Comparison

Bluster! vs READING MAGIC 2

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

Head to head
About

Bluster!

This word matching game enhances vocabulary and word comprehension for school-aged children and adults. Engage in single-player practice, team collaboration, or competitive head-to-head battles with weather-themed attacks. It offers over 800 words and various skill-building activities.

Highlights
  • Vocabulary building
  • Word matching
  • Single-player mode
  • Two-player collaboration
  • Head-to-head versus mode
  • Over 800 vocabulary words
  • Grade-level appropriate content
Features
Read full description

Breeze through vocabulary building with Bluster! This word matching game develops vocabulary and word understanding for school-aged children, or anyone brave enough to battle the elements. Shine bright in single-player mode as you learn and practice important word skills. Match rhyming words, prefixes and suffixes, synonyms, homophones, adjectives, and more. Collaborate with a friend in team mode. The multi-touch iPad screen allows both players to play simultaneously, so you can work together to weather the vocabulary storm. Switch to versus mode and play head-to-head for the ultimate test of your lightning quickness. Disrupt your opponent with weather attacks like tornadoes and blizzards - it’s thunderous fun and just might give you the edge you need to reign supreme! Bluster includes over 800 vocabulary words. Players choose a skill to practice and then try to make matches of three. Ten matches wins a round. Features: • Three different play modes - including two-player action. • A variety of grade level appropriate content. • Engaging animated gameplay with sound effects. • Head-to-head and High Scores tables. • Plays on the iPad in both landscape and portrait mode. • In app purchases for additional vocabulary. ***** Want to get all the vocabulary packs? Consider Bluster Deluxe! *****

About

READING MAGIC 2

This app helps children master consonant blends, a key skill for reading success. It offers interactive modes for blending sounds, segmenting words, and independent reading practice with over 300 words and engaging themes.

Highlights
  • Blending Mode for sound practice
  • Segmenting Mode for word breakdown
  • Reading Mode for independent word reading
  • Focus on CCVC and CVCC words
  • Advanced consonant blend practice
  • Over 300 words with male/female voices
  • Themed lessons for engagement
Features
Read full description

Unlock the Magic of Reading with READING MAGIC 2! Transform your child into a confident reader with READING MAGIC 2! This app makes learning to read an exciting adventure with interactive activities focused on CCVC (Consonant-Consonant-Vowel-Consonant) and CVCC short-vowel blend words. Meticulously designed to provide an advanced boost to your child’s phonemic awareness, this app combines three foundational pillars of literacy science into one powerful, interactive ecosystem: Blending (Listening), Segmenting (Speaking), and Decoding (Reading). Grounded firmly in Science of Reading principles and utilizing University of Florida Literacy Institute (UFLI) guidelines, READING MAGIC provides specific, precise training with extensive repetitions to help young brains bridge the gap between spoken sound units and complete words. IDEAL FOR BOTH BEGINNING PRE-READERS AND STRUGGLING READERS For Beginning Pre-Readers: A stress-free launchpad. By practicing words through pure sound sequences first, your child masters the internal mechanics of reading without cognitive overload. This keeps them from being frustrated by trying to learn separate, difficult skills at the same time. For Struggling or Remedial Readers: If your child's reading is hesitant or choppy, or if they guess at words, this app provides the targeted intervention recommended by modern reading science to help young brains bridge the gap. THREE CRITICAL SKILL-BUILDING PILLARS While many phonics programs completely overlook the auditory mechanics of reading, our program systematically guides your child through the complete progression of decoding: Skill 1: Blending (Listening): Interactive listening activities train your child’s neural processing ability to hear isolated sounds in words and join them together mentally. This builds the vital auditory runway required for future fluency. Skill 2: Segmenting (Speaking): True spelling and reading independence require the ability to pull spoken words apart into their individual sound units. These exercises build explicit awareness of the acoustic structure of language. Skill 3: Decoding (Reading): The ultimate bridge to literacy. Your child applies their mastery of blending and segmenting directly to text, smoothly moving from spoken sounds to visual words. STRUCTURAL SPACING & INSTRUCTION (Science-Backed Layout) Our app builds the actual findings of reading science directly into the user interface for maximum visual clarity: Anti-Crowding Design: Peer-reviewed research, including Marinus et al. (2016) and Wery & Diliberto (2017), demonstrates that generous letter spacing is critical for early decoding. By placing each letter on its own isolated card with distinct physical gaps, our layout eliminates visual crowding, allowing your child to isolate each sound unit cleanly. True Comprehension: The app strictly discourages picture guessing, forcing children to rely purely on their decoding skills to foster true comprehension and build lasting confidence. INDEPENDENT LEARNING & AESTHETIC SIMPLICITY Distraction-Free: Our minimalist design eliminates overstimulating audio-visual clutter, excessive sound effects, and animations to keep your child entirely focused on the mechanics of reading. Stress-Free Growth: Built-in natural feedback loops offer gentle corrections, nurturing self-discovery and independent learning at your child's own pace. EXPERT RESEARCH BACKING "Before a child can read fluently with their eyes, they must be able to blend fluently with their ears. Weakness in auditory blending is one of the strongest early predictors of later reading failure." — Dr. Joseph Torgesen, Florida State University. "Teaching students to blend and segment benefited their reading much more than did a multiple-skills approach... and teaching phonemic awareness with letters created effect sizes almost twice as large as teaching children without letters." — The National Reading Panel (NRP) Meta-Analysis

