Comparison

Puppet Pals 2 vs WWF Free Rivers

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

Head to head
About

Puppet Pals 2

Unleash creativity by making animated cartoons with interactive puppets. Children and teachers can easily create high-quality animated stories, presentations, and educational content. Share finished projects via email, social media, or direct file transfer.

Highlights
  • Create animated cartoons
  • Interactive puppet show
  • Star in shows with built-in characters
  • Share finished projects easily
  • Engage students in learning
  • Create instructional videos
Read full description

• “Puppet Pals is an amazing app that lets you create animated cartoons.” -David Pogue (NewYork Times) Children unlock creativity with this easy to use (but hard to put down) interactive puppet show! Even young children can create high quality cartoons from their imaginations. Kids can even star in the show along side the built-in characters! Teachers: Engage students by allowing them to act out historical events, practice language skills, or deliver a killer book report. The cartoons that kids are making have delighted thousands of teachers and parents around the world - let yours be next to experience this award-winning digital addition to your classroom. The finished projects are easily shared to be watched by others (share via email, Facebook, or simply copy the video file to your computer and distribute how you see fit - Hint: students love to see their work displayed on a classroom blog). • Create short instructional videos (in any learning area) • Storytelling, Reports, Historic Retells • Help reluctant public speakers present to the class • Help foreign language or ESL students practice their fluency & language skills • Brainstorming or storyboarding ideas and presentations Characters chosen from standard curriculum allow kids to fully engage with content - not even realizing they are actually learning valuable lessons that will stay with them for years to come!

About

WWF Free Rivers

Explore the vital role of rivers in ecosystems and human life through an interactive augmented reality experience. Manipulate river flows to understand the impact of dams and sustainable development, while collecting stories of the people and wildlife that depend on them.

Highlights
  • Interactive augmented reality river model
  • Simulate damming and sustainable development
  • Explore five distinct real-world habitats
  • Collect stories of people and wildlife
  • Learn about river threats and opportunities
Features
Read full description

WWF Free Rivers puts an entire landscape in your hands. Through this immersive, augmented reality experience, you’ll discover a river that flows through the lives of people and wildlife, and how their homes depend on those flows. Dam the river to see what happens, and then try different options for sustainable development that keeps the river healthy and flowing. Collect stories of people and animals along the way! Features • In-depth, educational storytelling experience for environmental science • Stunning, animated, augmented reality model users can interact with and learn from • Five distinct habitats based on real places: the Himalayan mountains, tropical jungles, African savannah, South American grasslands, and Southeast Asian deltas. • Opportunity to get involved and help protect rivers, and the people and wildlife that depend on them • An augmented reality map of the world’s rivers—and some of the biggest threats and opportunities they face.

Screenshots

Puppet Pals 24 screens
WWF Free Rivers4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Puppet Pals 2 at 4.1 against WWF Free Rivers's 3.6. Puppet Pals 2 also leads on review sentiment (63% vs 31%). WWF Free Rivers's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 10). On price, ratings volume, update cadence 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Puppet Pals 2 sells 10 one-off in-app purchases. WWF Free Rivers asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Puppet Pals 2 holds the better App Store score, 4.1 against 3.6. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 122 and 151 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 63% of Puppet Pals 2's written reviews are positive against 31% of WWF Free Rivers's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 2, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Puppet Pals 2 versus WWF Free Rivers: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPuppet Pals 2WWF Free Rivers
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.1 (122 ratings) — better3.6 (151 ratings)
Positive reviews63.4% of reviews — better31.2% of reviews
Number of ratings122151 — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS12.011.3 — better
Further details — not scored
Size359 MB430 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPolished Play, LLCWorld Wildlife Fund

Customer experience

Puppet Pals 2

All ratings122 ratings
Positive76.2%
Neutral7.4%
Negative16.4%
Written reviews216 reviews
Positive63.4%
Neutral10.2%
Negative26.4%

WWF Free Rivers

All ratings151 ratings
Positive58.9%
Neutral11.9%
Negative29.1%
Written reviews141 reviews
Positive31.2%
Neutral9.9%
Negative58.9%

