Cargo vs Monument Valley
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Cargo
A brain-challenging puzzle game where players program a robot to move crates. It's designed to help users learn fundamental programming concepts through engaging gameplay and beautiful graphics.
- Robot programming puzzles
- Learn programming concepts
- Beautiful graphics
- Fiendish puzzles
- Record and share solutions
- Programmed on iPad
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Over one million people have enjoyed Cargo-Bot! The puzzle game that challenges your brain and helps you learn programming concepts. Cargo-Bot is the first game programmed entirely on iPad® using Codea It's a puzzle game where you teach a robot how to move crates. Sounds simple, right? Try it out! • Beautiful graphics • Fiendish puzzles • A game about programming, programmed entirely on iPad • Record your solutions and share them on YouTube • Learn more about how it was made by searching for Codea on the App Store
Monument Valley
Explore a world of impossible architecture and optical illusions. Guide a silent princess through stunningly beautiful, hand-crafted monuments by manipulating the environment. Uncover hidden paths and solve puzzles in this surreal exploration game.
- Impossible architecture manipulation
- Optical illusion puzzles
- Surreal exploration
- Hand-crafted worlds
- Intuitive twist and drag controls
- Reactive soundscape
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** Apple Game of the Year 2014 ** ** Winner of Apple Design Award 2014 ** In Monument Valley you will manipulate impossible architecture and guide a silent princess through a stunningly beautiful world. Monument Valley is a surreal exploration through fantastical architecture and impossible geometry. Guide the silent princess Ida through mysterious monuments, uncovering hidden paths, unfolding optical illusions and outsmarting the enigmatic Crow People. Ida's Dream now available. Forgotten Shores: Eight new chapters of adventure and illusion available now as a separate purchase. Buy or download Monument Valley now and you’ll also get our fully animated iMessage sticker pack, including 5 stickers exclusive to players! Only available on iOS10 and above. ======= "This might be the most beautiful iPad game of 2014" - Wired "Brilliant design... stayed with me like a dream I didn't want to forget" 9/10 - Polygon "The most sublime hour my iPad has ever given me... and the value of such a thing is incalculable" - Kotaku "Monument Valley stuns with its serenity... each screen is a work of art" - Huffington Post "Almost impossibly gorgeous... a feast for your senses" 5/5 - Touch Arcade ======= BEAUTIFUL Inspired by minimalist 3D design, optical illusions and palaces and temples from around the world, every monument is a unique, hand-crafted world to explore. EASY TO USE Twist and drag to reshape the world and help Ida to explore. Designed to be easy for everyone to pick up, enjoy and complete. SOUND Audio reacts to your manipulation of the world to provide a surreal and beautiful soundscape. Best experienced with headphones. iCloud Synchronize your game across all your devices. ** Monument Valley is designed for iPhone 4 and above. It is NOT compatible with iPod Touch 4th Generation.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Cargo at Free against Monument Valley's $3.99. Cargo also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 1) and iOS requirement (12.4 vs 15.0). Monument Valley's advantage is rating (4.8 vs 3.6) and update cadence (every 2 months vs every 30 months). On review sentiment 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
Cargo is free to download; Monument Valley costs $3.99 up front. Monument Valley sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Cargo asks for nothing beyond the download.
Monument Valley holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 3.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Monument Valley has 16K ratings behind it against 27, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 84% of Cargo's written reviews are positive against 81% of Monument Valley's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Cargo ships an update every 30 months, Monument Valley every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 15, 2026 and October 17, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Cargo | Monument Valley |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $3.99 |
| Rating | 3.6 (27 ratings) | 4.8 (16K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 84.1% of reviews — better | 80.6% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 27 | 16K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 30 months | Every 2 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid | Free with in-app purchases — better |
| Best chart rank | — | #3 — better |
| Devices | iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 12.4 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 18 MB | 324 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Two Lives Left | ustwo games |
Customer experience
Cargo
Monument Valley
User reviews
Cargo
From 27 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Epic
- 👍 Tricky logical game
- 👍 Excellent game!
- 👍 Good accessible programming game
- 👍 Genius!
Room to improve
- 🐛 I AM SO MAD AT THE DEVELOPER AND THE GAME!!!!
- 🐛 The game is bad
- 🐛 The update deleted my save!
- 🐛 App Support
- 🐛 Teaches bad programming practices
Monument Valley
From 16K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🎨 Stunning visuals and graphics
- 🎶 Soothing and atmospheric audio
- 🧠 Clever and mind-bending puzzles
- 🕰️ Relaxing and calming gameplay
- 👍 Intuitive and user-friendly controls
Room to improve
- 🕹️ Puzzles can be too easy at times
- ⏱️ Game is relatively short in length
- 💰 Expensive for the amount of content
- 🐛 Occasional bugs and crashes reported
Bugs and requests
Cargo
Reported bugs
4 issues- Come together 2 hard mode crashes when I complete it in 8 step... wants you to stack 7 blocks but stashes when you do!!
- App froze while I was doing the tutorial. Still frozen each time I open it.
- ERROR: Parameters dt = random numbers. (about 1.6) OUTPUT: TEST TEST error: [string " -- StagePhysics.lua..":97: attempt to index local 'info' (a nil value) Pausing playback
- Infinite loop issue, recursion does not work correctly
Requested features
13 requests- Add a prog 5?
- Create your own level thing added in
- Saving multiple solutions, version control of unsolved puzzles, & saving off a set of instructions for reuse (building libraries of moves that are easy to reference in other puzzles)
- Settings to disable the sounds/music while letting background music play
- A button to simply change the "best solution" criteria
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- Updating the game or downloading "content" updates when new solutions are found
- An option in Settings to include a link to the video with the best solution displayed
- More explications... Per exemple, why a left arrow on the last sqarre of prog2 bring the claw automaticly to the leftmost colum no matter where your claw is???
- A reset levels button so you can use it with other users in a school
- A break function to stop infinite loops
- A tutorial about how to do the tutorial?
- A way to see the best solution for a level
- Multiple player profiles or even reset the game
Monument Valley
Reported bugs
3 issues- Levels not loading or freezing on certain devices
- Inability to purchase or access DLC/expansion content
- Compatibility issues with recent iOS updates
Requested features
4 requests- More levels and chapters to extend the gameplay
- Increased difficulty and challenge in later puzzles
- Ability to save progress and resume levels
- Support for newer device screen sizes and resolutions
In-app purchases
Cargo
No in-app purchases
Monument Valley
- Forgotten Shores$1.99
