Comparison

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.

Head to head
About

The Needle in the Haystack

Features
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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.

About

Windies

Features
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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 โ€ข 100 levels across ten worlds, from a lit barn to a pile you can only see by lantern light โ€ข Decoys that grow steadily more like the needle, so your eye has to grow with them โ€ข Storms that rock the pile, haze that flattens it, and levels with two needles to find โ€ข Three stars a level, timed against a par โ€ข A leaderboard of fastest finishes, no account needed โ€ข 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

The Needle in the Haystack2 screens
Windies4 screens

Verdict

The call

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

CostPrice ยท In-app purchases ยท Ads ยท Monetization

Both are free to download. Windies sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. The Needle in the Haystack asks for nothing beyond the download.

Scorecard4 real differences ยท 2 level
The Needle in the Haystack versus Windies: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterThe Needle in the HaystackWindies
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 2 daysโ€”
AdsYesNo โ€” better
In-app purchasesNo โ€” betterYes
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch โ€” betteriPhone
Requires iOS18.016.4 โ€” better
Further details โ€” not scored
Size28 MB56 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAlessandro BrningMuhammad Akmalkhonov

In-app purchases

None

The Needle in the Haystack

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Windies

One-time1
  • Unlimited Hints$2.99

Questions

Is The Needle in the Haystack free?
The Needle in the Haystack is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Windies free?
Windies is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do The Needle in the Haystack or Windies have ads?
The Needle in the Haystack shows ads; Windies does not.

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