Blackbird! vs Rook
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Blackbird!
Experience a classic trick-taking card game with customizable rules and competitive AI. Bid strategically, take tricks, and achieve your goals to win. Track your progress with detailed statistics and unlock achievements.
- Classic trick-taking gameplay
- Customizable rule sets
- AI opponents
- Achievement system
- Detailed statistics tracking
- Multiple rule variations
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This game is similar to the classic ROOK® card game*. Compete against the computer in this classic trick-taking game. Bid aggressively for the chance to declare trump. Take tricks with pointers to reach your bid or you’ll get set! Play with two widely different rule sets (Kentucky Discard or Western Wyoming) or create your own set of rules to play with any of these options that can be on or off: • Include 1s worth 15 points • Low/high/10.5 Blackbird card • Remove the Blackbird card • Allow Blackbird card to be played anytime • Winning bidder leads the first trick • Red 1 worth 30 points • Adjustable game winning score • Bonus for taking most tricks • and more! Get awarded when you complete achievements and challenge your friends to complete them. Have fun looking at all of the statistics that are tracked so that you can analyze how you play. * This is not in any way endorsed by or affiliated with Hasbro, Inc. ROOK® is a registered trademark of Hasbro, Inc.
Rook
Experience a strategic trick-taking card game with a unique deck and bidding system. Play with friends or AI, aiming to reach a target score by winning tricks and naming trump suits. Features color-blind friendly cards and customizable rules.
- Trick-taking gameplay
- Unique card deck (5-14)
- Bidding for trump suit
- Color-blind friendly cards
- Customizable rules
- AI opponents
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Play the classic Rook trick-taking card game on your iPhone or iPad. You play South, partnered with North, against the West/East team. Rook uses a special deck with four colored suits numbered 5 through 14, plus the powerful Rook card. In this app, the Rook is represented by a castle chess piece, and the cards are designed to be color-blind friendly. Customize the game to match the Rook rules you know. Change the wallpaper, add optional 1 cards ranked above the 14s, choose whether players must play trump when unable to follow suit, award a bonus for winning every trick, adjust the winning score, and more. HOW TO PLAY Dealing: The deal rotates to the left each hand. Each player receives 9 cards, with 5 additional cards dealt to the widow in the center of the table. Bidding: Players bid for the right to choose the trump suit. The player to the dealer’s left opens the bidding at 70 or passes. Bidding continues to the left, usually in 5-point increments. Once a player passes, that player is out of the bidding for the hand. The Widow and Trump: The high bidder takes the 5 widow cards, which are revealed to all players, chooses the trump suit, and then discards 5 cards. The discarded cards remain hidden from the other players. Depending on your settings, point cards in the discard go either to the bidding team or to the winner of the last trick. Playing Tricks: The dealer—or optionally the high bidder—leads the first trick. Play continues to the left, with each player playing one card. Players must follow the suit that was led when possible. If unable to follow suit, a player may play any card—or, with the appropriate option enabled, must play trump when possible. The highest card of the suit led wins unless a trump card is played, in which case the highest trump wins. The Rook is the highest trump card and can be played strategically to capture a valuable trick. Standard card ranking from highest to lowest is: Rook – 14 – 13 – 12 – 11 – 10 – 9 – 8 – 7 – 6 – 5 With the optional 1 cards enabled: Rook – 1 – 14 – 13 – 12 – 11 – 10 – 9 – 8 – 7 – 6 – 5 The winner of each trick collects the four cards and leads the next trick. Scoring: At the end of the hand, each team counts the point cards it captured: • Rook: 20 points • 14: 10 points • 10: 10 points • 5: 5 points Other cards have no point value. If the bidding team fails to score enough points to make its bid, the bid amount is deducted from its score. An optional bonus can also be awarded for winning every trick. Winning: The first team to reach the selected winning score wins the game. You can adjust the target score in the game settings. Rook is free to play and supported by advertising. Prefer to play without ads? Rook+, the paid ad-free version, is also available on the App Store.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Rook at Free against Blackbird!'s $2.99. Rook also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 2). Blackbird!'s advantage is ads (none vs shown) and chart position (#11 vs unranked). On rating, ratings volume, update cadence 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
Rook is free to download; Blackbird! costs $2.99 up front. Blackbird! sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. Rook asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for Blackbird! against 4.8 for Rook. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 7K and 7K respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 71% of Blackbird!'s written reviews are positive against 62% of Rook's.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 17, 2026 and October 16, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Blackbird! | Rook |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $2.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.7 (7K ratings) | 4.8 (7K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 70.9% of reviews — better | 61.9% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 7K — better | 7K |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Paid | Ad-supported — better |
| Best chart rank | #11 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 39 MB | 33 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | R. Don Wilson | fishdog.net |
Customer experience
Blackbird!
Rook
User reviews
Blackbird!
From 7K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Fun game
- 👍 Customizable rules
- 👍 Accurate to real Rook game
- 👍 Great for practicing Rook skills
- 👍 Brings back nostalgic memories
Room to improve
- 🐛 Partner AI plays poorly
- 🐛 Opponents seem to have unfair advantage
- 🐛 Inability to continue saved games
- 🐛 Rook card not played correctly
- 🐛 Buggy multiplayer experience
Rook
From 7K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Fun and enjoyable game
- 👍 Challenging and makes the mind work
- 👍 Brings back childhood memories
- 👍 Great implementation of Rook game
Room to improve
- 🐛 AI partner makes poor decisions and gets team set
- 🐛 Unfair distribution of cards favoring the opponent team
- 🐛 Opponents can renege and play off-suit trumps
- 🐛 Frustrating bidding by AI partner
Bugs and requests
Blackbird!
Reported bugs
5 issues- Forced to take bid even when undesirable
- Inability to reverse trump or discard mistakes
- Inconsistent card dealing
- Multiplayer crashes and glitches
- Themes and settings not working as expected
Requested features
5 requests- Multiplayer mode to play with friends
- Option to call your own partner
- Ability to shoot the moon
- Customizable nest size
- More rule variations
Rook
Reported bugs
4 issues- AI partner plays trumps incorrectly
- Scoring calculator issues and negative scores
- Inability to skip the rest of the hand after outcome is decided
- Irritating background music that cannot be turned off
Requested features
5 requests- Online multiplayer mode to play with friends
- More customization options for game rules
- Ability to play with full deck (2-14) and 4-card kitty
- Option to start bidding lower
- Ability to 'shoot the moon'
In-app purchases
Blackbird!
- Christmas Theme$0.99
- Independence Day Theme$0.99
Rook
No in-app purchases









