Minimal Crimes vs CodeBastion
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Minimal Crimes
Engage in story-driven crime riddles using lateral thinking in a minimalist noir setting. Analyze evidence, interrogate suspects, and build theories to solve mysteries. Features include a deduction board, time attack modes, and a progressive hint system.
- Lateral thinking crime riddles
- Deduction Board for clue analysis
- Interrogation Mode with dialogue
- Time Attack levels
- Progressive Hint System
- Detective ID Card customization
- Dynamic ranking system
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Step into a minimalist noir world and solve story‑driven crime riddles using pure lateral thinking. Read each case, study the evidence and pick the only combination of clues that fits the truth. In Minimal Crimes you are a detective on the cold case desk, facing short but intense mysteries where every word and every object can become a decisive keyword. Build your theory, test it on the board and prove that nothing gets past your mind. Use the Deduction Board to select key Keywords from both the story and the evidence pool, then lock in your version of events. If even one element is wrong, the case stays unsolved and you will have to rethink your logic like a real investigator. Interrogate suspects in Interrogation Mode, choosing the right questions to expose contradictions, unlock hidden keywords and reveal what witnesses are hiding. Each dialogue feels like a classic noir scene, where reading between the lines is as important as the words themselves. Face high‑pressure Time Attack levels with a ticking countdown and heartbeat haptics that turn every decision into a race against the clock. Finish the case before time runs out or watch your carefully built theory fall apart at the last second. If you get stuck, spend the coins you earn to access a progressive Hint System with “Classified Information”. Hints gently narrow down the possibilities without spoiling the final solution, so you keep the satisfaction of cracking the case on your own. Create your own identity with an interactive Detective ID Card. Choose a detective name, add an agent photo from your library and turn each file into a personal case from your noir agency. Climb a dynamic ranking from Rookie to Private Eye, Detective, Inspector and finally Mastermind as you solve more cases. Unlock unique service medals such as “First Blood”, “Sherlock”, “Richie Rich” and “Veteran” to show your style of play. Maintain a Daily Streak to earn growing coin bonuses and “Daily Supply” rewards that keep you coming back. Smart in‑game notifications feel like messages from informants, calling you back to the city whenever a new lead appears. Upgrade with the Premium Detective Pass to unlock Chapter 2 and the most challenging Cold Cases with a single, non‑subscription purchase powered by StoreKit 2. Non‑premium players see a themed paywall that clearly explains which investigations remain locked. Protect your progress behind a “Restricted Area” screen with Face ID / Touch ID, easily managed from Settings. Your cases, profile and achievements stay safe even on a shared device. Enjoy immersive audio and haptics tuned for noir tension: background music, sound effects, clicks and heartbeats managed by dedicated audio and haptic systems, with separate toggles so you can fine‑tune your experience. Share your biggest victories with “Top Secret” case files generated as stylized images that look like internal documents from your department. Send them to friends or post them online to show that you cracked the mystery. Minimal Crimes is built natively for iOS with SwiftUI, SwiftData and StoreKit 2, designed as a modern, single‑player detective experience for fans of logic puzzles, brain teasers and murder mystery games. If you love lateral thinking and noir storytelling, this is your new desk at the precinct.
CodeBastion
Forge a city from a humble camp into a lasting bastion through strategic idle clicker and incremental city-building mechanics. Manage resources, assign citizens to jobs, research new technologies, and embark on expeditions to expand your legacy.
- Idle clicker and incremental progression
- Resource and citizen management
- Deep skill tree with research
- Expeditions and exploration
- Timed defense challenges
- Offline progress
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Build a city from its first camp into a lasting bastion in Code Bastion, a strategic idle clicker and incremental city-builder. Begin in Summary, where every tap matters. Gather wood, stone, food, and science through quick actions, manage your energy, watch your population, and keep your city moving even while you are away. Your resources continue to grow through citizen jobs and buildings, while seasons, incidents, and storage limits keep every plan under pressure. Move to Development to unlock a large skill tree across economy, construction, society, and expeditions. Each research choice opens new buildings, improves production, increases storage, strengthens manual gathering, expands your population, and prepares your city for the frontier. Turn a fragile settlement into a reliable system of farms, sawmills, quarries, mines, warehouses, markets, universities, barracks, walls, and more. Use the Resources screen to assign citizens to the jobs that matter most. Balance food, wood, stone, iron, coal, steel, gold, science, and influence. Build capacity before production overflows, keep enough workers in essential buildings, and adapt to changing seasons. Missions give every stage of the city a direction. Complete daily tasks, pursue a weekly campaign, and progress through a five-chapter city legacy: found the settlement, grow it into a city, open the frontier, endure its threats, and build a lasting legacy. When the city is ready, enter Expeditions. Train citizens, assign roles, craft preparation items, reveal a procedural map tile by tile, recruit from camps, discover points of interest, and research a catalogue of hidden treasures. Beyond the walls, every expedition can bring resources, experience, discoveries, and risks. Prepare for incursions with passive defenders and a timed defense challenge. Gather temporary materials, build defenses, create weapons, and decide how to hold the line when the frontier strikes back. CODE BASTION FEATURES Idle clicker and strategic incremental progression Quick actions, energy management, and offline progress Deep skill tree with research, upgrades, and unlocks Resources, citizen jobs, buildings, storage, and seasons Daily tasks, weekly campaigns, and city-wide goals Procedural exploration map, expeditions, equipment, and loot Treasure research, defense roles, incursions, and timed battles Five supported languages: English, Spanish, German, French, and Italian Build deliberately, explore carefully, and defend what you have created.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: CodeBastion at none against Minimal Crimes's 1. CodeBastion also leads on device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (15.1 vs 18.6). On price, rating, 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. Minimal Crimes sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. CodeBastion asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Minimal Crimes against 5.0 for CodeBastion. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3 and 4 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on October 9, 2026 and October 8, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Minimal Crimes | CodeBastion |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (3 ratings) | 5.0 (4 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 3 | 4 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 10 days | Every 10 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 18.6 | 15.1 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 9 MB | 40 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Giuseppe Pignataro | Gines Ortiz |
Customer experience
Minimal Crimes
CodeBastion
In-app purchases
Minimal Crimes
- Minimal Crimes Premium$0.99
CodeBastion
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Minimal Crimes free?
Is CodeBastion free?
Which has better reviews, Minimal Crimes or CodeBastion?
Do Minimal Crimes or CodeBastion have ads?
Which is updated more often, Minimal Crimes or CodeBastion?
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