Comparison

Tetranea vs Pocket8

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

Head to head
About

Tetranea

This puzzle game combines roguelike deckbuilding with tile-placement mechanics on a 9x9 grid. Build a unique deck each run to alter gameplay, with over 200 cards to discover and modify. Enjoy short or long runs with increasing difficulty and multiple scoring methods.

Highlights
  • Roguelike deckbuilding
  • Tile placement on 9x9 grid
  • 200+ discoverable cards
  • Card modification
  • Boss battles
  • Row and column chaining
  • Multiple scoring methods
Read full description

I built this game to combine two of my great loves in gaming: simple abstract spatial strategy, and deep, complex card deck builders. You can play it for a few minutes at a time, or really get into it and go down the rabbit hole of nearly 100 special cards with special powers. It looks kind of like one of the gazillion tetromino-placing games — pretty simple, usually full of ads, and not much more than making sure you lose after some arbitrary amount of time so they can show you more ads. This one is different. There's tetromino (and pentomino) placement to score points, but the whole game rests on your own deck of cards: shape cards you play on the board, and special cards with special powers. You play runs - series of boards that get harder and harder. Each board needs more points to beat, and some boards have bosses that do all kinds of crazy things. You can play short runs, long runs, and even infinite runs. Each run you get to add new cards to your deck and modify (or delete) existing ones. I've been working on this game for two years now, and I keep adding to it and polishing it. It's become a labor of love. I play it myself often, and friends I've introduced it to generally get hooked. The full game is free to try. There's just one single purchase that unlocks some of the run types. Supported languages: 日本語, 한국어, 简体中文, Français, Deutsch, Español

About

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.

Highlights
  • 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
Features
Read full description

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

Tetranea4 screens
Pocket84 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Pocket8 at none against Tetranea's 2. Pocket8 also leads on update cadence (daily vs weekly) and ratings volume (40 vs 5). Tetranea's advantage is review sentiment (100% vs 67%) and rating (5.0 vs 4.5). On price, ads 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Tetranea sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. Pocket8 asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Tetranea holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Pocket8 has 40 ratings behind it against 5, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 100% of Tetranea's written reviews are positive against 67% of Pocket8's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Tetranea ships an update weekly, Pocket8 daily. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Tetranea versus Pocket8: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterTetraneaPocket8
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (5 ratings) — better4.5 (40 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews — better66.7% of reviews
Number of ratings540 — better
Update frequencyWeeklyDaily — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS17.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size39 MB24 MB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperNathanael BoxerJevon Lipsey

Customer experience

Tetranea

All ratings5 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Pocket8

Written reviews3 reviews
Positive66.7%
Neutral33.3%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Tetranea

One-time2
  • Tetranea Full Game$2.99
  • Tetranea Full Game$4.99
None

Pocket8

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Tetranea free?
Tetranea is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Pocket8 free?
Pocket8 is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Tetranea or Pocket8?
Tetranea is rated higher. Tetranea averages 5.0 out of 5 from 5 ratings, while Pocket8 averages 4.5 from 40 ratings.
Do Tetranea or Pocket8 have ads?
Neither Tetranea nor Pocket8 shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Tetranea or Pocket8?
Tetranea ships an update weekly, and Pocket8 daily. Most recently, Tetranea was updated on October 24, 2026 and Pocket8 on October 25, 2026.

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