Zero+ vs Match Mates
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Zero+
This is a fun and challenging iOS puzzle game where players combine numbered blocks to create zeros. Swipe blocks to merge them and solve increasingly complex levels. Enjoy a vast number of stages with unique block types.
- Swipe blocks to merge
- Combine positive and negative numbers
- Create all zeros
- 120+ levels
- New block types
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A simple iOS puzzle game that is devilishly fun to play. Just add positive and negative numbered blocks to one another to make all zeros. • Easy to play: swipe blocks left, right, up, or down • Lots to do: 120 levels and counting... • Never the same: new levels bring new kinds of blocks
Match Mates
Engage in a storybook match-3 roguelike where strategic tile pops trigger explosive chain reactions. Build powerful combos with over 100 unique perks and evolve colors to overcome challenging campaign waves and endless modes. Explore six distinct worlds, each with its own rules and enemies.
- Strategic match-3 gameplay
- Chain reaction mechanics
- Over 100 unique perks
- Color evolution system
- 78 campaign waves
- Endless mode (The Descent)
- Daily runs
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Match Mates is free. No ads, no paywalls, no data selling — every world and every mode, yours. If you enjoy it and want to support the dev team, there's a small tip jar in the menu, and our other games are one tap away. Match the Mates. Calm the Grumble. Bring the world back to color. A creeping gray mood called the Grumble has separated the Mates and drained six storybook worlds. Match the little characters so they can combine their gifts, protect each world's light, calm the creatures in their path, and turn every page bright again. Cozy at rest. Fireworks when you pop. Every pop makes a promise and leaves a receipt: pick a group, see what it will do — the damage, the heal, the front attack it cancels — then watch the Mates leap into action and the world answer. Calmed creatures shake off the Grumble, remember their manners, and settle into your Zen Garden. TWO HONEST PATHS Storybook is the on-ramp: six hearts, kinder skies on a first journey, a bookmark after every boss, and the full story payoff. Classic keeps the four-heart, full-run roguelike challenge and records. Bramble Ranks 2-5 wait beyond it. BUILD A COMBO THAT FEELS A LITTLE BROKEN Choose a perk pack and draft from more than 100 run-warping perks. Evolve all six colors into powerful new forms, discover dual-color Alloys as the Mates learn to work together, and assemble a build that can freeze a queue, fill the board with bombs, mint a fortune, or set off a cascade you never planned. A lone Mate can fire a Signal Flare to call the traveling Pop Shop mid-fight — spend the pop, scorch the space, and buy the missing piece. Or save your coins for interest and protect the engine you already built. SIX STORYBOOK WORLDS WITH TEETH Fight through 78 campaign waves, more than 70 monsters, and 19 boss encounters. Every world is a place with a problem — relight the Seedlamp, free the Tide Bell, thaw the Hearthfire — and every world visibly returns to color as you calm it, from the overgrown Grumble Garden to the hungry dark of the Undervoid. PLAY YOUR WAY • Continue after a victory in The Descent, an endless mode with procedural waves, enemy affixes, gifts, reserve bosses, and per-world records. • Return for a seeded Daily Run. • Climb five Bramble Ranks in every world. • Discover monsters, perks, and evolutions in the Popdex. • Visit the Zen Garden, where the creatures you calm come to rest. Match Mates is a free single-player game. No ads. No paywalls. No account required. The only in-app purchases are optional tips in the Support Us menu — they unlock nothing, and every world and mode is yours either way.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Zero+ at 4.8 against Match Mates's 4.0. Zero+ also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 3) and ratings volume (178 vs 3). Match Mates's advantage is update cadence (every 3 days vs monthly). On price, review sentiment, 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
Both are free to download. Match Mates sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Zero+ asks for nothing beyond the download.
Zero+ holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Zero+ has 178 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 97% of Zero+'s written reviews are positive against 100% of Match Mates's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Zero+ ships an update monthly, Match Mates every 3 days. Both last shipped on October 24, 2026.
| Parameter | Zero+ | Match Mates |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (178 ratings) — better | 4.0 (3 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 96.5% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 178 — better | 3 |
| Update frequency | Monthly | Every 3 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 7.0 — better | 18.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 3 MB | 149 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 9+ |
| Developer | SaturnBoy, LLC | Motivation Stack LLC |
Customer experience
Zero+
Match Mates
Bugs and requests
Zero+
Reported bugs
4 issues- Screen grays out when undoing moves too quickly
- Tiles occasionally unresponsive to input
- App freezes requiring restart
- Background music/podcasts get blocked during gameplay
Requested features
7 requests- More levels or additional puzzle packs
- Hints system for difficult puzzles
- Updated and more modern visual design
- Allow background music while playing
- Skip level feature (some users noted this exists)
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- User-generated challenges or community puzzles
- Higher difficulty levels
Match Mates
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Zero+
No in-app purchases
Match Mates
- Small Tip$0.99
- Nice Tip$2.99
- Huge Tip$4.99









