Comparison

Tractor Beam vs Pivot Strike

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

Head to head
About

Tractor Beam

Pilot a ship through an asteroid field using only a tractor beam. Slingshot your vessel and use the beam to manipulate asteroids, creating a unique and challenging arcade experience. Enjoy dynamic music or play your own.

Highlights
  • Tractor beam mechanics
  • Asteroid field navigation
  • Multi-touch gameplay
  • Procedurally generated music
  • Portrait and landscape modes
  • Three difficulty levels
Features
Read full description

Your engines are down. Use your tractor beams to move. "Some of the most fun we've had with $0.99 on the iPhone and we still can't put it down" - Slide To Play Tractor beam is a powerfully simple and addictive arcade game inspired by the classics. Unarmed and out of fuel, to survive you must slingshot your ship through an asteroid field using only your tractor beam. But the beam will also send the asteroids on a collision course with your ship, making for a unique challenge as you press onward to earn points. Tractor Beam can be played in either portrait or landscape orientation, and multi-touch gameplay allows for more than one beam and complex strategies. The procedurally generated background music is never the same twice, or choose to listen to your own music from within the iPod application. - Classic arcade look and feel - Multi-touch gameplay - Three levels of difficulty - Dynamic music is created on-the-fly - Allows for music from other applications

About

Pivot Strike

A unique arcade shooter where players control two ships with a single touch. Strategically pivot and line up your ships to maximize firepower and absorb enemy bullets. Earn trophies by achieving high scores.

Highlights
  • One-touch ship control
  • Strategic pivoting mechanics
  • Dual ship combat
  • Bullet absorption
  • Trophy system based on scores
Features
Read full description

Pivot Strike is very unique, one touch to drag your ships around, tap the screen to pivot the ships. When lined up your ship in the lead has double the fire rate, when side by side both ships can fire but at half the fire rate. The Blue Ship destroys blue enemies and the Red Ship destroys red enemies, the Blue Ship can absorb red bullets, the Red Ship can absorb blue bullets. Three trophy system that unlocks based on the players scores.

Screenshots

Tractor Beam3 screens
Pivot Strike4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Tractor Beam at 82% against Pivot Strike's 0%. Tractor Beam also leads on rating (5.0 vs 1.0) and update cadence (every 6 months vs every 19 months). Pivot Strike's advantage is price (Free vs $0.99) and iOS requirement (7.0 vs 9.0). On ads, in-app purchases 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

Pivot Strike is free to download; Tractor Beam costs $0.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Tractor Beam holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 1.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Tractor Beam has 6 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 82% of Tractor Beam's written reviews are positive against 0% of Pivot Strike's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Tractor Beam ships an update every 6 months, Pivot Strike every 19 months. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 2, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Tractor Beam versus Pivot Strike: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterTractor BeamPivot Strike
Price$0.99Free — better
Rating5.0 (6 ratings) — better1.0 (1 ratings)
Positive reviews82.0% of reviews — better0.0% of reviews
Number of ratings6 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 6 months — betterEvery 19 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS9.07.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size8 MB21 MB
Age rating4++9
DeveloperManufacturing ContentGiuseppe Calcagno

Customer experience

Tractor Beam

All ratings6 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews61 reviews
Positive82.0%
Neutral9.8%
Negative8.2%

Pivot Strike

All ratings1 ratings
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%

In-app purchases

None

Tractor Beam

No in-app purchases

None

Pivot Strike

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Tractor Beam free?
Tractor Beam costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Pivot Strike free?
Pivot Strike is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Tractor Beam or Pivot Strike?
Tractor Beam is rated higher. Tractor Beam averages 5.0 out of 5 from 6 ratings, while Pivot Strike averages 1.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Tractor Beam or Pivot Strike have ads?
Neither Tractor Beam nor Pivot Strike shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Tractor Beam or Pivot Strike?
Tractor Beam ships an update every 6 months, and Pivot Strike every 19 months. Most recently, Tractor Beam was updated on November 6, 2026 and Pivot Strike on November 2, 2026.

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