Monument Valley vs Lightbot Jr
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Monument Valley
Explore a world of impossible architecture and optical illusions. Guide a silent princess through stunningly beautiful, hand-crafted monuments by manipulating the environment. Uncover hidden paths and solve puzzles in this surreal exploration game.
- Impossible architecture manipulation
- Optical illusion puzzles
- Surreal exploration
- Hand-crafted worlds
- Intuitive twist and drag controls
- Reactive soundscape
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** Apple Game of the Year 2014 ** ** Winner of Apple Design Award 2014 ** In Monument Valley you will manipulate impossible architecture and guide a silent princess through a stunningly beautiful world. Monument Valley is a surreal exploration through fantastical architecture and impossible geometry. Guide the silent princess Ida through mysterious monuments, uncovering hidden paths, unfolding optical illusions and outsmarting the enigmatic Crow People. Ida's Dream now available. Forgotten Shores: Eight new chapters of adventure and illusion available now as a separate purchase. Buy or download Monument Valley now and you’ll also get our fully animated iMessage sticker pack, including 5 stickers exclusive to players! Only available on iOS10 and above. ======= "This might be the most beautiful iPad game of 2014" - Wired "Brilliant design... stayed with me like a dream I didn't want to forget" 9/10 - Polygon "The most sublime hour my iPad has ever given me... and the value of such a thing is incalculable" - Kotaku "Monument Valley stuns with its serenity... each screen is a work of art" - Huffington Post "Almost impossibly gorgeous... a feast for your senses" 5/5 - Touch Arcade ======= BEAUTIFUL Inspired by minimalist 3D design, optical illusions and palaces and temples from around the world, every monument is a unique, hand-crafted world to explore. EASY TO USE Twist and drag to reshape the world and help Ida to explore. Designed to be easy for everyone to pick up, enjoy and complete. SOUND Audio reacts to your manipulation of the world to provide a surreal and beautiful soundscape. Best experienced with headphones. iCloud Synchronize your game across all your devices. ** Monument Valley is designed for iPhone 4 and above. It is NOT compatible with iPod Touch 4th Generation.
Lightbot Jr
Introduce young children to programming concepts through engaging puzzles. Players guide characters to solve challenges using sequencing, debugging, and loops, fostering a foundational understanding of computer science. Supports multiple players and languages.
- Sequencing instructions
- Debugging problems
- Creating reusable procedures
- Executing loops
- 42 challenging levels
- Multiple player profiles
- Multilingual support
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Apple Features, in over 100 countries: *Best New Apps and Games* *Best for Learning to Code* *Best in Hot Educational Games* It's never too early to start programming! Lightbot Junior gets your little ones 'coding' within minutes! Lightbot Junior is specifically designed for ages 4-8, and is an easier version of the popular Lightbot: featuring a gentler learning curve and not-as-complex puzzles. You can play as Boybot or Girlbot as you solve puzzles that use game mechanics that are based on Computer Science ideas; Lightbot Junior cultivates a real understanding of sequencing instructions, debugging problems, creating reusable procedures and executing loops. Educators around the world are choosing to use Lightbot first when introducing their students to programming, coding and Computer Science. Lightbot Junior features 42 levels. This version can be played in English, French, Russian, Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Norwegian, Slovenian, Romanian, Indonesian, German, Polish, Danish, Croatian, Dutch, Slovak, Czech, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Thai, Hindi, Swedish, Finnish and Hungarian! Just hit the associated flag icon on the main screen to select a language. Lightbot features multiple save slots and separate progress tracking for multiple players. Multiple players can advance at their own pace in their own save slot, and also compete on number of levels finished, number of stars collected and number of overall commands used to complete the game. There are NO in-app purchases in Lightbot Junior.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Monument Valley at 4.8 against Lightbot Jr's 4.2. Monument Valley also leads on ratings volume (17K vs 11) and chart position (#7 vs #192). Lightbot Jr's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and price ($2.99 vs $3.99). On review sentiment, update cadence, ads 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
Monument Valley costs $3.99 and Lightbot Jr $2.99 up front. Monument Valley sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Lightbot Jr asks for nothing beyond the download.
Monument Valley holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.2. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Monument Valley has 17K ratings behind it against 11, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 81% of Monument Valley's written reviews are positive against 79% of Lightbot Jr's.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 21, 2026 and October 11, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Monument Valley | Lightbot Jr |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $3.99 | $2.99 — better |
| Rating | 4.8 (17K ratings) — better | 4.2 (11 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 80.5% of reviews — better | 78.9% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 17K — better | 11 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases — better | Paid |
| Best chart rank | #7 — better | #192 |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 5.1.1 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 324 MB | 54 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | ustwo games | SpriteBox LLC |
Customer experience
Monument Valley
Lightbot Jr
Bugs and requests
Monument Valley
Reported bugs
3 issues- Levels not loading or freezing on certain devices
- Inability to purchase or access DLC/expansion content
- Compatibility issues with recent iOS updates
Requested features
4 requests- More levels and chapters to extend the gameplay
- Increased difficulty and challenge in later puzzles
- Ability to save progress and resume levels
- Support for newer device screen sizes and resolutions
Lightbot Jr
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Monument Valley
- Forgotten Shores$1.99
Lightbot Jr
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Monument Valley free?
Is Lightbot Jr free?
Which has better reviews, Monument Valley or Lightbot Jr?
Do Monument Valley or Lightbot Jr have ads?
Which is updated more often, Monument Valley or Lightbot Jr?
Which is more popular, Monument Valley or Lightbot Jr?
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