Peglin vs Merge Maestro
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Peglin
Embark on a roguelike adventure combining Pachinko-style combat with deck-building strategy. Collect powerful orbs and relics to defeat dragons and reclaim your gold. Explore procedurally generated maps with unique challenges and surprises on every run.
- Collect and upgrade orbs and relics
- Pachinko-like combat mechanics
- Procedurally generated maps
- Defeat monsters and bosses
- Strategic use of potions and bombs
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The award-winning roguelike-deckbuilder Peglin is finally available on iOS! This version lets you try it before you buy it with unlimited access to the first third of the game and a one-time purchase to own the complete game and all future updates! The dragons have been popping peglins and stealing all of your gold for as long as you can remember. Enough is enough. It's time to venture through the woods, conquer the fortress, and delve into the heart of the dragon's lair to take back what's yours and teach those dragons a lesson. Peglin plays like a combination of Peggle and Slay the Spire. The enemies are tough, and if you're defeated your run is over, but you've got powerful orbs with special effects and incredible relics that influence both your enemies and the physics you'll use to defeat them. Features: - Collect and upgrade powerful orbs and relics to defeat the monsters and bosses that stand in your way. - Fight enemies with Pachinko-like gameplay - hit more pegs to do more damage. Use crit potions, refresh potions, and bombs wisely. - Explore a new map every time, with different orbs, enemies, and surprises along the way.
Merge Maestro
Combine hundreds of unique emoji tokens in a puzzle-like, rogue-like experience. Discover creative combinations of tokens and powers to fuse unique strategies and overcome increasingly challenging levels. Enjoy a twist on puzzle, rogue-like, and arcade gameplay.
- Hundreds of unique emoji tokens
- Combo-driven gameplay
- Puzzle-like rogue-like mechanics
- Discover creative token combinations
- Fuse unique strategies
- Challenging levels
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Combine 100's of unique emoji based tokens in this combo-driven puzzle-like rogue-like! Find ever more creative combinations of Tokens and Powers to fuse unique strategies and beat this ever more challenging twist on rogue-likes, puzzlers and arcadey games!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Merge Maestro at 4.8 against Peglin's 4.1. Merge Maestro also leads on review sentiment (91% vs 64%). Peglin's advantage is ratings volume (1.2K vs 138). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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
Both are free to download. Peglin sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Merge Maestro sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Merge Maestro holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Peglin has 1.2K ratings behind it against 138, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 64% of Peglin's written reviews are positive against 91% of Merge Maestro's.
Peglin ships an update fortnightly, Merge Maestro every 9 days. The most recent releases landed on October 20, 2026 and October 17, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Peglin | Merge Maestro |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.1 (1.2K ratings) | 4.8 (138 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 64.2% of reviews | 91.4% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 1.2K — better | 138 |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | Every 9 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 | 12.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 311 MB | 94 MB |
| Age rating | 9+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Red Nexus Games Inc. | DAVID HS TING |
Customer experience
Peglin
Merge Maestro
User reviews
Peglin
From 1.2K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Addictive gameplay
- 👍 Unique blend of roguelike and pachinko
- 🎨 Charming retro art style
- 💰 Fair one-time purchase model
- 🔁 High replayability
Room to improve
- 🐛 Occasional bugs and crashes
- 🔍 Unclear mechanics and lack of explanations
- 📱 Controls not optimized for mobile
- 💰 Perceived high price for mobile game
Merge Maestro
From 138 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Engaging and fun gameplay
- 🚀 Great value for a free-to-play game
- 💡 Unique and creative mechanics
- 👍 Thoughtful game design
Room to improve
- 🐛 Crashes on startup for some users
- 🐛 Issues with medal tracking
Bugs and requests
Peglin
Reported bugs
3 issues- Soft locks when trying to unlock full game
- Aiming issues and unresponsive controls
- Inconsistent behavior of certain abilities
Requested features
4 requests- More level variety and content
- Ability to save and resume runs
- Vertical mode for better mobile experience
- Customizable controls and aiming
Merge Maestro
Reported bugs
2 issues- Crashes on startup
- Medal tracking issues
Requested features
2 requests- Endless mode
- UI/text scale options
In-app purchases
Peglin
- Peglin Full Game Unlock$7.99
Merge Maestro
- Full Access$2.99
