or Visual Pinball have ads?
Neither Wild West Pinball nor Visual Pinball shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Wild West Pinball or Visual Pinball?
Wild West Pinball ships an update every 2 months, and Visual Pinball fortnightly. Most recently, Wild West Pinball was updated on November 8, 2026 and Visual Pinball on November 5, 2026.

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