Comparison

Spore Cubes vs Barred Crossword

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

Head to head
About

Spore Cubes

A classic cube-popping puzzle game where players click matching colored cubes to clear the playfield. Offers 10 skill levels and saves high scores for each.

Highlights
  • Match and destroy colored cube groups
  • Clear the entire playfield
  • 10 skill levels
  • Saves high scores per level
  • Classic web game remake
Features
Read full description

Spore Cubes (TM) is the classic web game that captivated millions of players with its addictive and deceptively simple gameplay in the early days of the web. You'll be instantly hooked with this remake of the original brain-training game from 25 years ago! ** Inducted into the Puzzles.com Hall of Fame and featured in the book "Flash 5 Cartoons and Games" ** Click colored cubes to match and destroy groups of the same color until the ENTIRE PLAYFIELD has been cleared! It's easy to play but difficult to master and will keep you coming back to the same game for "just one more try!" This version now has 10 skill levels to keep your brain trained and challenged and your best score is saved for each level. Can YOU clear ALL cubes off each playfield? It's harder than it looks. * * * Please help us improve the game by giving it 5 stars rating and give us suggestions in your review.

About

Barred Crossword

This app offers an unlimited supply of automatically generated crosswords with customizable grids and difficulty. It supports multiple languages and features aids to help you solve puzzles, making it ideal for crossword enthusiasts.

Highlights
  • Unlimited auto-generated crosswords
  • Configurable grid size and difficulty
  • Multiple crossword grid types (Barred, British, Arrow)
  • Thousands of clues
  • Multi-language support
  • Zoom and pan grid functionality
  • Save and reload games
Features
Read full description

Barred crosswords are similar to traditional crosswords, but they use black lines instead of black squares to separate the words. Advantages of barred crosswords are: • More words in the grid • Larger number of cross-overs for the words • You do not lose half the screen with black squares Other features include: • Each new game is created by the app automatically. Therefore you can play an unlimited number of crosswords!! • Very configurable game generator. You decide the grid size, difficulty and many other things • Many 1000's of clues • You can choose from three different types of crossword grid: British, Barred and Arrow • Generate crosswords tailored to your interests, ability, nationality and device size • You can zoom in & out of the grid, and move around. Play with large grids on small screens! • Ability to save games and reload games. Play many games at once, just like a crossword book! • Many aids to help you complete the crossword • Play crosswords in these languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Polish, Hungarian, Czech, Russian Also known as compact crosswords and word maze.

Screenshots

Spore Cubes4 screens
Barred Crossword4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Barred Crossword at Free against Spore Cubes's $1.99. Barred Crossword also leads on ratings volume (21 vs 1) and update cadence (every 3 months vs every 10 months). Spore Cubes's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.2) and in-app purchases (none vs 1). On 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

Barred Crossword is free to download; Spore Cubes costs $1.99 up front. Barred Crossword sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $4.99 per year. Spore Cubes asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Spore Cubes holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.2. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Barred Crossword has 21 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 86% of Spore Cubes's written reviews are positive against 58% of Barred Crossword's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Spore Cubes ships an update every 10 months, Barred Crossword every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard8 real differences · 2 level
Spore Cubes versus Barred Crossword: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSpore CubesBarred Crossword
Price$1.99Free — better
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better4.2 (21 ratings)
Positive reviews85.7% of reviews — better57.9% of reviews
Number of ratings121 — better
Update frequencyEvery 10 monthsEvery 3 months — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS12.012.0
Further details — not scored
Size132 MB99 MB
Age rating4+9+
DeveloperSPORE ProductionsHavos

Customer experience

Spore Cubes

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews7 reviews
Positive85.7%
Neutral0.0%
Negative14.3%

Barred Crossword

All ratings20 ratings
Positive80.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative20.0%
Written reviews19 reviews
Positive57.9%
Neutral10.5%
Negative31.6%

In-app purchases

None

Spore Cubes

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Barred Crossword

Subscriptions1
  • Supporter (no ads)$4.991 Year

Questions

Is Spore Cubes free?
Spore Cubes costs $1.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Barred Crossword free?
Barred Crossword is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Spore Cubes or Barred Crossword?
Spore Cubes is rated higher. Spore Cubes averages 5.0 out of 5 from 1 ratings, while Barred Crossword averages 4.2 from 21 ratings.
Do Spore Cubes or Barred Crossword have ads?
Barred Crossword shows ads; Spore Cubes does not.
Which is updated more often, Spore Cubes or Barred Crossword?
Spore Cubes ships an update every 10 months, and Barred Crossword every 3 months. Most recently, Spore Cubes was updated on October 23, 2026 and Barred Crossword on October 24, 2026.

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