Comparison

! Exploding Paintballs ! vs WhereWas

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

Head to head
About

! Exploding Paintballs !

A tilt-sensitive arcade game where players link and explode colored paintballs. Compete with friends on leaderboards for high scores and unlock more levels through in-app purchases. Experience realistic physics and varied explosion sounds.

Highlights
  • Tilt or touch controls
  • Physics-based gameplay
  • Link and explode colored paintballs
  • Realistic explosion sounds
  • Game Center leaderboards
  • Unlockable levels via IAP
Features
Read full description

!Exploding Paintballs! is a tilt-sensitive arcade game with paintballs that float (blue and green) and paintballs that sink (red and yellow). When certain color combinations of paintballs touch they link together and, when the link is complete, explode with a loud realistic explosion noise. The color combinations that will explode vary with each Level. The Game Center records various scores on Leaderboards such as number of Levels completed, number of explosions, best times for certain Levels and best times for all Levels combined. Compete with your Game Center Friends to see who can make the most explosions or who can get 10 explosions on one or all Levels the fastest. Gravity is adjusted by tilting the iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. Alternatively, !Exploding Paintballs! can respond to touch moves rather than tilt. The exploding noise differs for the different color combinations that explode (e.g. gunshots, crashes, bombs). The sound can be turned off or made into a vibration. There are 8 free Levels - 4 with walls and 4 without walls. An In App Purchase expands the number of Levels to 66 - 33 Levels with walls and 33 Levels without walls. !Exploding Paintballs! is based on a kinetic simulation using the device's accelerometer and realistic principles of physics (buoyancy, inertia, viscosity, Hooke's Law and color confinement). For accuracy and stability it uses a half step modification to Euler's Algorithm as described by Feynman (Lectures on Physics, Vol. 1, Ch. 9, P. 5) and Cromer (Am. J. Phy. 49, 455 (1981)). The screen shots below are: 1) Free Level 1 - Red-Blue. A red-blue combination is shown exploding. 2) The Levels Table. The 4 free Levels are shown together with the Best Times and maximum number of Explosions. 3) Free Level 2 - Red-Blue, Yellow-Green. A red-blue (yellow-green for iPad) combination is shown exploding. 4) Free Level 3 - Blue-Yellow-Green. Some partial combinations are shown linked and one blue-yellow-green is shown exploding. 5) Free Level 4 - Red-Green-Green-Loop. Some partial combinations for the loop are shown linked and one red-green-green-loop is shown exploding.

About

WhereWas

A daily game where you guess the location of photos from your camera roll. Earn lives and rounds by guessing correctly, and collect your wins on a personal globe. Offers optional in-app purchases for more gameplay.

Highlights
  • Guess photo locations from camera roll
  • Daily one-life gameplay
  • Three rounds per day
  • Map-based guessing
  • Collect wins on a personal globe
  • Optional in-app purchases for more gameplay
Features
Read full description

"GEO-GUESSER FOR YOUR CAMERA ROLL" Your greatest memories are trapped in your camera roll. So we made a daily game to show you a set of your own photos and you have to guess where in the world they were taken. You get one life per day and three rounds to play, each round with one photo. WHERE WAS THIS TAKEN? We show you a photo from your camera roll, you have to guess where it was taken. Forgot? You have one life or the game is over. Lives reset the next day. FIND IT ON THE MAP Zoom into the correct location on the map. Tap the map to place a pin. If your pin is close enough to the actual location, you win and can play more rounds. COLLECT YOUR WINS Every time you guess a photo correctly, it gets displayed on your globe for you to view when you're out of lives or rounds for the day. GET MORE LIVES AND ROUNDS If you want to play more, you can pay for 3x the lives and almost double the rounds (5 photos). You also can skip hard photos and you get a hint on the back of each photo. COMPLETELY PRIVATE AND SECURE - YOUR PHOTOS NEVER LEAVE YOUR IPHONE To play this game, you need give the app Photo Library Access. Your photos remain on your device and are only seen by you. We read the geographic data from your images without seeing the images themselves. NO ADS AND PLAY FOR FREE FOREVER WhereWas has no ads and is free to play forever. If you want to play more, you can buy WhereWas Plus for more lives and rounds.

Screenshots

! Exploding Paintballs !4 screens
WhereWas4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: WhereWas at weekly against ! Exploding Paintballs !'s every 2 months. WhereWas also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.8). ! Exploding Paintballs !'s advantage is iOS requirement (15.6 vs 17.6). On price, review sentiment, ratings volume 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. ! Exploding Paintballs ! sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and WhereWas sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

WhereWas holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 5 and 2 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

! Exploding Paintballs ! ships an update every 2 months, WhereWas weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 2, 2026 and October 5, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
! Exploding Paintballs ! versus WhereWas: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
Parameter! Exploding Paintballs !WhereWas
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (5 ratings)5.0 (2 ratings) — better
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings5 — better2
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.6 — better17.6
Further details — not scored
Size9 MB31 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPeter KramerAppClub, LLC

Customer experience

! Exploding Paintballs !

All ratings5 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

WhereWas

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

1 purchases

! Exploding Paintballs !

One-time1
  • upgrade to play the Additional Levels$0.99
2 purchases

WhereWas

Subscriptions2
  • Plus Weekly3 Days trial$3.997 Days
  • Plus Yearly$24.991 Year

Questions

Is ! Exploding Paintballs ! free?
! Exploding Paintballs ! is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is WhereWas free?
WhereWas is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, ! Exploding Paintballs ! or WhereWas?
WhereWas is rated higher. ! Exploding Paintballs ! averages 4.8 out of 5 from 5 ratings, while WhereWas averages 5.0 from 2 ratings.
Do ! Exploding Paintballs ! or WhereWas have ads?
Neither ! Exploding Paintballs ! nor WhereWas shows ads.
Which is updated more often, ! Exploding Paintballs ! or WhereWas?
! Exploding Paintballs ! ships an update every 2 months, and WhereWas weekly. Most recently, ! Exploding Paintballs ! was updated on October 2, 2026 and WhereWas on October 5, 2026.

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