Comparison

Thinkin' Things 1 vs RetroHandheld

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

Head to head
About

Thinkin' Things 1

This educational game for young learners focuses on developing critical thinking, problem-solving, memory, and creativity. It features five engaging activity areas with colorful characters and adjustable challenges, making learning fun and accessible for non-readers.

Highlights
  • Memory building activities
  • Critical thinking challenges
  • Problem-solving exercises
  • Creativity fostering
  • Adjustable difficulty
  • Spoken instructions
  • Boolean logic lessons
Read full description

Our children will live and work in an Information Age that we can only begin to imagine. As they master the basic skills of the three R’s, they must now also develop a broader, higher-level set of thinking skills that will transfer to the workplace of the future. Edmark® Thinkin' Things was designed to offer young students experiences with a variety of just such thinking skills: memory, critical thinking, problem solving, and creativity - in short, all the twenty-first century skills that today's young learners need. Set in Toony the Loon’s Lagoon, early learners encounter colorful, fun characters as they complete challenges that are automatically adjusted to meet individual learning needs. With all instructions spoken by the characters, reading is not required so that non-readers can participate fully. FREE LEARNING GUIDE - A teacher's guide is available from the Thinkin' Things site. Click on the "Software MacKiev's Web Site" link at the bottom of this page. Designed for: Pre-K-2, ages 3-8 *** THE FIVE ACTIVITY AREAS 1. TOONY THE LOON'S LAGOON Students build auditory and visual memory as they repeat Toony the Loon’s musical patterns. They create their own memorable melodies with Toony’s wacky xylophones: glasses, strings, hollow logs, and even squawking chickens! 2. ORANGA BANGA® Students need to watch and listen carefully as Oranga Banga plays on his funky drum set, and then repeat what he plays. For an even greater auditory challenge, students can ask Oranga to play in the dark! 3. FEATHERED FRIENDS Young learners will need to put on their thinking caps to create the missing bird in the series. Students will learn about attributes, differences, patterns and analogies. 4. FRIPPLE™ GUIDES For a fun-filled lesson in Boolean logic, students visit the Fripple Shop and fill customer orders for Fripples while learning to observe, compare, contrast and recognize relationships. 5. BLOX FLYING SHAPES Students blend music, art, science, and play as they experiment with motion and the illusion of depth, creating works of kinetic art as they control the motion of shapes and the sounds they make. *** FOR EDUCATORS - MORE ABOUT THINKIN' THINGS Thinkin’ Things celebrates intellectual diversity. A student’s musical and rhythmic intelligence may shine when working with Toony the Loon and his xylophones, or visual and spatial intelligence in creating with BLOX, or logical and mathematical intelligence with the Fripple Guides and Feathered Friends. In areas that may not come as naturally to some children, Thinkin’ Things offers warm, friendly experiences in which self-confidence is built, exploration and creativity are fostered, and persistence is rewarded with success. Thinkin’ Things also focuses attention on how students learn. Is a particular student more likely to remember what is seen or what is heard? How do they approach learning? Do they “guess and test?” Once something is “discovered,” do they use that information in another way to “see what happens?” Do they, for example, prefer to take Fripple orders at the door (both auditory and visual), on the phone (auditory only), or by mail (visual only)? Thinkin’ Things promotes learning in each student’s areas of strength while encouraging growth and building skills in other areas as well. Thinkin' Things assesses a student's capabilities as they participate in activities and automatically adjusts the difficulty level as students progress. Teachers can use the "grow slide" to see what their students are learning, to set a particular level, or select a particular exercise. LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES * Compare and contrast attributes * Improve visual and auditory memory * Hypothesize and test rules * Strengthen creativity * Create and discern patterns * Complete visual analogies * Strengthen ability to conceptualize and evaluate * Recognize visual and auditory strengths

About

RetroHandheld

Transform your iPhone or iPad into a classic gaming console. Play popular retro systems like Game Boy, NES, and PlayStation with controller support and save states. Bring your own legally owned game files for an offline, ad-free experience.

