Chillaxian vs Dark Wave
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Chillaxian
Experience a retro arcade space shooter with a relaxed atmosphere and intuitive controls. Blast waves of aliens, destroy space debris, and collect powerups. Face unique bosses and rescue humans for points in this classic-inspired adventure.
- Classic 80's arcade style
- Laid back vibe
- Easy, smooth controls
- Variety of aliens
- Unique boss battles
- Scavenge and attach gadgetry for powerups
- Rescue floating humans
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Classic early 80's style arcade space shooter, with a laid back vibe and easy, smooth controls. Just chillax and shoot some aliens for a while. - Variety of different aliens that swoop down at a nonchalant pace (it gets crazy later on). - Unique boss every 5 waves - Shoot meteors, debris, SPACE HIVES - Scavenge and attach gadgetry to create varied powerups - Rescue hapless humans floating around in space FOR POINTS - Every 10 waves passed, you can continue from that point! Each new wave is unique and incrementally harder.
Dark Wave
Navigate a winding road filled with dangers, conquering challenges across 5 chapters and 50 levels. Compete globally in endless mode or enjoy a minimalist, ad-free experience. Play across Apple devices and sync progress with iCloud.
- 5 Chapters, 50 Levels
- Endless mode with global leaderboard
- Minimalist design
- No ads or in-app purchases
- Play on iPhone, iPad, Apple TV
- iCloud progress sync
- Multi-language support
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Hello Light Surfer... Can you conquer the Dark Wave? Power your way through an ever-changing winding road and its dangers FEATURES • 5 Chapters, 50 Levels: Each chapter introduces a range of new enemies • Endless mode: Compete with others in a global leaderboard • Minimalist design • No ads, No in-app purchases • Play on your iPhone, iPad or Apple TV • Sync your progress using iCloud • Fully localized for English, Spanish, French, Japanese, Chinese, German, Italian, Dutch, Korean, Portuguese and Russian
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is monetization model: Chillaxian at free against Dark Wave's paid. Chillaxian also leads on review sentiment (85% vs 52%) and ratings volume (163 vs 16). Dark Wave's advantage is update cadence (every 3 months vs every 12 months). On price, rating, 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
Chillaxian costs $1.99 and Dark Wave $1.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.5 for Chillaxian against 4.6 for Dark Wave. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Chillaxian has 163 ratings behind it against 16, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 85% of Chillaxian's written reviews are positive against 52% of Dark Wave's.
Chillaxian ships an update every 12 months, Dark Wave every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 14, 2026 and October 15, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Chillaxian | Dark Wave |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $1.99 | $1.99 |
| Rating | 4.5 (163 ratings) | 4.6 (16 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 84.9% of reviews — better | 52.4% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 163 — better | 16 |
| Update frequency | Every 12 months | Every 3 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Paid |
| Best chart rank | #198 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple TV | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple TV |
| Requires iOS | 8.1 — better | 13.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 1 MB | 103 MB |
| Age rating | 9+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Madgarden Inc | Semidome Inc. |
Customer experience
Chillaxian
Dark Wave
Bugs and requests
Chillaxian
Reported bugs
11 issues- Progress lost when quitting and returning to game
- High scores reset without explanation
- Game crashes when accessing preferences menu
- Game crashes when attempting to pause
- Crashes around level 1000 after updates
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- Progress stops recording after level 5001 (hard limit)
- Ship movement restricted to old screen boundaries while enemies use full screen
- Sound gets stuck/distorted when exiting game
- Game Center high scores not updating properly
- Incompatibility with iPad 3 and iOS 9.5.3
- Crashes on older iOS versions (needs 64-bit update)
Requested features
12 requests- Pause functionality for TV version
- Progress saving between sessions
- Manual fire control option
- Ship customization and unlockable variants
- Weapon/blaster upgrades
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- Different maps and environments
- iCade support
- Adjustable control options (fixed joystick, opacity settings)
- Smaller ship sprite size
- More enemy variations
- Continue from last level instead of restarting
- iOS 11 and 64-bit support updates
Dark Wave
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Chillaxian
No in-app purchases
Dark Wave
No in-app purchases
