Comparison

Pocket8 vs Games Fair

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

Head to head
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.

About

Games Fair

A free, open-source collection of classic puzzle and arcade games. Enjoy timeless gameplay with features like haptic feedback, high score tracking, and auto-save. Play offline with a comfortable dark theme.

Highlights
  • Block Blast puzzle game
  • Classic falling-block gameplay
  • Tap-based arcade challenges
  • Brick-breaking action
  • Sudoku with multiple difficulties
  • Tile-merging number puzzles
  • Haptic feedback
  • Offline play
Features
Read full description

Games Fair is a free, open-source collection of classic puzzle and arcade games, in one app that never asks you for anything. SOLITAIRE Klondike, turning one card at a time or three. With Winnable Deals Only on, a solver plays every deal through to a win before it reaches the table, and Hint shows a move on the way. Once every card is face up, the rest fly home by themselves. BLOCK BLAST Drag pieces onto the board and fill rows and columns to clear them. Clear on back-to-back moves for a combo, or empty the whole board for a 5,000-point bonus. BREAKOUT Clear the bricks. Power-ups widen the paddle, slow the ball, or let it smash straight through. Levels get faster. FALLING BLOCKS The one you already know how to play. Lines clear, the level climbs, the pieces come quicker. SUDOKU Puzzles at several difficulties, with the number pad where your thumb already is. 2048 Slide the tiles, watch them merge, chase your best score. Reaching 2048 is not the end if you do not want it to be. CHARADES Hold the phone to your forehead while your friends give clues, nod when you guess right, and tip your head back to pass. Decks run from animals and movies to sayings and things to act out, and the screen stays on for the whole round. MINES The classic sweeper. Your first tap is always safe, holding a square plants a flag, and a number with all its flags opens the rest around it. Three board sizes, each shaped to fit your screen. LANGUAGES Menus, instructions and accessibility labels are in 13 languages. Charades has localized animal and food decks in each of them, and twenty-one themed decks in English. WHAT IT DOES NOT DO No advertising. No purchases. No account. No network access at all — every game runs entirely on your device. Your progress is saved when you leave a game and restored when you come back, including if the phone puts the app to sleep mid-round. Games Fair is published by the App Fair Project and is free software under the GNU Affero General Public License, with an exception for distribution through the app stores. It is built with the Day framework: one Rust codebase drawing itself with each platform's real native widgets. github.com/Games-Fair/Games-Fair

Screenshots

Pocket84 screens
Games Fair4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Games Fair at 100% against Pocket8's 67%. Games Fair also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.5). Pocket8's advantage is ratings volume (40 vs 3) and update cadence (daily vs every 4 days). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Games Fair 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 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 67% of Pocket8's written reviews are positive against 100% of Games Fair's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Pocket8 ships an update daily, Games Fair every 4 days. Both last shipped on October 31, 2026.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Pocket8 versus Games Fair: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPocket8Games Fair
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (40 ratings)5.0 (3 ratings) — better
Positive reviews66.7% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings40 — better3
Update frequencyDaily — betterEvery 4 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.015.0
Further details — not scored
Size24 MB27 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperJevon LipseyThe App Fair Project Inc

Customer experience

Pocket8

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

Games Fair

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Pocket8

No in-app purchases

None

Games Fair

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Pocket8 free?
Pocket8 is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Games Fair free?
Games Fair is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Pocket8 or Games Fair?
Games Fair is rated higher. Pocket8 averages 4.5 out of 5 from 40 ratings, while Games Fair averages 5.0 from 3 ratings.
Do Pocket8 or Games Fair have ads?
Neither Pocket8 nor Games Fair shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Pocket8 or Games Fair?
Pocket8 ships an update daily, and Games Fair every 4 days. Most recently, Pocket8 was updated on October 31, 2026 and Games Fair on October 31, 2026.

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