Highlights
  • Plays 8 classic consoles
  • Controller support
  • Save states and auto-save
  • Offline play
  • Cheat code support
  • iCloud backup
Features
Read full description

Retro Handheld turns your iPhone and iPad into a real retro gaming machine, and it plays the consoles most iPhone emulators leave out. Start for free with the classic lineup: Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, NES, and Super NES. Unlock Nintendo 64, PlayStation, GameGear, DreamCast and Sega Genesis with one purchase — no subscription and no ads, ever. PlayStation works the moment you import a game. OpenBIOS is bundled, so there is no BIOS file to hunt down and no setup to wade through. Every emulator core ships inside the app, ready to play. WHAT YOU GET Eight consoles in one app, from Game Boy to PlayStation Auto cover art box art downloads automatically when you add a game A native, uncluttered interface built for iPhone and iPad Xbox, PlayStation, Switch Pro, and MFi controller support with automatic per-console mapping Game Genie, GameShark, and Action Replay cheat code support Save states anywhere, auto-save on exit, and one-tap resume Fast-forward for speeding through slow sections Screenshot capture to save your best moments iCloud backup for save data across devices Retro TV shell on iPad, plus haptic feedback Play time tracking for every game Fully offline. No accounts, no internet, no tracking. BRING YOUR OWN GAMES Retro Handheld does not include any games. You must own the original cartridge or disc to legally use game files with the app. Import your library from the Files app and keep it on your own device. Built on proven open-source emulation cores, compiled and bundled so there is nothing extra to download before you play.

Screenshots

RetroHandheld4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: RetroHandheld at Free against Thinkin' Things 1's $8.99. RetroHandheld also leads on ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 114 months). Thinkin' Things 1's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 16.0). On rating, ratings volume 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

RetroHandheld is free to download; Thinkin' Things 1 costs $8.99 up front. RetroHandheld sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Thinkin' Things 1 asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 3.8 for Thinkin' Things 1 against 3.8 for RetroHandheld. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 11 and 4 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 75% of Thinkin' Things 1's written reviews are positive against 100% of RetroHandheld's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Thinkin' Things 1 ships an update every 114 months, RetroHandheld every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Thinkin' Things 1 versus RetroHandheld: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterThinkin' Things 1RetroHandheld
Price$8.99Free — better
Rating3.8 (11 ratings) — better3.8 (4 ratings)
Positive reviews75.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings11 — better4
Update frequencyEvery 114 monthsEvery 2 weeks — better
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFree — better
DevicesiPadiPhone, iPad — better
Requires iOS13.0 — better16.0
Further details — not scored
Size65 MB24 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSoftware MacKievDavid Margot

Customer experience

Thinkin' Things 1

All ratings11 ratings
Positive63.6%
Neutral9.1%
Negative27.3%
Written reviews8 reviews
Positive75.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative25.0%

RetroHandheld

All ratings4 ratings
Positive75.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative25.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Thinkin' Things 1

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

RetroHandheld

One-time1
  • Full Unlock$2.99

Questions

Is Thinkin' Things 1 free?
Thinkin' Things 1 costs $8.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is RetroHandheld free?
RetroHandheld is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Thinkin' Things 1 or RetroHandheld?
Thinkin' Things 1 is rated higher. Thinkin' Things 1 averages 3.8 out of 5 from 11 ratings, while RetroHandheld averages 3.8 from 4 ratings.
Do Thinkin' Things 1 or RetroHandheld have ads?
Thinkin' Things 1 shows ads; RetroHandheld does not.
Which is updated more often, Thinkin' Things 1 or RetroHandheld?
Thinkin' Things 1 ships an update every 114 months, and RetroHandheld every 2 weeks. Most recently, Thinkin' Things 1 was updated on November 1, 2026 and RetroHandheld on October 31, 2026.

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