Screenshots

READING MAGIC 24 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: READING MAGIC 2 at 4.8 against Bluster!'s 4.5. READING MAGIC 2 also leads on review sentiment (81% vs 73%) and device support (3 vs 1). Bluster!'s advantage is iOS requirement (8.0 vs 13.7). On price, ratings volume, update cadence 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. Bluster! sells 7 one-off in-app purchases and READING MAGIC 2 sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

READING MAGIC 2 holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 8 and 21 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 73% of Bluster!'s written reviews are positive against 81% of READING MAGIC 2's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Bluster! ships an update every 13 months, READING MAGIC 2 every 19 months. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 10, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Bluster! versus READING MAGIC 2: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBluster!READING MAGIC 2
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (8 ratings)4.8 (21 ratings) — better
Positive reviews72.7% of reviews81.3% of reviews — better
Number of ratings821 — better
Update frequencyEvery 13 months — betterEvery 19 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS8.0 — better13.7
Further details — not scored
Size21 MB258 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMcGraw-Hill School Education GroupPRESCHOOL UNIVERSITY

Customer experience

Bluster!

All ratings8 ratings
Positive87.5%
Neutral12.5%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews22 reviews
Positive72.7%
Neutral18.2%
Negative9.1%

READING MAGIC 2

All ratings21 ratings
Positive90.5%
Neutral9.5%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews32 reviews
Positive81.3%
Neutral6.3%
Negative12.5%

In-app purchases

7 purchases

Bluster!

One-time7
  • Base Words$0.99
  • Extra Rhyming Words2 variants$0.99
  • Extra Prefixes$0.99
Show 4 more
  • Extra Synonyms$0.99
  • Extra Words2 variants$0.99
  • Extra Word Roots$0.99
  • Extra Adjectives$0.99
1 purchases

READING MAGIC 2

One-time1
  • Deluxe Upgrade$3.99

Questions

Is Bluster! free?
Bluster! is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is READING MAGIC 2 free?
READING MAGIC 2 is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Bluster! or READING MAGIC 2?
READING MAGIC 2 is rated higher. Bluster! averages 4.5 out of 5 from 8 ratings, while READING MAGIC 2 averages 4.8 from 21 ratings.
Do Bluster! or READING MAGIC 2 have ads?
Neither Bluster! nor READING MAGIC 2 shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Bluster! or READING MAGIC 2?
Bluster! ships an update every 13 months, and READING MAGIC 2 every 19 months. Most recently, Bluster! was updated on November 6, 2026 and READING MAGIC 2 on November 10, 2026.

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