Comparison

Kana vs Visual Pinball

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Kana

This game helps beginners understand Japanese kana by matching hiragana and katakana. Achieve combos and unlock achievements by clearing them as quickly as possible.

Highlights
  • Match hiragana and katakana
  • Finger-based matching gameplay
  • Combo system for fast play
  • Achievement system
  • Beginner-friendly learning
Features
Read full description

Confused by the relationship of kanas? This app is gonna to help you. Match the corresponding hiragana and katakana with your fingers to erase them, and do it as fast as you can to get combos and achieve achievements.

About

Visual Pinball

Enjoy a realistic pinball simulation with hundreds of community-created tables. Experience immersive haptic feedback and customize your gameplay with intuitive settings and controller support. Advanced options are available for power users.

Highlights
  • Hundreds of community-developed tables
  • Haptic feedback for immersive gameplay
  • Customizable settings and POV adjustments
  • Game controller support
  • External DMD and AltColor/AltSound support
  • Touch overlay and instructions
Features
Read full description

The official Visual Pinball app. Built by volunteers since 2000 and open source since 2010, Visual Pinball is the simulator the virtual pinball community has been playing for over two decades. More than 70 people have contributed to it, and this app runs the same engine as the desktop version, so every table plays with the physics, lighting and sound its creator intended. No ads. No in-app purchases. No tracking. Made by volunteers. Two years of work from the Visual Pinball volunteers, in one update. Thank you for your patience, and for playing! A FRESH NEW LOOK • Redesigned for iOS 26 with Liquid Glass • Favorites and recently played tables at the top of your list • Search, sorting and three tile sizes • Light, Dark or System appearance • New loading screen that shows progress THE FULL DESKTOP EXPERIENCE • The complete Visual Pinball in-game menu for graphics, sound, controls and table options • Remap every button on keyboards and game controllers • Save settings for every table, or just the one you're playing MORE TABLES, LOOKING BETTER • Show the backglass and score display (DMD, alphanumeric or reels) on screen, right where you want them • Support for PUP packs, FlexDMD, B2S backglasses, video playback and VNI colorizations • All the latest physics and rendering improvements from the desktop version • Much lower memory use: textures are compressed on first load, then cached EASIER TABLE MANAGEMENT • Import .zip files, along with .vpx and .vpxz • Share any table as a single .vpxz file • The web file manager can now upload whole folders, extract archives, edit scripts and settings, and show the log live AND MORE • Many stability and memory fixes This version requires iOS 26.6 or later.

Screenshots

Kana3 screens
Visual Pinball3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Kana at 5.0 against Visual Pinball's 4.3. Kana also leads on iOS requirement (9.0 vs 26.6). Visual Pinball's advantage is review sentiment (79% vs 50%) and ratings volume (74 vs 2). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Kana holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Visual Pinball has 74 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 50% of Kana's written reviews are positive against 79% of Visual Pinball's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Kana ships an update every 16 months, Visual Pinball every 12 months. The most recent releases landed on October 10, 2026 and October 22, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Kana versus Visual Pinball: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterKanaVisual Pinball
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (2 ratings) — better4.3 (74 ratings)
Positive reviews50.0% of reviews78.6% of reviews — better
Number of ratings274 — better
Update frequencyEvery 16 monthsEvery 12 months — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS9.0 — better26.6
Further details — not scored
Size3 MB120 MB
Age rating4+9+
Developer典 熊Jason Millard

Customer experience

Kana

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive50.0%
Neutral50.0%
Negative0.0%

Visual Pinball

All ratings73 ratings
Positive80.8%
Neutral6.8%
Negative12.3%
Written reviews56 reviews
Positive78.6%
Neutral12.5%
Negative8.9%

Bugs and requests

Kana

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

Visual Pinball

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Tables don't load for some users
  • Certain complex/intensive tables error out or run at low FPS

Requested features

6 requests
  • List of most played tables
  • Ability to reposition DMD
  • Option to skip startup checks for some tables
  • Ability to edit table scripts on the app
  • Direct link to table depository
Show 1 more
  • iPad version with more screen space

In-app purchases

None

Kana

No in-app purchases

None

Visual Pinball

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Kana free?
Kana is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Visual Pinball free?
Visual Pinball is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Kana or Visual Pinball?
Kana is rated higher. Kana averages 5.0 out of 5 from 2 ratings, while Visual Pinball averages 4.3 from 74 ratings.
Do Kana or Visual Pinball have ads?
Neither Kana nor Visual Pinball shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Kana or Visual Pinball?
Kana ships an update every 16 months, and Visual Pinball every 12 months. Most recently, Kana was updated on October 10, 2026 and Visual Pinball on October 22, 2026.

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