Comparison

Moon Child vs Hello, Mario!

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

Head to head
About

Moon Child

Embark on a retro-inspired platforming adventure as a magical elf. Utilize a unique touch control system to navigate vibrant pixel art levels, collect scattered gems, and defeat a techno-virus threatening the planet. Experience smooth scrolling and a captivating soundtrack.

Highlights
  • Pixel art graphics
  • Elastimotion touch controls
  • Collect Dark Diamonds
  • Save planet Utopia
  • Retro-techno soundtrack
  • Hand-crafted levels
Read full description

MOON CHILD Moon Child brings you back to the golden age of platform games, with detailed, hand-crafted pixel artwork, old school 3D animations, a stomping retro-techno soundtrack and silky-smooth scrolling. Guide Moon Child, a little green elf with magical mental and physical powers, on his quest to save the planet Utopia from an evil techno-virus, spread by a crashed meteor. Control Moon Child using a unique approach called Elastimotion. Your fingers will no longer miss on-screen buttons, the Elastimotion control establishes a flexible line that connects your finger with the main character. Moving your finger to the right will make Moon Child run to the right, moving your finger up will cause him to jump, etcetera. You will discover that the Elastimotion control is the most natural way of playing a platform game you've experienced on a touchscreen device. View the included demo sequence for an introduction to the game. The aim of the game is to collect at least 77 of the 84 Dark Diamonds that are spread throughout the various levels. Then you will be able to enter the psychedelic final world, where you need the Dark Diamonds to destroy the abstract heart of the techno-virus. Moon Child requires an iPad 1 (or higher) or an iPhone 4 (or higher) with iOS version 5 (or higher) to run. THE CREDITS Coding: Reinier van Vliet (http://proofofconcept.nl) Graphics: Metin Seven (http://metinseven.com) Audio: Ramon Braumuller

About

Hello, Mario!

Engage with Mario's face by pulling, stretching, and poking him to create various expressions. Add iconic items and characters from the Mushroom Kingdom to the scene. Enjoy interactive play with a built-in feature that encourages screen time breaks.

Highlights
  • Manipulate Mario's face
  • Add game items and characters
  • Play peekaboo with Mario
  • Built-in screen time breaks
  • Offline play
Read full description

"Hello, Mario!" Are you ready to play? With this free application from the little-kid-friendly My Mario brand, you and your kiddo can play with Mario's face and delight in all his various expressions. ■Make Silly Faces Team up with your kiddo to see how silly Mario can get when you pull and stretch his face or take turns poking and spinning him around. Tap on the ? Block in the top-left corner of the screen and select an icon to make items—like a Super Mushroom, a Super Star, or pipes—and even enemies appear alongside Mario. ■Peekaboo! Invite Mario to play peekaboo by tapping on the leftmost icon in the ? Block menu. Boo may even make a guest appearance! ■Built-In Breaks Good night, Mario! Mario gets tuckered out after playing for a while and will fall fast asleep. At that point no amount of poking can wake him up! This is a great opportunity to take a break and help parents limit their child's screen time. If you want to keep the fun going, you can turn off this feature by tapping the gear icon in the top-right corner of the screen when the application starts. ■Play Offline There's no need to be connected to the internet to play this application. After you download it, you're good to go! Operation is not guaranteed for all devices that meet the operating conditions. It may not work properly depending on the device's performance and specifications, device-specific application usage conditions, etc. Please be sure to read the Health and Safety information provided in the application settings before you start playing. Settings can be accessed by tapping the gear icon in the top-right corner of the screen when the application starts to access the menu. ©Nintendo

Screenshots

Moon Child3 screens
Hello, Mario!4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Hello, Mario! at 90% against Moon Child's 57%. Hello, Mario! also leads on update cadence (every 4 months vs every 15 months) and ratings volume (326 vs 13). Moon Child's advantage is rating (4.8 vs 4.6) and iOS requirement (9.0 vs 15.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Moon Child holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Hello, Mario! has 326 ratings behind it against 13, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 57% of Moon Child's written reviews are positive against 90% of Hello, Mario!'s, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Moon Child ships an update every 15 months, Hello, Mario! every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 28, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Moon Child versus Hello, Mario!: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMoon ChildHello, Mario!
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (13 ratings) — better4.6 (326 ratings)
Positive reviews57.1% of reviews89.7% of reviews — better
Number of ratings13326 — better
Update frequencyEvery 15 monthsEvery 4 months — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS9.0 — better15.0
Further details — not scored
Size88 MB137 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperProof of ConceptNintendo Co., Ltd.

Customer experience

Moon Child

All ratings3 ratings
Positive66.7%
Neutral33.3%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews7 reviews
Positive57.1%
Neutral28.6%
Negative14.3%

Hello, Mario!

All ratings279 ratings
Positive89.6%
Neutral3.9%
Negative6.5%
Written reviews156 reviews
Positive89.7%
Neutral3.8%
Negative6.4%

In-app purchases

None

Moon Child

No in-app purchases

None

Hello, Mario!

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Moon Child free?
Moon Child is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Hello, Mario! free?
Hello, Mario! is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Moon Child or Hello, Mario!?
Moon Child is rated higher. Moon Child averages 4.8 out of 5 from 13 ratings, while Hello, Mario! averages 4.6 from 326 ratings.
Do Moon Child or Hello, Mario! have ads?
Neither Moon Child nor Hello, Mario! shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Moon Child or Hello, Mario!?
Moon Child ships an update every 15 months, and Hello, Mario! every 4 months. Most recently, Moon Child was updated on October 23, 2026 and Hello, Mario! on October 28, 2026.

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