User reviews

Puppet Pals 2

From 122 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Fun and creative
  • 🤩 Nostalgic and brings back childhood memories
  • 🎨 Allows for customization and personalization
  • 🏫 Great for use in schools and classrooms

Room to improve

  • 💰 Many features locked behind paywalls
  • 🐛 Frequent crashes and glitches
  • 🔍 Limited selection of characters and backgrounds
  • 🤔 Confusing or unintuitive UI

WWF Free Rivers

From 151 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🎓 Excellent educational tool for teaching environmental concepts
  • 🎨 Beautiful graphics and visual design
  • 🔮 Innovative AR technology implementation
  • 🌍 Engaging way to learn about river ecosystems and conservation
  • 📱 Works well on newer devices (iPhone 13, iPhone X)

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Frequent crashes on launch and during gameplay
  • 📱 Poor compatibility with older devices (iPhone 6, iPad Mini 4)
  • 🔋 Causes significant device overheating
  • 📸 Difficult camera calibration and surface detection
  • 🎮 Limited interactivity and gameplay mechanics

Bugs and requests

Puppet Pals 2

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Saving issues causing loss of progress
  • Freezing and crashing when trying to access certain features
  • Audio and visual glitches during playback
  • Compatibility problems on newer devices

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add more free characters and backgrounds
  • Implement better saving and autosave functionality
  • Allow for custom character creation and customization
  • Add more diverse themes and settings
  • Improve overall stability and reduce crashes

WWF Free Rivers

Reported bugs

13 issues
  • App crashes immediately after launch or during intro
  • Black screen or freezing on opening screen
  • Camera fails to detect flat surfaces even in well-lit areas
  • AR map jumps and moves erratically during use
  • App becomes unresponsive after initial loading screen
Show 8 more
  • Sketchy cross appears on screen preventing progression
  • App closes after first narrative segment
  • Camera permission dialog not appearing properly
  • Loading screen hangs indefinitely
  • Incompatibility with iPad Air 2 and older iPad models
  • Device overheating causing performance issues
  • AR objects fail to render or appear as blue dots only
  • App locks up device requiring force restart

Requested features

12 requests
  • Non-AR version with traditional touch controls (pan, pinch, zoom)
  • Ability to build and destroy dams to see real-time effects
  • More interactive gameplay and user agency
  • Additional landscapes and environments to explore
  • Animated creatures with more natural behaviors
Show 7 more
  • Ability to reposition the AR table without restarting
  • Device rotation support during gameplay
  • Larger, more readable font sizes
  • Multiple language support
  • Underground/cave system exploration
  • More content and longer storytelling experience
  • Multiplayer or competitive elements

In-app purchases

10 purchases

Puppet Pals 2

One-time10
  • North Pole Pack$0.99
  • Royal Hall Pack$0.99
  • Time & Tech Pack$0.99
Show 7 more
  • Saddle Up Pack$0.99
  • Vroom Vroom Pack$0.99
  • Civil Rights$0.99
  • Ptolemaic$0.99
  • Under The Sea$0.99
  • Custom Heads$1.99
  • All Access Pass$5.99
None

WWF Free Rivers

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Puppet Pals 2 free?
Puppet Pals 2 is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is WWF Free Rivers free?
WWF Free Rivers is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Puppet Pals 2 or WWF Free Rivers?
Puppet Pals 2 is rated higher. Puppet Pals 2 averages 4.1 out of 5 from 122 ratings, while WWF Free Rivers averages 3.6 from 151 ratings.
Do Puppet Pals 2 or WWF Free Rivers have ads?
Neither Puppet Pals 2 nor WWF Free Rivers shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Puppet Pals 2 or WWF Free Rivers?
Puppet Pals 2 ships an update every 2 months, and WWF Free Rivers every 2 months. Most recently, Puppet Pals 2 was updated on November 1, 2026 and WWF Free Rivers on November 2, 2026.

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