AsciiTapper vs Nova
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
AsciiTapper
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Serve up frosty mugs of root beer in a glowing green terminal. AsciiTapper is a love letter to 80s arcade serving games, rendered entirely in living phosphor text. Customers are walking up the bars and they're thirsty. Slide mugs down the bar to push them back, catch the empties before they crash, and read the room: rush the big spenders for early-serve bonuses, keep up with speedy customers, and never pour for the grumpy ones. Features: - An eight-stage career of 84 hand-authored shifts, each with its own twist and a Master contract - Clear, Clean, and Master ratings on every shift - Daily Challenge: one ranked attempt per day, the same seeded puzzle for everyone, unlimited practice afterward - Combo scoring that rewards sustained, error-free serve-and-catch play - Achievements tracked in-game, plus Game Center leaderboards - A pure retro terminal aesthetic: the whole game is ASCII art, with optional cosmetic CRT themes - Simple two-tap play: tap a lane to move, tap again to serve, and be there to catch - No ads. Ever. The tutorial, the first three career stages, and Daily Challenge are free. One optional Full Shift purchase unlocks stages 4 through 8 plus Endless mode. No subscriptions, and purchases never affect ranked play. The terminal is warmed up. The mugs are cold. Tap in. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Nova
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Press. Drag. Survive. NOVA is a one-finger arcade game about momentum. Every move takes a beat to commit to. That beat is the whole game. Collect motes to score. Chain pickups fast enough and your multiplier climbs — miss the window and the combo resets. • Blue motes — steady points • Green motes — big points, but teleport you somewhere random on the map. Could save you. Could drop you right next to a hunter. • Gold motes — the biggest score, and a shockwave that clears nearby hunters. Getting to one is the hard part. Hunters spawn from the edges and home in on you. More of them, faster, the longer you survive. There's no winning — just how long you last, and whether you beat your best. No timers, no lives, no ads mid-run. Tap in, chase the score, go again.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Nova at none against AsciiTapper's 4. Nova also leads on update cadence (every 3 days vs monthly). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement 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. AsciiTapper sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. Nova asks for nothing beyond the download.
AsciiTapper ships an update monthly, Nova every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 5, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | AsciiTapper | Nova |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | — | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Number of ratings | — | 1 — better |
| Update frequency | Monthly | Every 3 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 2 MB | 15 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Vertolini | Priya Mane |
In-app purchases
AsciiTapper
- Faster Mugs$0.99
- Mug Catcher$1.99
- CRT Theme Pack$1.99
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- Full Shift$3.99
Nova
No in-app purchases









