Comparison

Space Borders vs Arcane Tower

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

Head to head
About

Space Borders

Command a fleet of starships in a real-time strategy war against hostile aliens. Build your armada, harvest resources, and use tactical formations and superweapons to protect Earth and its colonies from annihilation.

Highlights
  • Real-time strategy gameplay
  • Build and customize fleet (15 ship types)
  • Resource harvesting and upgrades
  • Tactical ship formations
  • Superweapons and special powers
  • Campaign, Survival, and Sandbox modes
Features
Read full description

Command massive star ships in a large-scale war, against a powerful alien force! Put your tactical skills to work and protect humanity and Earth from certain annihilation. Space Borders is a 2D space RTS game, which features lots of gameplay depth, colorful graphics, cool special effects & a great overall atmosphere. _________________ GAMEPLAY • Real-time strategy (RTS) • Build up your fleet by choosing from 15 different types of ships (with unique abilities) • Harvest resources to buy new ships, power-ups and upgrade your mothership • Protect friendly ships and stations from attacks & ambushes • Create custom formations of fighters, destroyers, carriers & support vessels • Coordinate your ships to gain tactical advantages in difficult situations • Use superweapons to destroy large clusters of enemies • Distract the enemy with special powers • and much more... FEATURES • Great visual effects • 3D audio for realistic sound effects (headphones required) • Wide variety of battleships (fighters, carriers, destroyers & more) • Unrestricted camera freedom • Ambient space soundtracks • Training mission • Campaign Mode (8 missions) • Survival Mode (endless play) • Deep Space Mining mode (resource booster) • Sandbox Mode • Conquest Mode (add-on) PLOT In the late 23rd century humans have populated most of Earth. Troubled by the poor quality of life and the excessive amount of damage inflicted on Earth, they decide to plant new colonies on distant planets. The Earth military (EDF or Earth Defense Fleet) is in charge of organizing and carrying out this immense project. During the colonization, the EDF encounters a new life form, which turns out to be extremely hostile. Multiple attacks on EDF key installations, as well as on a research ship, force the EDF to improvise new strategies for a full evacuation. You are a high ranking officer of the EDF, who is in the midst of all the action. Make sure you all get back home to Earth safe & sound. _________________ SPACE BORDERS ONLINE • spaceborders.proboards.com - submit feedback, feature requests & more • facebook.com/spacebordersapp - receive the latest news about Space Borders • http://spaceborders.proboards.com/thread/260/ - Conquest Mode FAQ THANK YOU Thank you all for supporting Space Borders with reviews, ratings, ideas for new features and a lot more. This game is truly powered by its fans! Check out the links above and be part of it. _________________ SPECIAL CREDITS • Space Borders is powered by the Sparrow Framework.

About

Arcane Tower

Embark on a challenging roguelike adventure as a brave wizard. Explore randomly generated maps, compete in daily challenges with global leaderboards, and learn from top player replays to defeat evil and uncover ancient secrets.

Highlights
  • Randomly generated maps
  • Challenging roguelike mechanics
  • Daily challenge mode
  • Global leaderboards
  • Watch top player replays
  • Single-player adventure
Features
Read full description

Evil reigns throughout the kingdom, darkness obscures the landscape. A brave wizard is determined to put an end to all of this. But there's only one way. The Arcane Tower keeps the powers and secrets required to defeat all the evil. Arcane Tower is a roguelike game with mechanics carefully designed to make every run challenging, interesting and incredibly fun. Key features: * Maps are randomly generated, meaning every run you play will be different from every other run you've played. * Daily Challenge! Every day a special map is generated, the same for everyone in the world. Compete in the daily leaderboards! * Watch other players: after playing a Daily Challenge, you can watch replays of the top players to see how they got their score.

Screenshots

Space Borders4 screens
Arcane Tower4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Arcane Tower at none against Space Borders's 1. Arcane Tower also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.7) and update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 2 months). Space Borders's advantage is ratings volume (167 vs 5). On price, review sentiment, 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

Space Borders costs $1.99 and Arcane Tower $1.99 up front. Space Borders sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Arcane Tower asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Arcane Tower holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Space Borders has 167 ratings behind it against 5, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 91% of Space Borders's written reviews are positive against 86% of Arcane Tower's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Space Borders ships an update every 2 months, Arcane Tower every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 14, 2026 and October 9, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Space Borders versus Arcane Tower: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSpace BordersArcane Tower
Price$1.99$1.99
Rating4.7 (167 ratings)5.0 (5 ratings) — better
Positive reviews90.9% of reviews — better85.7% of reviews
Number of ratings167 — better5
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 3 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.615.6
Further details — not scored
Size166 MB7 MB
Age rating12+9+
DeveloperAmasis BrauchDiego Cathalifaud

Customer experience

Space Borders

All ratings167 ratings
Positive92.2%
Neutral1.2%
Negative6.6%
Written reviews110 reviews
Positive90.9%
Neutral3.6%
Negative5.5%

Arcane Tower

All ratings5 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews7 reviews
Positive85.7%
Neutral14.3%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Space Borders

Reported bugs

11 issues
  • App crashes mid-mission with no progress recovery
  • Save file corruption and rollback after updates
  • Mission failure without clear cause or visibility
  • Resource disappearance between campaign episodes
  • Harvester ships launching into enemy fire
Show 6 more
  • Ships spinning uncontrollably when near targets
  • Occasional lag with action controls
  • Controls requiring multiple inputs to register
  • Crashes on iOS 11 with iPhone 7
  • Game-breaking resource management allowing soft-lock
  • End-mission crashes before hyperspace exit

Requested features

19 requests
  • Multiplayer or online gameplay
  • Sequel or major expansion
  • Additional campaign missions and episodes
  • More ship types and varieties
  • More turret and weapon options
Show 14 more
  • Larger fleet size capacity
  • Cloud save/iCloud synchronization
  • Checkpoint system for long missions
  • Ability to save and place destroyed ship debris in sandbox
  • 3D graphics upgrade
  • Larger maps and scaled battles
  • Local multiplayer support
  • Drones and sentry gun units
  • Base building mechanics
  • Planet-based gameplay
  • Larger hangar sizes
  • More varied campaign storylines
  • Speed-up options accessible from play screen
  • Ability to unlock sandbox mode without beating conquest

Arcane Tower

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Space Borders

One-time1
  • Conquest Mode$1.99
None

Arcane Tower

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Space Borders free?
Space Borders costs $1.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is Arcane Tower free?
Arcane Tower costs $1.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Space Borders or Arcane Tower?
Arcane Tower is rated higher. Space Borders averages 4.7 out of 5 from 167 ratings, while Arcane Tower averages 5.0 from 5 ratings.
Do Space Borders or Arcane Tower have ads?
Neither Space Borders nor Arcane Tower shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Space Borders or Arcane Tower?
Space Borders ships an update every 2 months, and Arcane Tower every 3 weeks. Most recently, Space Borders was updated on October 14, 2026 and Arcane Tower on October 9, 2026.

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