Bluster! vs Duck Duck Moose Reading HD
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- Vocabulary building
- Word matching
- Single-player mode
- Two-player collaboration
- Head-to-head versus mode
- Over 800 vocabulary words
- Grade-level appropriate content
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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! *****
Duck Duck Moose Reading HD
This app offers a zoo-themed adventure to teach phonics and reading skills to young children. It features word and letter activities aligned with Common Core State Standards, along with a parent reporting tool to track progress. Developed with educators, it's designed for ages 3-7.
- Zoo-themed learning adventure
- Phonics and reading skill development
- Word and letter activities
- Common Core State Standards alignment
- Parent progress reporting tool
- Developed with educators
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An award-winning app based on Common Core State Standards, Duck Duck Moose Reading teaches phonics and reading skills in a fun zoo-themed adventure. With word and letter activities, kids learn by playing with flamingos, monkeys, lions and more. Keep track of progress through a new parent reporting tool. AWARDS: Parents’ Choice Gold Award; Children’s Technology Review Editor’s Choice Award. AGES: 3-7. PLAY CATEGORY: Early Learning/Curriculum ACTIVITIES 9 ACTIVITIES BASED ON COMMON CORE STANDARDS - Letter-sound and word activities - Recognizing and naming lowercase letters - Demonstrating knowledge of letter-sound correspondences - Isolating and pronouncing sounds in CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words WORDS & LETTERS: Teaches phonics through 9 different activities - Learn the letter sounds for all consonants, short vowels and long vowels - Practice spelling consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words PARENT REPORTING: Includes a new reporting tool so parents and teachers can see how a child is progressing DEVELOPED WITH EDUCATORS: - Developed in conjunction with Stanford University Educator, Jennifer DiBrienza, PhD in - Early Elementary Education and former NYC public school teacher (K-Grade 2) - Tested extensively in Kindergarten classrooms COMMON CORE STANDARDS: RF.K.1d, RF.K.2d, RF.K.2e, RF.K.3a, RF.K.3b ABOUT DUCK DUCK MOOSE (A wholly-owned subsidiary of Khan Academy) Duck Duck Moose, an award-winning creator of educational mobile apps for families, is a passionate team of engineers, artists, designers, and educators. Founded in 2008, the company has created 21 top-selling titles and has received 21 Parents’ Choice Awards, 18 Children’s Technology Review Awards, 12 Tech with Kids’ Best Pick App Awards, and a KAPi award for “Best Children’s App” at the International Consumer Electronics Show. Khan Academy is a nonprofit with a mission to provide a world-class education for anyone, anywhere. Duck Duck Moose is now part of the Khan Academy family. We rely on our community of volunteers and donors. Get involved today at www.duckduckmoose.com/about. Check out the Khan Academy app to learn and practice all kinds of topics for elementary school through college and beyond. We’d love to hear from you! Visit us at www.duckduckmoose.com or drop us a line at support@duckduckmoose.com.
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Duck Duck Moose Reading HD at none against Bluster!'s 9. Duck Duck Moose Reading HD also leads on ratings volume (32 vs 8). Bluster!'s advantage is rating (4.5 vs 4.1) and review sentiment (73% vs 43%). On price, update cadence, 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
Both are free to download. Bluster! sells 7 one-off in-app purchases. Duck Duck Moose Reading HD asks for nothing beyond the download.
Bluster! holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 4.1. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 8 and 32 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 73% of Bluster!'s written reviews are positive against 43% of Duck Duck Moose Reading HD's.
Bluster! ships an update every 13 months, Duck Duck Moose Reading HD every 11 months. The most recent releases landed on October 15, 2026 and October 22, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Bluster! | Duck Duck Moose Reading HD |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (8 ratings) — better | 4.1 (32 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 72.7% of reviews — better | 43.5% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 8 | 32 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 13 months | Every 11 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPad | iPad |
| Requires iOS | 8.0 — better | 9.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 21 MB | 55 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | McGraw-Hill School Education Group | Duck Duck Moose LLC |
Customer experience
Bluster!
Duck Duck Moose Reading HD
In-app purchases
Bluster!
- Base Words$0.99
- Extra Rhyming Words2 variants$0.99
- Extra Prefixes$0.99
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- Extra Synonyms$0.99
- Extra Words2 variants$0.99
- Extra Word Roots$0.99
- Extra Adjectives$0.99
Duck Duck Moose Reading HD
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Bluster! free?
Is Duck Duck Moose Reading HD free?
Which has better reviews, Bluster! or Duck Duck Moose Reading HD?
Do Bluster! or Duck Duck Moose Reading HD have ads?
Which is updated more often, Bluster! or Duck Duck Moose Reading HD?
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