Tadpole Tap vs Squish Machine
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Tadpole Tap
Guide a tadpole through perilous obstacles by flicking its tongue to eat flies and ascend. Unlock and upgrade unique tadpoles, power-ups, and skins to achieve higher scores and compete with friends on leaderboards. Collect puzzle pieces and achievements for a rewarding retro gaming experience.
- Unlockable tadpoles with unique abilities
- Tadpole and power-up upgrades
- Tongue-based movement and fly eating
- Obstacle navigation and high score chasing
- Collectible puzzle pieces and skins
- Leaderboard for friend comparisons
- Achievements
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Reach the skies with your favorite tadpole while eating flies with your tongue! With piranhas constantly on your tail, you must hurry and pull your way through dangerous obstacles! Try to beat your friends high score and embellish your aquarium with tadpoles by unlocking all the little fellas! -UNLOCK YOUR TADPOLES: There are multiple tadpoles to unlock, each with a unique ability that will help you through the dangers along the way. -UPGRADE YOUR TADPOLES: Each tadpole's unique ability can be upgraded to get better scores. -GET BETTER POWER-UPS: All power-ups can be upgraded to make them last longer. If they last long enough, you can sometimes have multiple power-ups at once! Some combinations are very good! -DON'T FORGET TO EAT FLIES: Eating flies is somehow very satisfying, plus this is what allows you to buy upgrades! -CLIMB FURTHER EVERY TIME: Beat your high score and battle your friends. Compare your performance on the leaderboard. -GET THE PUZZLE PIECES: Each Tadpole has a unique puzzle to unlock! -UNLOCK THE SKINS: Collect vials to unlock them all! There is 3 skins per tadpole. -ACHIEVEMENTS: Let's see if you can clear them all! In one word, Tadpole Tap is an awesome Retro Runner in Pixel Art. Tadpole Tap, the life circle of a frog. Language available: English, French, Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, Italian, German, Simplified Chinese and Serbian.
Squish Machine
Test your reflexes in this fast-paced action puzzler where you must avoid being squished. Progress through hundreds of levels, unlock cute characters, and enjoy vibrant visuals and upbeat sound. Challenge yourself in arcade and timed modes for endless replayability.
- 240 quick levels
- 28 unlockable characters
- Vibrant visuals
- Upbeat sound design
- Arcade mode unlocked
- Timed Mode
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Welcome to the Squish Machine! A machine designed only for squishing slow pokes who can’t turn it off in time. Are you quick enough for this action puzzler? Features include: • 240 quick, bite-sized levels at launch to progress through! • 28 cute characters to unlock! • Vibrant, fun visuals! • Upbeat sound design! • If you manage to survive the squish through level 160, you unlock an arcade mode. How many levels can you survive in a row? A million? Well, let’s see it, friend! • Timed Mode! Try and get through the first 100 levels as quickly as possible. This game is supported by advertising, but a one-time purchase removes the ads that appear during game play breaks.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Tadpole Tap at 4.7 against Squish Machine's 4.1. Tadpole Tap also leads on review sentiment (88% vs 80%) and ratings volume (479 vs 146). Squish Machine's advantage is update cadence (every 2 months vs every 6 months). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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. Tadpole Tap sells 9 one-off in-app purchases and Squish Machine sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Tadpole Tap holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.1. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 479 and 146 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 88% of Tadpole Tap's written reviews are positive against 80% of Squish Machine's.
Tadpole Tap ships an update every 6 months, Squish Machine every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 9, 2026 and July 4, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Tadpole Tap | Squish Machine |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (479 ratings) — better | 4.1 (146 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 88.3% of reviews — better | 80.2% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 479 — better | 146 |
| Update frequency | Every 6 months | Every 2 months — better |
| Ads | Yes | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 10.0 — better | 12 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 93 MB | 47 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 9+ |
| Developer | Outerminds Inc. | Brad Erkkila |
Customer experience
Tadpole Tap
Squish Machine
User reviews
Tadpole Tap
From 479 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Very fun game
- 👍 No ads, no pay to win
- 💡 Simple but challenging gameplay
- 🎨 Cute pixel art style
Room to improve
- 🐛 Crashes on newer iOS versions
- 🐛 Glitches and bugs
- 💰 Difficult to unlock all content without paying
Squish Machine
From 146 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Addictive gameplay
- 👍 Fun and enjoyable
- 👍 Great physics
- 👍 Creative concept
- 👍 Satisfying platforming
Room to improve
- 🐛 Jumping controls are clunky
- 🐛 Inconsistent jump registration
- 🐛 Jumping issues cause deaths
- 🐛 Jump button placement is low
- 🐛 Game can be too short
Bugs and requests
Tadpole Tap
Reported bugs
3 issues- Game crashes on launch
- Puzzle pieces not saving properly
- Restore purchases not working
Requested features
3 requests- More characters and skins
- New obstacles and levels
- Continued updates and support
Squish Machine
Reported bugs
10 issues- App loads with music enabled even if sound is off
- Jumping delays
- Game drops jumps
- Jumping isn't responsive enough
- Jump button is low
Show 5 moreShow fewer
- Random forced ad
- Doesn't save progress
- Crashing instantly
- Controls fail when pressing two buttons at once
- Game turns off external audio
Requested features
11 requests- More games
- More levels
- Endless mode
- Skip very hard levels
- Difficulty selection for arcade mode
Show 6 moreShow fewer
- Level creator
- Cloud save
- Create own levels and characters
- Multiplayer mode
- Add difficulty modes (Hard, Easy)
- Update button placement
In-app purchases
Tadpole Tap
- Spook$0.99
- Stapler$0.99
- Bronze Fly Pack$0.99
Show 6 moreShow fewer
- Silver Fly Pack$1.99
- Silver Case$3.99
- Gold Fly Pack$4.99
- Jade Fly Pack$9.99
- Gold Case$9.99
- Diamond Fly Pack$19.99
Squish Machine
- Remove Interstitial Adverts$2.99
