Comparison

Shut The Box vs Waveform

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

Head to head
About

Shut The Box

Features
Read full description

Close The Box brings the classic pub dice game to Apple Watch. Nine tiles, two dice, and a real decision on every roll. Easy to learn, genuinely hard to finish. HOW TO PLAY Nine tiles stand open in front of you. Roll two dice and shut any open tiles that add up to your total. Roll a 9 and you can take the 9, or 6 and 3, or 5 and 4, or even 4, 3 and 2. That choice is the whole game. Every tile you shut is gone for the rest of the round, so the numbers you leave standing decide what your next roll is allowed to do. Leave the wrong ones and a good roll becomes a dead one. When a total cannot be made from the tiles still open, the round ends there and whatever is left standing is your score, so lower is better. Shut all nine and you close the box, which is rarer than it sounds. Real 3D dice tumble across the board at a flick of your wrist, and every throw lands with a satisfying click. THREE WAYS TO PLAY • CLASSIC: the traditional rules, one die when you are 6 or under. Free forever • HARD: two dice nearly all the way, for clean-close chasers • 12 TILES: twelve tiles across two racks, the long game THE DAILY BOX One seeded round every day, the same dice for everyone. Keep your streak alive, and let a watch face complication tell you when today's box is still open. The Daily Box is free forever, and anything you earn from it stays yours whether you subscribe or not. 69 THINGS TO UNLOCK Six categories, nine of each. Nine dice designs, from carved Royal and Tarot faces to Pixel, Obsidian, glowing Neon and the Scatter die, whose pips are loose beads that skitter mid-air and freeze where they land. Nine dice colors on top, so 81 dice looks in all. Then nine felts, nine box finishes, nine number fonts, and nine music tracks, from bossa nova and lo-fi to city pop. Add the fifteen watch face complications and there are 69 things to earn. EARN YOUR WATCH FACE Nine of the fifteen are dice clocks in your felt colors, where real dice show the hour, and each arrives with the felt it belongs to. The rest cover a cycling table, a round dice clock, the app logo, and your daily streak. EARN EVERYTHING BY PLAYING Every unlock has a challenge attached: wins, throws, doubles, dailies and rounds played, from your second win up to 750 throws. Nothing is ever bought outright. The Royal Pass opens the collection, but every piece in it is still won at the table. MORE • GAME CENTER: leaderboards for your best closes, dailies and lifetime wins • LIFETIME STATS: every throw, win and double, tracked • A REAL IPHONE APP: the full game runs on your phone too, in a watch style display • PLAYS OFFLINE: no wifi, no account, no sign in, ever FREE TO PLAY Classic rules, the Daily Box, your starter dice, color, felt, box, font and track, and everything the Daily Box earns you. Play as long as you like without paying anything. CROWN GAMES ROYAL PASS The pass opens Hard and 12 Tiles, adds a second chance at the Daily Box, and unlocks the full cosmetic collection, so every design, color, felt, finish, font, track and complication you reach is yours to wear. The pass removes the wall, not the climb. One subscription covers every Crown game. Subscribe once in any of them and it carries across automatically, with no account to create. The Royal Pass includes: • Hard and 12 Tiles, the daily retry, and all 69 cosmetic unlocks • The full version of every current and future Crown Games title, at no extra cost • Family Sharing for up to 6 family members Available as a weekly or yearly auto renewing subscription, the yearly plan being better value. Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase. It renews automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period, and you can cancel any time in Settings. Cancel whenever you like and you keep playing the free game. Roll well, choose wisely, and close the box. Terms of Use (EULA): https://playcrowngames.com/terms/ Privacy Policy: https://playcrowngames.com/privacy/

About

Waveform

An arcade game where you tap to switch between wave and particle states to navigate through walls. Bank your score multiplier before an observer collapses your state, or face a forced mode flip. Experience new color palettes and rising tension with each level.

Highlights
  • One-thumb arcade gameplay
  • Switch between wave and particle states
  • Score multiplier banking
  • Dynamic color palettes
  • Playable on Apple Watch
  • Game Center leaderboards and achievements
Features
Read full description

Waveform is a one-thumb arcade game inspired by quantum physics. Are you a wave or a particle? It depends on the wall. HOW IT WORKS? • Wavy wall? Pass it as a WAVE • Flat wall? Pass it as a PARTICLE • Tap anywhere to switch. That's the only control BANK BEFORE YOU'RE OBSERVED Every wall you pass grows your score multiplier from ×1 up to ×5. Swipe down to bank it. Wait too long and the Observer collapses your state: when a 5-4-3-2-1 countdown inside your character reaches zero, your mode flips by force. Greed pays, until it doesn't. A NEW REALITY EVERY 25 POINTS The world changes color as you climb. Fourteen hand-picked palettes appear in a different order every run, from sunny yellow to deep vacuum black. FEATURES • Pure one-thumb gameplay, easy to learn, hard to master • Rising difficulty with surprise double walls • A fair Observer: clear countdown, safe-moment flips and an optional Relaxed mode • Climb the worldwide Game Center leaderboard and unlock achievements • Fully playable on Apple Watch, no phone needed • Optimized for iPhone and iPad, in full screen • Haptics, background music and reactive sound, each with its own switch • Remove ads with a single, one-time purchase (also gives you a free continue each run) Short runs, instant restarts, one more try. Can you bank it before you are observed?

Screenshots

Shut The Box4 screens
Waveform4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Shut The Box at none against Waveform's shown. Shut The Box also leads on update cadence (every 3 days vs weekly). On price, in-app purchases, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Shut The Box sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per 7 days and Waveform sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Shut The Box ships an update every 3 days, Waveform weekly. Both last shipped on October 31, 2026.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Shut The Box versus Waveform: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterShut The BoxWaveform
PriceFreeFree
Rating—3.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—0.0% of reviews
Number of ratings—1 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 days — betterWeekly
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
Monetization—Ad-supported
DevicesiPhone, Apple WatchiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better
Requires iOS17.016.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size95 MB8 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperRob VeenSarp Gokdag

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Shut The Box

Subscriptions2
  • Royal Pass Weekly$1.997 Days
  • Royal Pass Yearly$24.991 Year
1 purchases

Waveform

One-time1
  • Remove Ads$3.99

Questions

Is Shut The Box free?
Shut The Box is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Waveform free?
Waveform is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Shut The Box or Waveform have ads?
Waveform shows ads; Shut The Box does not.
Which is updated more often, Shut The Box or Waveform?
Shut The Box ships an update every 3 days, and Waveform weekly. Most recently, Shut The Box was updated on October 31, 2026 and Waveform on October 31, 2026.

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