Rook vs Canasta Royale
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Rook
Experience a strategic trick-taking card game with a unique deck and bidding system. Play with friends or AI, aiming to reach a target score by winning tricks and naming trump suits. Features color-blind friendly cards and customizable rules.
- Trick-taking gameplay
- Unique card deck (5-14)
- Bidding for trump suit
- Color-blind friendly cards
- Customizable rules
- AI opponents
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Play the classic Rook trick-taking card game on your iPhone or iPad. You play South, partnered with North, against the West/East team. Rook uses a special deck with four colored suits numbered 5 through 14, plus the powerful Rook card. In this app, the Rook is represented by a castle chess piece, and the cards are designed to be color-blind friendly. Customize the game to match the Rook rules you know. Change the wallpaper, add optional 1 cards ranked above the 14s, choose whether players must play trump when unable to follow suit, award a bonus for winning every trick, adjust the winning score, and more. HOW TO PLAY Dealing: The deal rotates to the left each hand. Each player receives 9 cards, with 5 additional cards dealt to the widow in the center of the table. Bidding: Players bid for the right to choose the trump suit. The player to the dealer’s left opens the bidding at 70 or passes. Bidding continues to the left, usually in 5-point increments. Once a player passes, that player is out of the bidding for the hand. The Widow and Trump: The high bidder takes the 5 widow cards, which are revealed to all players, chooses the trump suit, and then discards 5 cards. The discarded cards remain hidden from the other players. Depending on your settings, point cards in the discard go either to the bidding team or to the winner of the last trick. Playing Tricks: The dealer—or optionally the high bidder—leads the first trick. Play continues to the left, with each player playing one card. Players must follow the suit that was led when possible. If unable to follow suit, a player may play any card—or, with the appropriate option enabled, must play trump when possible. The highest card of the suit led wins unless a trump card is played, in which case the highest trump wins. The Rook is the highest trump card and can be played strategically to capture a valuable trick. Standard card ranking from highest to lowest is: Rook – 14 – 13 – 12 – 11 – 10 – 9 – 8 – 7 – 6 – 5 With the optional 1 cards enabled: Rook – 1 – 14 – 13 – 12 – 11 – 10 – 9 – 8 – 7 – 6 – 5 The winner of each trick collects the four cards and leads the next trick. Scoring: At the end of the hand, each team counts the point cards it captured: • Rook: 20 points • 14: 10 points • 10: 10 points • 5: 5 points Other cards have no point value. If the bidding team fails to score enough points to make its bid, the bid amount is deducted from its score. An optional bonus can also be awarded for winning every trick. Winning: The first team to reach the selected winning score wins the game. You can adjust the target score in the game settings. Rook is free to play and supported by advertising. Prefer to play without ads? Rook+, the paid ad-free version, is also available on the App Store.
Canasta Royale
Experience the classic card game with this app, offering multiple game modes and difficulty levels. Enjoy realistic gameplay, track your progress with extensive statistics, and personalize your experience with unique themes and power-ups. Play solo or with friends through Facebook integration.
- Multiple game modes (Regular, Team Play, Speed Canasta, Hand & Foot)
- Four difficulty levels
- Extensive statistics tracking
- Facebook integration for progress saving
- Customizable themes and power-ups
- Realistic gameplay and graphics
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Now with Online multiplayer game modes! Play North Sky’s newest game, Canasta Royale, the classic card game! Canasta Royale is the BEST classic Canasta game created for iOS. The game offers four levels of difficulty, four unique game modes as well as extensive statistics tracking. Unlock Team Play, Speed Canasta and Hand & Foot modes for unparalleled fun! Includes Facebook integration! Personalize your game, earn experience with every game, never lose your statistics! Your statistics are always stored in the cloud and shared between all your devices. Features: • Realistic gameplay and graphics • Intuitive single player gameplay • Four Unique game modes: Regular, Team Play, Speed Canasta and Hand & Foot! • Four difficulty options, including the brand new Expert AI! • Extensive Statistics, including games and hands breakdown. • Facebook integration - personalize your game and save your progress. • Unique powerup! Add a extra Joker to your hand to make that final canasta and win the game! • Seven unique themes, allowing you to customize your game play experience!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Rook at none against Canasta Royale's 14. Canasta Royale's advantage is update cadence (monthly vs every 2 months) and review sentiment (73% vs 62%). On price, rating, ratings volume and ads 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
Both are free to download. Canasta Royale sells 14 one-off in-app purchases. Rook asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for Rook against 4.7 for Canasta Royale. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 7K and 5.2K respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 62% of Rook's written reviews are positive against 73% of Canasta Royale's.
Rook ships an update every 2 months, Canasta Royale monthly. Both last shipped on October 26, 2026.
| Parameter | Rook | Canasta Royale |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (7K ratings) — better | 4.7 (5.2K ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 62.3% of reviews | 72.6% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 7K — better | 5.2K |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Monthly — better |
| Ads | Yes | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Ad-supported — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 33 MB | 644 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 17+ |
| Developer | fishdog.net | North Sky Games |
Customer experience
Rook
Canasta Royale
User reviews
Rook
From 7K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Fun and enjoyable game
- 👍 Challenging and makes the mind work
- 👍 Brings back childhood memories
- 👍 Great implementation of Rook game
Room to improve
- 🐛 AI partner makes poor decisions and gets team set
- 🐛 Unfair distribution of cards favoring the opponent team
- 🐛 Opponents can renege and play off-suit trumps
- 🐛 Frustrating bidding by AI partner
Canasta Royale
From 5.2K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🎮 Addictive and fun gameplay
- 🧠 Keeps the mind alert
- 🕹️ Great for practice and learning
- 👍 Enjoyable and relaxing
- 🎨 Excellent graphics and design
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent bugs and glitches
- 💤 Predictable and easy AI
- 📺 Too many ads and long ad breaks
- 🤖 Unfair advantage for computer player
- 🔒 Lack of multiplayer options
Bugs and requests
Rook
Reported bugs
4 issues- AI partner plays trumps incorrectly
- Scoring calculator issues and negative scores
- Inability to skip the rest of the hand after outcome is decided
- Irritating background music that cannot be turned off
Requested features
5 requests- Online multiplayer mode to play with friends
- More customization options for game rules
- Ability to play with full deck (2-14) and 4-card kitty
- Option to start bidding lower
- Ability to 'shoot the moon'
Canasta Royale
Reported bugs
5 issues- Game freezing and crashing mid-game
- Incorrect card value recognition
- Inability to pick up discarded cards
- Inconsistent behavior when going out
- Progress and coin loss due to glitches
Requested features
5 requests- Multiplayer mode to play against friends
- More difficulty levels and challenge options
- Customization options for cards and backgrounds
- Ability to disable ads through in-app purchase
- Improved card counting and rule enforcement
In-app purchases
Rook
No in-app purchases
Canasta Royale
- Special Offer$2.99
- Special Offer$3.99
- Tiny Coin Pack$4.99
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- Special Offer$4.99
- Tiny Chips Pack$4.99
- Special Offer$7.99
- Small Coin Pack$9.99
- Small Chips Pack$9.99
- Special Offer$12.99
- Medium Coin Pack$19.99
- Special Offer$19.99
- Medium Chips Pack$19.99
- Large Coin Pack$49.99
- Jumbo Coin Pack$99.99









