Melldows vs Pocket8
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Melldows
Design and color your own miniature world in this relaxing sandbox game. Spread forests, create paths, and add structures in a goal-less, creative experience.
- Creative land design
- Goal-less sandbox experience
- Forest and path creation
- Place tents and ruins
- Cozy and carefree gameplay
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Melldows is a tiny, cozy world-building toy with no goals, scores, or pressure. Shape a small piece of land into your own peaceful place. Sculpt the terrain, grow forests and flowers, draw winding paths, and build a quiet little village. Watch the world come alive with changing light, gentle wildlife, and seasonal colors. There is nothing to win and no correct way to play. Create a wild garden, a hidden settlement, or simply relax and see where your ideas take you.
Pocket8
This app brings the PICO-8 fantasy console experience to your mobile device, offering access to thousands of community-made games. Enjoy customizable touch controls or gamepad support, and never lose progress with an instant save system.
- Browse and play community-made PICO-8 games
- Customizable touch controls and gamepad support
- Instant save states for unlimited progress saving
- Portrait and landscape orientation support
- Locked 60FPS gameplay
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Experience PICO-8 Anywhere: Pocket8 brings the magic of the PICO-8 fantasy console to your pocket. Whether you’re on a commute or relaxing at home, thousands of indie games are a single tap away. A Massive Library in Your Pocket: Discover thousands of community-made games with integrated BBS exploration. From challenging platformers to relaxing puzzles, there’s always something new to play. Download your favorites and build a personal collection that goes offline wherever you do. Controls That Feel Right: Gaming on a touch screen can be a struggle. Pocket8 features high-precision controls that feel as good as a real handheld. Choose between a classic D-pad or virtual joystick, or swap the face buttons positioning to match your playstyle. Wanna go touch-less? Connect a controller and play with a bluetooth gamepad or keyboard. Play Without Interruption: Instant save system lets you freeze time and jump back in to the exact pixel where you left off. Manage an infinite amount of save states per cartridge. Features: Browse & Play: Explore the Lexaloffle BBS to find and download new games instantly. Pro-Style Controls: Fluid movement and adaptive controls. Gamepad and Keyboard support included. Portrait & Landscape: Play comfortably in any orientation. Save Anywhere: Never lose your progress with instant state saves. Pure Performance: Locked 60FPS gameplay for the ultimate retro experience.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Pocket8 at Free against Melldows's $1.99. Pocket8 also leads on update cadence (daily vs every 4 weeks) and ratings volume (10 vs 1). Melldows's advantage is review sentiment (100% vs 67%) and rating (5.0 vs 4.6). On ads, in-app purchases 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
Pocket8 is free to download; Melldows costs $1.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Melldows holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Pocket8 has 10 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 100% of Melldows's written reviews are positive against 67% of Pocket8's.
Melldows ships an update every 4 weeks, Pocket8 daily. The most recent releases landed on October 11, 2026 and October 17, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Melldows | Pocket8 |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $1.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | 4.6 (10 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better | 66.7% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 10 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 4 weeks | Daily — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Free — better |
| Best chart rank | #189 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 50 MB | 24 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Łukasz Cichecki | Jevon Lipsey |
Customer experience
Melldows
Pocket8
In-app purchases
Melldows
No in-app purchases
Pocket8
No in-app purchases









