Comparison

Barrel Defender vs SicTransit

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

Head to head
About

Barrel Defender

Defend your energy barrels from alien invaders in this retro arcade space shooter. Enjoy simple, intuitive controls and blast through waves of enemies with various weapons and challenging boss fights.

Highlights
  • Two game modes: endless and wave
  • 25 alien-filled waves
  • Variety of aliens and movement patterns
  • Boss enemy battles
  • Weapon power-ups
  • Easy finger-slide controls
Features
Read full description

Barrel Defender is an old school retro Arcade Shooter. Protect your Energy Barrels, collect extra weapons and blast away waves of aliens! Barrel Defender is easy to control. Your spacecraft follows the slide of your finger and is in 'auto shoot' mode. It is the ideal game for the casual player and retro fans. Enjoy blasting aliens... Features: - two game modes ( 'endless' and 'wave' mode ) - fight your way through 25 alien filled waves - tons of different aliens and movement pattern - fight boss enemies - collect extra weapons - beautiful space sci-fi environment - easy to control - quite easy, well known game play

About

SicTransit

Engage in a retro-style space shooter with procedurally generated levels. Master inertial controls to destroy debris, avoid obstacles, and survive enemy encounters. Customize your gameplay experience and unlock powerful upgrades.

Highlights
  • Procedurally generated levels
  • Inertial flight controls
  • Asteroid and debris destruction
  • Enemy bases and combat
  • Force fields and portals
  • Highly configurable gameplay
  • In-app shop for upgrades
Features
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SicTransit provides endless hours of fun with procedurally-generated levels — never play the same game twice! SicTransit throws you a classic retro-style challenge: can you fly a ship inertially within a closed level, without bumping around like a flipper ball, and just stay alive? To complete a level, you have to destroy all its rocky debris (asteroids and planets) within a certain amount of time, so the most important thing is to get acquainted with classic inertial controls — rotate left, rotate right, thrust. Plus shoot, of course: make sure to have a look at the Ctrl screen before playing. Once you've cleared a level, just return to the starting spot, and you'll advance to the next level. That is, assuming you still have enough shields for your ship — every collision hurts, so make sure to avoid all obstacles. Each level may contain any quantity of debris, as well as any number of force fields: these come in several types, and each type will seriously affect your ability to fly (and possibly to shoot). Levels also contain enemy bases, which might be triggered in several ways — once a base spawns an enemy and it starts chasing you, your best bet is just to blast it away. Levels also contain portals, which allow you to jump around to fixed positions much like a teleporter would do... just remember to watch out when jumping through a portal — who knows what's on the other side... Furthermore, levels may also contain electrified fences — while you can certainly cross them, it's not particularly recommended. SicTransit is highly configurable: the Pref screen contains all sorts of options that support playing in radically different ways. For instance, you can decide how and when enemies are spawned or force fields are activated. Actually, you can also change how a level is completed — you're highly encouraged to try out the various options, in order to find the combination that best suits you. Finally, when you're ready to start playing *really* seriously, have a look at the Shop — you'll find all sorts of powerful lasers, which will be of invaluable help once you reach a certain level size.  Not to mention the absolutely crucial retro-rockets, which will allow you to fly really anywhere, in any situation... including the most intense combat ones! ••••• ORIGINAL MUSIC: Suddi Raval — https://www.suddiraval.com Davos Live Music — https://www.facebook.com/Davos.Live.Music Vincenzo Lucarelli — https://www.facebook.com/vincenzo.lucarelli.58 SOUND FX — https://www.freesound.org SPRITE MODELS — https://www.turbosquid.com UI FONTS — https://www.dafont.com

Screenshots

Barrel Defender4 screens
SicTransit4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: SicTransit at Free against Barrel Defender's $0.99. SicTransit also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.0) and update cadence (fortnightly vs every 39 months). Barrel Defender's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 5). On review sentiment, ratings volume, ads and device support 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

SicTransit is free to download; Barrel Defender costs $0.99 up front. SicTransit sells 5 one-off in-app purchases. Barrel Defender asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

SicTransit holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 1 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Barrel Defender ships an update every 39 months, SicTransit fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Barrel Defender versus SicTransit: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBarrel DefenderSicTransit
Price$0.99Free — better
Rating4.0 (1 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings11
Update frequencyEvery 39 monthsFortnightly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better
Requires iOS15.612.4 — better
Further details — not scored
Size33 MB83 MB
Age rating9+4+
DeveloperStefan PreussDario Accornero

Customer experience

Barrel Defender

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

SicTransit

Written reviews5 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Barrel Defender

No in-app purchases

5 purchases

SicTransit

One-time5
  • Double Lasers$0.99
  • Triple Lasers$1.99
  • Antimatter Lasers$2.99
Show 2 more
  • Ray Lasers$3.99
  • Retro-rockets$4.99

Questions

Is Barrel Defender free?
Barrel Defender costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is SicTransit free?
SicTransit is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Barrel Defender or SicTransit?
SicTransit is rated higher. Barrel Defender averages 4.0 out of 5 from 1 ratings, while SicTransit averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Barrel Defender or SicTransit have ads?
Neither Barrel Defender nor SicTransit shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Barrel Defender or SicTransit?
Barrel Defender ships an update every 39 months, and SicTransit fortnightly. Most recently, Barrel Defender was updated on October 23, 2026 and SicTransit on October 25, 2026.

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