The Needle in the Haystack vs Windies
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side โ with what reviewers say about each.
The Needle in the Haystack
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The impossible search becomes a game: every new haystack hides exactly one needle among five million individually addressable straws. Circle the whole pile, zoom down to individual fibres and pull straws directly from the material. The haystack visibly reacts to every removal. No artificial hint automatically reveals the needle. The complete manual search is free and always solvable. Optional Haystack Credits (in-app purchase) unlock the Poke and timed power-ups. The app shows ads; you decide at first launch and any time in Settings whether they may be personalised. No subscriptions. Included: - a deterministically generated 3D haystack with exactly 5,000,000 straw IDs - direct searching on iPhone and iPad - a companion Apple Watch experience - VoiceOver, large text, Reduce Motion, and separate audio and haptic controls - local saves and optional private iCloud backup - no mandatory account; Sign in with Apple only for the optional credit purchase Patience game, technical simulation and performance art meet in one improbably large task.
Windies
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Somewhere in the pile there is one needle. Everything else is not. Windies is a game of looking. Pan and zoom across a dense haystack, find the needle, tap it. The clock counts up, and every wrong tap adds five seconds. That is the whole game โ and it gets harder in a way most games do not. The difficulty is never more straw. It is decoys. Nails, pins, wire, splinters, staples, and eventually broken needles that share the needle's colour, its thickness, and its shape โ everything but the eye. By the later levels the eye is the only thing you are looking for. A hundred levels, ten worlds, and a pile that will not hold still. WHAT IS IN IT โข 100 levels across ten worlds, from a lit barn to a pile you can only see by lantern light โข Decoys that grow steadily more like the needle, so your eye has to grow with them โข Storms that rock the pile, haze that flattens it, and levels with two needles to find โข Three stars a level, timed against a par โข A leaderboard of fastest finishes, no account needed โข A short how-to-play with real boards, not pictures HINTS One hint a level is free. It narrows the search and costs time on the clock. Unlimited hints is a single purchase โ it lifts the limit and changes nothing else. A bought hint costs exactly what a free one does, so the leaderboard stays honest. QUIET BY DESIGN No accounts, no sign in, no ads. Your progress lives on your phone. The only thing that ever leaves it is a leaderboard time, and only if you choose to post one. Sound, haptics, reduced motion, a left-handed layout, and a colour-blind-safe mode are all in Settings. It is a game about patience and a good eye. Take your time. The needle is there. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: The Needle in the Haystack at none against Windies's 1. The Needle in the Haystack also leads on device support (3 vs 1). Windies's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and iOS requirement (16.4 vs 18.0). On price there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price ยท Rating ยท Positive reviews ยท Number of ratings ยท Update frequency ยท Ads ยท In-app purchases ยท Monetization ยท Best chart rank ยท Devices ยท Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Windies sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. The Needle in the Haystack asks for nothing beyond the download.
| Parameter | The Needle in the Haystack | Windies |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Every 2 days | โ |
| Ads | Yes | No โ better |
| In-app purchases | No โ better | Yes |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch โ better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 16.4 โ better |
| Further details โ not scored | ||
| Size | 28 MB | 56 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Alessandro Brning | Muhammad Akmalkhonov |
In-app purchases
The Needle in the Haystack
No in-app purchases
Windies
- Unlimited Hints$2.99
Questions
Is The Needle in the Haystack free?
Is Windies free?
Do The Needle in the Haystack or Windies have ads?
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