Sphere TD vs CombatChess
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Sphere TD
A complex tower defense game where you build and upgrade towers to defend against waves of spheres. Strategize with deep customization, resource management, and research to overcome challenges. Offers extensive replayability with numerous levels and modes.
- Tower and projectile customization
- 30 base towers with 28+ stats
- 33 mods with millions of combinations
- Research and crafting system
- Tower inventory and energy management
- 50 hand-crafted levels and endless mode
- Offline and online play with cloud sync
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Sphere TD is a tower defense game with one difference: there are no preset towers. You build every tower yourself, then send it out to defend your base. WHAT IS IN THE GAME - 39 towers, each with its own grid layout and function - 33 mods, each with tiers, MK upgrades, a B-Side function, and 3 perks - 50 hand-crafted maps with three objectives each - Endless mode after map 50, plus map-specific challenges - A research tree, mod crafting, and a trader - Spheres that scale into elites, bosses, armored, shielded, cloaked and flying - Offline play, with cloud sync and leaderboards - Cross platform: mobile and desktop NO NONSENSE No pay to win. No time gates. No paywalls. No ad spam. No loot boxes. Funding the Galatium Academy is appreciated, never required. MESSAGE FROM THE DEV Hi, I'm Alex, a solo developer, and Sphere TD is my first game. If you like tower defense, meta progression, and theorycrafting builds, you should feel right at home. Come discuss tower builds with other friendly cadets on Discord. I am committed to 10 years of support. You want it, I'll make it. Ready to join the Galatium Academy?
CombatChess
Experience chess with a twist: captures lead to real-time pixel brawls where the winner claims the square. Manage action cards strategically to win fights and defend your pieces. Features a robust chess engine and arcade-style combat mechanics.
- Real-time pixel brawls for captures
- Action cards for strategic combat
- Persistent damage on pieces
- Six-button arcade combat system
- King can fight to avoid checkmate
- Full-rule chess engine (Stockfish)
- Turn-based online multiplayer
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It's chess. With fists. Combat Chess is real, full-rules chess until a capture is contested. Then both pieces drop into a real-time brawl, and the winner keeps the square. No piece goes quietly. Not even the king. ACTION CARDS: FIGHT FOR THE SQUARE You start every match with 3 Action Cards. When your piece is captured, spend one to force a fight instead of just losing it. Win the brawl and the capture is repelled your piece holds the square and the attacker is removed. Cards are spent win or lose and never refill mid-match, so card management is a whole extra layer of strategy. Run dry, and captures land like ordinary chess. FIGHTS THAT MATTER - Fighting power scales with chess value: pawns brawl at 75 HP, knights and bishops at 125, rooks at 175, queens at a monstrous 275, kings at 300. - Damage persists for the ENTIRE match. Wound the queen now, hunt her down later a health bar follows every piece that has fought. - A pawn can topple a queen. It just takes near-flawless play. SIX-BUTTON ARCADE COMBAT - Left punch (fast jab) and right punch (slow, heavy cross). - Side-matched blocking read the tell and guard the correct side to absorb 80% of the hit. - Timed dodges perfect timing negates all damage and charges your meter. - A stamina system that punishes button-mashing. Burn out and you're exhausted: unable to act and taking 1.5x damage. - Land perfect dodges to unlock the SUPER a single power shot worth 2.5x a heavy punch. Spam loses. Reads win. THE KING NEVER FALLS QUIETLY - In check, you can move out of danger or spend a card to send your king to fight the checking piece directly. - Checkmate isn't automatically the end. It triggers a mandatory final fight: your king duels the mating piece at 300 HP, no card needed. Win the last stand and the mate is broken. This cuts both ways: to beat you, your opponent must finish the job in the ring. A REAL CHESS ENGINE UNDERNEATH - Complete standard chess: castling, en passant, promotion, check, checkmate, and every standard draw rule. - Powered by the Stockfish engine, tunable from 600 to 3190 Elo - friendly beginner to superhuman, with a strength slider for every difficulty in Settings. - Single-player works fully offline. Sound and haptics are yours to toggle. CHALLENGE FRIENDS ONLINE - Turn-based multiplayer through Game Center: invite friends, run several matches at once, and take your time. - Get notified when an opponent moves, captures, or starts a fight with daily reminders before the 4-day forfeit window closes a stalled match. - Built for turn-based play: when you contest a capture, the fight resolves instantly on your own device against a computer-controlled version of your opponent's piece fighting with its true HP and power, including damage it already carries. No waiting around, and your opponent sees a full recap on their turn. EVERY MATCH ON RECORD - Match history with wins, losses, draws, win rate, streaks, per-difficulty records, fight stats, and your biggest upset.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: CombatChess at none against Sphere TD's 10. CombatChess also leads on ads (none vs shown) and rating (5.0 vs 4.6). Sphere TD's advantage is update cadence (every 2 days vs weekly) and device support (3 vs 1). On price, review sentiment and ratings volume 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. Sphere TD sells 10 one-off in-app purchases. CombatChess asks for nothing beyond the download.
CombatChess holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.6. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 9 and 5 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.
Sphere TD ships an update every 2 days, CombatChess weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 5, 2026 and October 11, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Sphere TD | CombatChess |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (9 ratings) | 5.0 (5 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 9 — better | 5 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 days — better | Weekly |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 332 MB | 99 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 9+ |
| Developer | StandardIssueGames | PUNCHMAN, LLC |
Customer experience
Sphere TD
CombatChess
In-app purchases
Sphere TD
- Au Field Ration$4.99
- Defender Starter Pack$7.99
- Au Supply Cache$9.99
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- Galatium Express Token$9.99
- Galatium Academy Pack$14.99
- Shadow Broker Vantage$19.99
- Au Enterprise Fund$24.99
- Flux Enrichment Grant$24.99
- Au Strategic Stockpile$49.99
- Au Global Reserve$99.99
CombatChess
No in-app purchases









