Catchup vs Arcane Tower
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Catchup
Master a beautiful abstract strategy game by connecting hexes to create the largest group. Features include a challenging AI, online multiplayer, and pass-and-play options. Learn the simple rules and strive for difficult mastery.
- Interactive tutorial
- Challenging AI opponent
- Online turn-based multiplayer
- Two-player pass-and-play
- Minimalist graphics
- Customizable colors
- Leaderboards & Achievements
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Catchup is a simple game of surprising turnarounds. "Catchup is as elegant as a game can reasonably be, presented in a marvelously user-friendly way.” -Pocket Tactics (5-star review) "If you're even a little bit into strategy games, you need to get some Catchup all over your mobile device." -Touch Arcade (4 & 1/2 star review) Can you have the largest group at the end of the game? Connect your hexes to master this beautiful abstract strategy game. Features: - an interactive tutorial to teach you how to play - a challenging AI opponent whose difficulty changes as you play - online turn-based multiplayer via Game Center - two-player pass-and-play on the same device - beautiful and haunting music by Tori Kamal - minimalist graphics with customizable colors - Game Center Leaderboards & Achievements - simple and easy to learn rules and gameplay - difficult to master strategy Here are all the rules: 1. One player plays all the hexes of one color and the other player plays all the hexes of the other color. The first player begins by claiming 1 empty hex for their color. 2. Starting with the second player, each player must claim 1 or 2 hexes on their turn. 3. If the largest group of hexes at the end of a turn is larger than the largest group of hexes at the beginning of that turn (regardless of color), the next player may claim up to 3 hexes on their turn. (This does not apply after the first player claims a single hex in step 1 above.) 4. The game ends when the board is full. The player with the largest group wins. If the players’ largest groups are the same size, compare their second-largest groups, and so on, until you come to a pair which aren’t the same size. Whoever owns the larger of the two wins. Catchup is an original Board Game designed by Nick Bentley.
Arcane Tower
Embark on a challenging roguelike adventure as a brave wizard. Explore randomly generated maps, compete in daily challenges with global leaderboards, and learn from top player replays to defeat evil and uncover ancient secrets.
- Randomly generated maps
- Challenging roguelike mechanics
- Daily challenge mode
- Global leaderboards
- Watch top player replays
- Single-player adventure
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Evil reigns throughout the kingdom, darkness obscures the landscape. A brave wizard is determined to put an end to all of this. But there's only one way. The Arcane Tower keeps the powers and secrets required to defeat all the evil. Arcane Tower is a roguelike game with mechanics carefully designed to make every run challenging, interesting and incredibly fun. Key features: * Maps are randomly generated, meaning every run you play will be different from every other run you've played. * Daily Challenge! Every day a special map is generated, the same for everyone in the world. Compete in the daily leaderboards! * Watch other players: after playing a Daily Challenge, you can watch replays of the top players to see how they got their score.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Catchup at Free against Arcane Tower's $1.99. Arcane Tower's advantage is update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 101 months) and rating (5.0 vs 4.7). On review sentiment, ratings volume, in-app purchases 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
Catchup is free to download; Arcane Tower costs $1.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Arcane Tower holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 11 and 5 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 88% of Catchup's written reviews are positive against 86% of Arcane Tower's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Catchup ships an update every 101 months, Arcane Tower every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 14, 2026 and August 21, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Catchup | Arcane Tower |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $1.99 |
| Rating | 4.7 (11 ratings) | 5.0 (5 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 88.2% of reviews — better | 85.7% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 11 — better | 5 |
| Update frequency | Every 101 months | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | — | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 | 15.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 5 MB | 7 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 9+ |
| Developer | Martin Grider | Diego Cathalifaud |
Customer experience
Catchup
Arcane Tower
In-app purchases
Catchup
No in-app purchases
Arcane Tower
No in-app purchases








