Comparison

Denk vs Retro Buzz

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

Head to head
About

Denk

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Keep your touch. Hover over the square fragments. Let go, and itโ€™s game over. A fast-paced arcade game about hovering over shrinking squares & other bits. Try to last as long as you can! - Hover over square fragments to advance the run. Let go, or let one shrink completely, and the session ends. - Collect hearts for extra chances if you let go or hit a foe. - Other icons may help or get in your way. - Endless arcade: It gets faster and harder over time. - Climb the leaderboard and try to beat your best run! WARNING: FLASHING EFFECTS.

About

Retro Buzz

Features
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RETRO BUZZ โ€” A LOVE LETTER TO THE ARCADE. Dodge, shoot, deflect, chase and raid your way through a swarm of pixel-art insects across an endless ladder of escalating stages. Inspired by the arcade legends of the early '80s, Retro Buzz layers modern game-feel โ€” combo multipliers, powerup drops, a dodge-dash, screen shake, telegraphed enemy fire โ€” onto chunky multi-colour pixel art with a soft neon glow. SIX STAGE TYPES โ€” AND YOU EARN THE DETOURS Formation stages are the backbone. Everything else happens because of what you did in them. โ€ข FORMATION STAGES โ€” The classic. Bees, butterflies and Queen Bees fly in choreographed lines, settle into formation, then dive at you in pairs and groups. Watch the marked RUNNERS: they bolt for the planet once the swarm thins. Kill them all for a bonus... โ€ข PURSUIT โ€” ...or let one escape and next stage you chase it down. Free 2D flight over a scrolling planet surface, ground turrets, waves that push harder the harder you fire, and a fortress with three cores to crack at the end. The escapees turn up as 5ร— bounties. โ€ข BASE ASSAULT โ€” If a Queen carries your captured fighter off, or you shoot down the spy ship and grab its beacon, the next stage is a free-roaming raid across a looping star map. Your ship flies forward, you steer, and fire goes fore and aft. Hunt the hex stations on the radar, punch the core through its hatch (or strip all six cannon pods), dodge mines, and watch the alert climb from GREEN to RED. Find the station holding your fighter and it rejoins you as a wingman. โ€ข CHALLENGE STAGES โ€” Bonus rounds where twin lines trace S-curves, loops, figure-8s and spirals across the screen. No damage. Pure accuracy. โ€ข BONUS ROUND โ€” Score a PERFECT on a challenge stage and your ship becomes a paddle. The swarm fires, you bounce it back, and the ricochets one-shot anything they touch. โ€ข BOSS BATTLES โ€” Every fifth stage the Queen Hornet drifts overhead: three HP-keyed phases, aimed shots, three-way spreads and U-shaped dive attacks. You get a 3-hit buffer per life. Every fourth stage cleared grants an extra life, and a rare 1UP drop floats down from killed enemies. Deep runs feel earned. POWERUPS R โ€” Rapid Fire. Faster fire, bigger bullet cap. S โ€” Spread Shot. Three-way fan. O โ€” Shield Orb. Absorbs the next hit. B โ€” Smart Bomb. Wipes every diving enemy on screen. ! โ€” Beacon. Dropped by the spy ship. Reveals the enemy bases. 1 โ€” Extra Life. Very rare. Treasure it. POLISHED FEEL โ€ข Hit feedback on every impact: sprite flash, sparks, debris, screen shake. โ€ข Combo multiplier โ€” chain kills without a miss for up to 5ร— score. โ€ข Enemy fire is telegraphed at the muzzle, so you always get a fair read. โ€ข Enemies bank into their turns and face where they fly. โ€ข Hand-drawn multi-colour sprites: striped bees, red-winged butterflies with eyespots, crowned Queen Bees and a 48ร—48 Queen Hornet. โ€ข Optional CRT scanlines. Persistent high score and best stage. โ€ข Leave the title screen alone and the game plays itself โ€” a different stage type every time. CONTROLS An analog stick, DASH and FIRE live in their own band under the playfield, so your thumbs never cover the action. Hold FIRE to shoot, tap DASH to dodge through bullets. The stick moves you sideways in the classic stages, flies in 2D on the planet run, and steers on the base raid. NO ADS. NO IAP. NO ACCOUNTS. JUST THE GAME. Best paired with: a quiet evening, a dim room, and the satisfying feeling of finally finding the base that took your fighter.

Screenshots

Denk4 screens
Retro Buzz4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Retro Buzz at none against Denk's shown. Retro Buzz also leads on device support (3 vs 1). Denk's advantage is update cadence (weekly vs every 6 weeks). On price, in-app purchases and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price ยท Rating ยท Positive reviews ยท Number of ratings ยท Update frequency ยท Ads ยท In-app purchases ยท Monetization ยท Best chart rank ยท Devices ยท Requires iOS

CostPrice ยท In-app purchases ยท Ads ยท Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Denk ships an update weekly, Retro Buzz every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 10, 2026 and October 7, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences ยท 3 level
Denk versus Retro Buzz: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDenkRetro Buzz
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyWeekly โ€” betterEvery 6 weeks
AdsYesNo โ€” better
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad, Mac โ€” better
Requires iOS16.0 โ€” better17.0
Further details โ€” not scored
Size26 MB3 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperGonzalo GonzalezAlexander Garmash

In-app purchases

None

Denk

No in-app purchases

None

Retro Buzz

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Denk free?
Denk is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Retro Buzz free?
Retro Buzz is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Denk or Retro Buzz have ads?
Denk shows ads; Retro Buzz does not.
Which is updated more often, Denk or Retro Buzz?
Denk ships an update weekly, and Retro Buzz every 6 weeks. Most recently, Denk was updated on October 10, 2026 and Retro Buzz on October 7, 2026.

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