Comparison

Star Grazer vs Dumpling Ops

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

Head to head
About

Star Grazer

Features
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Rockets fall. You don't get hit. Star Grazer is a one-thumb arcade game about reading what's coming and slipping through it. Drag anywhere on the screen and your ship follows — left, right, and up and down inside a band near the bottom. Every hazard that gets past you is a point. Touch one and the run is over. THE HITBOX IS TINY, AND YOU CAN SEE IT Only the glowing core at the centre of your ship can be hit — a third of the ship's width. It's drawn on screen, so the line between a close call and a dead run is something you can actually judge instead of guess. GRAZING IS THE WHOLE GAME Passing close to a rocket without touching it is a graze, and a graze is worth more than surviving. Chain them and the multiplier climbs. Twelve grazes charge a blast that clears the screen. So the greedy play and the safe play are the same play, and a good run doesn't look like careful — it looks like threading. ADVENTURE: 36 STAGES Six worlds of hand-made stages, each a little harder than the last, with a finish line and three stars to earn: reach the finish, graze enough hazards, and catch all three stardust. It starts with a guided How to Play stage, then brings minefields, comet showers, rock gardens, stages where only grazes score and, in THE VOID, the lights going out and a gravity well that pulls you in. Collect stars to open new worlds, and win the Voyager and Eclipse trails. TEN WORLDS, EACH WITH ITS OWN SKY AND MUSIC LAUNCH, DEBRIS FIELD, CROSSFIRE, SWARM, DEEP SPACE, EVENT HORIZON, SINGULARITY, THE LONG DARK, NEBULA and SUPERNOVA. Earth falls away beneath you, then a galaxy, a black hole and a supernova. Rockets fall straight. Rocks drift. Mines steer toward your column and make you commit. Comets streak across, their path drawn just before they strike. Every cluster is guaranteed to leave a way through — if you died, there was a gap you didn't take. FIVE POWER-UPS, ALL LABELLED SHIELD UP absorbs one hit. SLOW MOTION crawls the world while you still move at full speed. HOMING SHOTS gives you six shots that each pick their own rocket and chase it down. SCREEN CLEARED does what it says. DOUBLE POINTS doubles everything you score. Each one names itself when you grab it and shows its own timer, so you always know what you're holding and how long you have. A DAILY CHALLENGE One fixed layout per day, the same for everybody, resetting at midnight. Your score on it is a real comparison rather than a matter of what the generator happened to roll. BUILT TO BE PICKED UP Instant retry — no menus between runs. A Game Center leaderboard if you want one, and the whole game works if you don't. Plays offline on a plane. THE STAR PASS A new season every four weeks: 30 tiers of rewards filled just by playing. Every run, mission and daily gift earns pass XP. The free track pays grazes and the season's own trail. Star Pass Premium is a one-time purchase for that season, never a subscription that renews, and adds the season's exclusive ship and far more grazes. Everything on it is cosmetic. A REASON TO COME BACK A daily gift that grows with every day of your streak — keep it for seven days to win the NEBULA engine trail. Three new missions every day, and a level that climbs with every run and pays out grazes as it goes. A HANGAR TO FILL Eleven ships in six different shapes — from the sleek Needle to the Manta, the Saucer and the Twinfang — and twelve engine trails, from ion and plasma to inferno and crystal. Everything is earned by playing. FREE, AND FAIR ABOUT IT No account to create, and your progress follows you across your devices through iCloud. Star Grazer is supported by an occasional ad between runs, and by optional videos you choose to watch to continue a run or double your grazes. A one-time No Ads purchase removes the between-run ads. Nothing you can buy makes the game easier or touches the leaderboards.

About

Dumpling Ops

Defend the kitchen as the last dumpling standing in this fast-paced, twin-stick shooter. Master simple one-handed controls to survive waves of increasingly challenging enemies and unlock new dumplings and upgrades for unique runs.

Highlights
  • Twin-stick shooter gameplay
  • One-handed controls
  • Wave-based survival
  • Unlockable dumplings
  • Stackable run upgrades
  • Multiple kitchen environments
Features
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The kitchen has been overrun. You are the last dumpling standing. Dumpling Ops: Kitchen Defense is a fast twin-stick shooter built for one hand and short sessions. Drag to move, drag to aim, hold to fire. That's the whole control scheme — and it takes about four seconds to learn. SURVIVE THE WAVES Every wave sends more, and worse. Shufflers and runners give way to armoured tanks, ranged spitters, chargers that wind up and dash, splitters that burst into two when killed, shielded enemies you have to flank, and swarms that arrive eight at a time. A boss every fifth wave. FIVE KITCHENS Fight through the Back Alley, the Loading Dock, Cold Storage, The Furnace and the Ash Kitchen. Each is a different room — different floor, different lighting, different hazards underfoot. EIGHT DUMPLINGS TO UNLOCK Score points to unlock new fighters, each one a real change to how you play. Spicy Chili fires faster. Captain Jay'Lani starts every wave in armour. Cosmic Holo fires twin piercing rounds. Onyx Legend does nearly everything at once. EARN YOUR UPGRADES Survive long enough and you choose an upgrade. They stack for the whole run and reset when you die, so no two runs play the same way. PLAYS ANYWHERE No internet needed. No account. No ads. No in-app purchases. Nothing to sign up for. Just the game.

Screenshots

Star Grazer4 screens
Dumpling Ops4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Dumpling Ops at none against Star Grazer's 6. Dumpling Ops also leads on ads (none vs shown). On price, rating, ratings volume 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. Star Grazer sells 6 one-off in-app purchases. Dumpling Ops asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Star Grazer against 5.0 for Dumpling Ops. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 2 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 7 level
Star Grazer versus Dumpling Ops: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterStar GrazerDumpling Ops
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings)5.0 (2 ratings)
Number of ratings12 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 days—
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
Monetization—Free
DevicesiPhoneiPhone
Requires iOS16.016.0
Further details — not scored
Size12 MB3 MB
Age rating9+12+
DeveloperDom Q InvestmentsROBERT D FELLS

Customer experience

Star Grazer

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Dumpling Ops

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

6 purchases

Star Grazer

One-time6
  • 800 Grazes$0.99
  • Supporter Pack$2.99
  • No Ads$2.99
Show 3 more
  • 2,800 Grazes$2.99
  • Star Pass Premium$4.99
  • 6,500 Grazes$4.99
None

Dumpling Ops

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Star Grazer free?
Star Grazer is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Dumpling Ops free?
Dumpling Ops is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Star Grazer or Dumpling Ops?
Star Grazer and Dumpling Ops are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 1 and 2 ratings respectively.
Do Star Grazer or Dumpling Ops have ads?
Star Grazer shows ads; Dumpling Ops does not.

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