Comparison

Calming Blocks vs ArcadeOS

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

Head to head
About

Calming Blocks

Features
Read full description

Find your calm — one block at a time. Calming Blocks is a beautifully crafted block puzzle designed for relaxation, focus, and satisfying play. Drop shapes onto a 10x10 grid, clear rows and columns, chain combos — and enter a meditative flow state. No timer. No stress. Just you and the blocks. HOW TO PLAY Drag shapes onto the grid to place them Fill a complete row or column to clear it and score points Clear multiple lines at once for explosive combo bonuses Earn gems with every clear — watch them fly to your collection Unlock 38 unique shapes as your score climbs FEATURES 10 SOUND THEMES Glass, Wood, Metal, Water, Retro 8-bit, Electronic, Tribal, Space, Nature, Crystal. Every theme transforms how the game feels. The satisfying thud of Wood, the cosmic bleeps of Space, the nostalgic chiptune of Retro 8-bit — find your perfect sound and lose yourself in it. 14+ STUNNING BACKGROUNDS Sunset, Ocean, Mountains, Forest, Meadow, City Skyline, Desert, Aurora, Space, Beach, Lake, Volcano, Island and more. Unlock Nature, Urban, Cosmos and Water packs to dress your grid in breathtaking scenery. GEM & COMBO SYSTEM Clear a line and watch gems arc through the air to your gem counter with a satisfying collision burst. Chain multiple rows and columns for score multipliers that scale exponentially. UNDO & HINT Made a bad move? Undo your last drop — the first undo every session is free. Stuck? Spend gems to reveal the optimal placement highlighted on the board. HIGH SCORE TRACKING Beat your personal best and unlock a dedicated celebration screen. Your best is always visible mid-game so you know exactly what you're chasing. PROGRESSIVE SHAPE UNLOCKING Start with 11 starter shapes and gradually unlock up to 38 unique pieces as your score grows. Compact squares, long bars, diagonals, zigzags — each new shape adds fresh strategic depth. FULLY OFFLINE No internet required. Play on a plane, in a waiting room, or anywhere you need a moment of calm. CUSTOMIZE YOUR EXPERIENCE Use in-game coins to unlock sound packs and background collections. Each pack is purchasable with coins earned in gameplay or available via optional in-app purchase. Remove all ads permanently with a single one-time purchase. BUILT FOR QUALITY Calming Blocks is built with hardware-accelerated rendering (Skia) for buttery-smooth 60fps animations on every device — from iPhone SE to iPad Pro. Download free. Play forever. Find your calm. Privacy Policy - https://calmingblocks-bc890.web.app/privacy-policy.html Terms of Use (EULA) - https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

ArcadeOS

Experience a full arcade with 65 original retro-style games on your iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch. Enjoy diverse genres from racing to RPGs, all playable offline with instant resume and authentic chip audio. New games are added seasonally.

Highlights
  • 65 original retro-style games
  • Playable on iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch
  • Offline play with no internet required
  • Instant resume for all games
  • Authentic chip audio
  • New games added seasonally
  • No accounts, ads, or tracking
Features
Read full description

Welcome to ArcadeOS — a whole arcade in your pocket, and now on your wrist. 68 hand-picked original games, each one its own cartridge: full 3D open worlds, kart racers, ninja action, gothic pinball, paper-craft RPGs, sky shooters, momentum platformers, run-and-gun, belt brawlers, puzzle boxes and rhythm. Every game is an original creation in the spirit of the golden age of consoles — drawn in code, scored with real chip audio, and built to be picked up in seconds. HALLOW EDITION Worlds, not cartridges. LOOSE KEYS: HALLOW HOLLOW is a full 3D open city under an orange moon: take any car, hearse, helicopter, plane or boat, outrun a three-star heat system, fly a fast jet off a military airfield, land an airliner at the international airport, and work a phone full of jobs — in a city full of witches, skeletons, horsemen and the odd creature from an 1818 novel. At its heart is HOLLOWMERE, a haunted theme park with a graveyard coaster you can actually ride, a drop tower, and a lagoon parade with fireworks on the hour. MODS ship with it: god mode, every weapon, flight, moon gravity. IRONBARK is a heavyweight momentum platformer: an armored-bark brawler and a glider partner tag-teaming through an industrial jungle of barrel-cannon chains, mine-cart runs and hidden bonus rooms, drawn in fine-pixel art. GLIMMERGLASS KEEP rounds it out — a free-roam 3D collect-a-thon built over 25 nights of iteration. All three have original soundtracks synthesized live inside the app. CHERRY EDITION 23 games rated five stars by our testers before they shipped — look for the cherry on the cartridge. Highlights: Reefjack's lantern-tide run-and-gun, Thornhollow's gorge platforming, Quiet Falls' suburban-oddball RPG, Emberline's three-winter family saga, Cascabel's commedia brawler, Ironvane's vertical shooter, and Crestline GP's speedboat regatta. APPLE WATCH ArcadeOS ships with an Apple Watch app. Six games are built for the wrist and the Digital Crown: Redline Ridge (crown hops lanes, hold to burn), Sunstrip (crown steers, tap to shift), Ironvane (crown flies, hold to charge, tap to call your wingman), Truck Simulator (roll the crown and the truck drives itself — steer, hold to brake, deliver the cargo), Haywire (a horse loose in a farmyard full of physics: buck, jump, cause chaos) and Cairnglass (a crown-controlled falling-sigil puzzler). Runs on its own — no iPhone needed nearby. FEATURES 68 games — every one with its own hand-crafted cartridge art Home screen: your games as icons, with folders you make yourself Gold-star collection: beat a game, earn its golden seal. Collect them all Authentic chip sound in every game, and full synthesized soundtracks in the 3D worlds Instant resume — every game remembers exactly where you left off No accounts. No ads. No tracking. No internet required. Just games New games ship in seasonal editions — Cherry, and now Hallow ArcadeOS games are living software: they grow new levels, mechanics, and polish over time. Your shelf gets better while you sleep. Powered by RetroApps.

Screenshots

Calming Blocks4 screens
ArcadeOS4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: ArcadeOS at none against Calming Blocks's 7. ArcadeOS also leads on ads (none vs shown). Calming Blocks's advantage is iOS requirement (15.1 vs 26.5). On price 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

Both are free to download. Calming Blocks sells 7 one-off in-app purchases. ArcadeOS asks for nothing beyond the download.

Scorecard3 real differences · 6 level
Calming Blocks versus ArcadeOS: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCalming BlocksArcadeOS
PriceFreeFree
Rating—3.0 (2 ratings) — better
Number of ratings—2 — better
Update frequency—Every 3 weeks
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
Monetization—Free
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better
Requires iOS15.1 — better26.5
Further details — not scored
Size86 MB24 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMd Shahzad AliRetroApps LLC

In-app purchases

7 purchases

Calming Blocks

One-time7
  • 80 Coins$0.99
  • 200 Coins$1.99
  • Remove All Ads$4.99
Show 4 more
  • 500 Coins$4.99
  • 1,000 Coins$8.99
  • 2,000 Coins$14.99
  • 5,000 Coins$29.99
None

ArcadeOS

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Calming Blocks free?
Calming Blocks is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is ArcadeOS free?
ArcadeOS is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Calming Blocks or ArcadeOS have ads?
Calming Blocks shows ads; ArcadeOS does not.

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