Comparison

Pocket8 vs Ditherway

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

Ditherway

Features
Read full description

A real first-person racer – built for Apple Watch from the ground up. Ditherway puts you behind the wheel of a sports car in pure 1-bit style: crisp lines, dithered shading and bold color themes, like a vintage monochrome screen come to life. The windshield fills the top of the watch, the dashboard with speedometer, rev counter and steering wheel fills the bottom. Turn the Digital Crown to steer. That's it – just you, the road and the clock. ONE NEW ROAD EVERY DAY Every day at midnight a brand-new road appears. Drive it as many times as you like and shave off tenths. Tomorrow there's a new one. Every road you've driven stays in the list with your record, so you can always go back. RACE YOUR OWN GHOST Your best run comes back as a ghost car that drives beside you. A marker on the dashboard shows whether you're ahead or behind, and the clock lights up when you're beating your record. A WORLD ON YOUR WRIST • 26 environments: country roads, dense forests, coastlines with palms, deserts at night, neon cities, snowy mountains, wind plains, highways, volcanoes and more • 45 hand-tuned color themes – each day gets its own • Rain with wipers, fog, snowstorms, sandstorms and thunder • Jumps over rivers, tunnels, hairpin serpentines, icy stretches, railroad crossings with passing freight trains and low-flying jets • Traffic with cars, trucks, buses, vans, motorcycles and police cars with flashing lights • A working rear-view mirror that shows the road behind you • Turbo pickups, near-miss boosts and a wrench that fixes a cracked windshield FEELS LIKE A CAR Turn the key and hear the starter crank and the engine catch. Synthesized engine sound, countdown beeps and sirens. Haptic taps on your wrist at every checkpoint, crash and warning. Hold your finger on the screen to brake; the throttle takes care of itself. GLANCE AT TODAY'S ROAD Add the complication to your watch face to see whether today's road is waiting – or what time you set. MADE FOR THE WATCH No phone needed, no account, no ads, no tracking. A run takes about two minutes – the perfect break. Five crashes and your windshield is gone. How fast can you drive today's road?

Screenshots

Pocket84 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Pocket8 at Free against Ditherway's $0.99. Pocket8 also leads on iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). On update cadence, ads, in-app purchases 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

Pocket8 is free to download; Ditherway costs $0.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly daily. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Pocket8 versus Ditherway: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPocket8Ditherway
PriceFree — better$0.99
Rating4.5 (40 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews66.7% of reviews—
Number of ratings40 — better—
Update frequencyDailyDaily
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, Apple Watch
Requires iOS15.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size24 MB2 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperJevon LipseyAftercompute AB

In-app purchases

None

Pocket8

No in-app purchases

None

Ditherway

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Pocket8 free?
Pocket8 is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Ditherway free?
Ditherway costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Do Pocket8 or Ditherway have ads?
Neither Pocket8 nor Ditherway shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Pocket8 or Ditherway?
Pocket8 ships an update daily, and Ditherway daily. Most recently, Pocket8 was updated on October 25, 2026 and Ditherway on October 31, 2026.

Other comparisons