Rugged Rovers vs Build Up!!
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Rugged Rovers
Design and test your own all-terrain space rover. Race against friends and rivals across challenging Martian landscapes, using jet boosts and speed to overcome obstacles. Compete for high scores and achievements in this engaging engineering game.
- Design custom space rovers
- Race against friends and rivals
- Test rovers on Mars-like terrain
- High scores and achievements
- Easy rover drawing tools
- Jet hover and speed boost
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Design and test your own all-terrain space rover! Race against rivals (including friends!) as you jump gaping canyons and cross treacherous boulder fields. Go as far as you can and try to be the top rover! Rugged Rovers, from the Science Museum in London, UK, features: - Now you can RACE AGAINST FRIENDS in your network! - New HIGH SCORES and ACHIEVEMENTS! - Easy rover drawing tools, including movable motor and resizable wheels - Dramatic Mars-inspired spacescape to test your rovers to the max - Jet hover and speed boost to help your rover overcome terrain obstacles - Top tips about how to solve common rover challenges Your rover will be up against weird and wonderful designs some by your friends and some by real-life Mars rover engineer Abbie Hutty. Can your designs beat the professionals at their own game? Mars rover engineer Abbie says: ‘Create, test and develop your very own Mars rover designs with this cool game – see if you’ve got the design skills to be a future space engineer like me!’ Play Rugged Rovers anywhere on your mobile or come to the Science Museum’s cutting-edge exhibition Engineer Your Future to play against your friends on our BIG screen. Find out more about becoming an engineer: sciencemuseum.org.uk/engineeryourfuture
Build Up!!
Construct your tower as tall as possible by strategically placing building nodes. Collect more nodes as you ascend to reach crucial checkpoints and achieve new heights.
- Build structures high
- Gather building nodes
- Reach checkpoints
- Ascend to new heights
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Build your structure as high as you can! Gather additional building nodes along the way and reach the checkpoints!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Rugged Rovers at 73% against Build Up!!'s 34%. Rugged Rovers also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 1) and ads (none vs shown). Build Up!!'s advantage is rating (4.5 vs 4.1) and ratings volume (16K vs 30). On price, update cadence 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. Build Up!! sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Rugged Rovers asks for nothing beyond the download.
Build Up!! holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 4.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Build Up!! has 16K ratings behind it against 30, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 73% of Rugged Rovers's written reviews are positive against 34% of Build Up!!'s, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Rugged Rovers ships an update every 9 days, Build Up!! fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 27, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Rugged Rovers | Build Up!! |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.1 (30 ratings) | 4.5 (16K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 72.5% of reviews — better | 34.1% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 30 | 16K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 9 days — better | Fortnightly |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 6.0 — better | 14.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 162 MB | 266 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Science Museum | Voodoo |
Customer experience
Rugged Rovers
Build Up!!
Bugs and requests
Rugged Rovers
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Build Up!!
Reported bugs
3 issues- Rivet counter malfunction
- Levels regenerating incorrectly
- Tower physics issues
Requested features
3 requests- More level variety
- Ability to create custom maps
- Removal of perfect triangle requirement
In-app purchases
Rugged Rovers
No in-app purchases
Build Up!!
- Remove Ads.$2.99
