Report updated May 7, 2026
Don't Touch The Spikes: New season
For casual mobile gamers seeking short, repetitive, high-score-focused arcade challenges.
Don't Touch The Spikes: New season is a challenged games app that is free with in-app purchases. With a 3.1/5 rating from 529K reviews, it faces significant user friction. Users particularly appreciate simple and fast-paced gameplay mechanics provide an addictive experience for quick gaming sessions, though aggressive ad frequency post-update disrupts the core gameplay loop and renders the experience unplayable remains a common concern.
What is Don't Touch The Spikes: New season?
Don't Touch The Spikes: New season is a casual arcade game for mobile users, structured around tap-to-fly reflex challenges.
Users hire this app for low-stakes, high-score-focused arcade sessions, but the current ad-heavy experience forces them to seek alternatives that respect their time.
Current Momentum
v2.2 · 6mo ago
Zombie- Shipped 10 new bird skins.
- Released stability-focused bug fixes.
What makes this app unique?
What Does It Look Like?
What Are The Key Features?
Tap-to-fly control scheme requiring precise timing to navigate between spikes on screen edges.
Collection of 10 distinct bird visual styles available for player selection.
Integration of interstitial and banner advertisements within the game flow.
How much does it cost?
- Free-to-play with ad support
- In-app purchases available
Monetization relies on ad-supported gameplay and in-app purchase inventory to extract value from a large casual user base.
Who Built It?
TapBrain
Providing accessible, zen-inspired word and puzzle games for casual players seeking daily mental relaxation. Their portfolio focuses on low-pressure, vocabulary-based challenges designed for short, frequent sessions.
Portfolio
13
Apps
What other apps does TapBrain make?
Word Relax - Zen Puzzle Games
Word Vistas- Stack Word Search
Word Cross: Zen Crossword Game
Word guess: A daily word game
Figure it - Cryptogram Games
Word Tour: Trip Puzzle Game
Explore the full TapBrain report
Portfolio breakdown, audience, momentum, and every app published by TapBrain.
What do users think recently?
High confidence · Latest 100 of 101 total reviews analyzed · Based on 101 reviews. Signal may be noisy.
How did the latest release land?
What is the recent mood?
Recent user voice shows a frustrated sentiment. Users appreciate simple and fast-paced gameplay mechanics provide an addictive experience for quick gaming sessions and challenging difficulty levels offer a rewarding skill progression for dedicated long-term players, but report aggressive ad frequency post-update disrupts the core gameplay loop and renders the experience unplayable and broken ad-free purchase status causes frustration for legacy users who paid for ad removal.
What Users Love
What Frustrates Users
What Users Want
View the full user-sentiment analysis
Mood gauge, ratings & review-volume history, every praise / complaint / request, and sentiment over time.
What is the competitive landscape for Don't Touch The Spikes: New season?
How's The Games Market?
Market outlook for this category
Available very soon
The rivals identified
Nemeses(1)
This is the original, high-scale version of the target app's core mechanic, sharing the exact same thematic niche and gameplay loop.
Differentiators
- Maintains a massive, established user base that creates a significant barrier to entry for clones
- Leverages the Ketchapp publishing network to maintain visibility and consistent, long-term player retention
- Provides a standardized, polished experience that defines the genre's expectations for casual players
Head to head
The target app must differentiate through unique meta-game features or visual themes to avoid being perceived as a redundant clone of the market leader.
Contenders(3)
Competes for the same 'one-more-try' casual gaming audience by mastering the art of simple, high-stakes arcade mechanics.
Differentiators
- Employs a highly successful character collection meta-game that drives long-term retention beyond the core loop
- Delivers a premium, ad-free experience through the Apple Arcade ecosystem that differentiates it from ad-heavy competitors
A foundational vertical-climber that competes for the same casual, short-session mobile gaming time as the target app.
Differentiators
- Utilizes a classic, recognizable art style that provides strong brand recognition across multiple generations
- Implements frequent seasonal content updates that keep the core vertical-climbing mechanic feeling fresh and relevant
A titan of the twitch-reflex genre that captures the same high-intensity, pattern-recognition audience as the target app.
Differentiators
- Features a robust level editor that empowers the community to generate infinite, high-quality content
- Integrates a sophisticated rhythm-based progression system that creates a deeper, more addictive gameplay loop
Same space(3)
A high-velocity parkour game that targets the same casual audience looking for quick, reflex-based challenges.
Differentiators
- Utilizes a competitive, race-against-others format that adds a layer of social pressure to the gameplay
- Features a minimalist, high-contrast visual design that optimizes for quick readability on mobile screens
Shares the 'avoidance' and 'collision' core mechanics but applies them to a vehicle-based combat sub-genre.
Differentiators
- Integrates local and online multiplayer modes that significantly extend the game's social replayability
- Offers a wide variety of vehicle customization options that provide a deeper sense of player progression
An adjacent arcade-physics game that shares the target's focus on simple, one-touch control schemes.
Differentiators
- Aggressive release cadence of 19 updates in six months ensures constant feature and level iteration
- Focuses on high-fidelity 3D physics environments that provide a more modern visual feel than 2D alternatives
New entrants(1)
Represents the shift toward idle-management mechanics within the casual gaming space, threatening pure-reflex games.
Differentiators
- Integrates idle-management progression that allows players to feel growth even during passive play sessions
- Focuses on satisfying 'service-loop' mechanics that provide a different type of reward than pure avoidance games
Compare Don't Touch The Spikes: New season against every rival
All rivals in one side-by-side table — identity, store metrics, ratings & sentiment, and strategic intel — plus a head-to-head page for each.
The outtake for Don't Touch The Spikes: New season
Strengths to defend, gaps to attack
Core Strengths
- Core loop drives high session frequency
- Simple controls lower entry barriers
Critical Frictions
- Legacy purchase recognition failure
- Ad density exceeds user tolerance
- Android performance regressions
Growth Levers
- Implement premium ad-free toggle
- Introduce seasonal live-ops
Market Threats
- Modern puzzle hybrids capturing market share
- Aggressive ads accelerating user migration
What are the next best moves?
Restore legacy ad-free purchase status because users report it is no longer honored → reduce churn
Top complaint theme regarding broken ad-free status for long-term players.
Trade-off: Pause new skin development — restoring trust is higher priority for retention.
Reduce interstitial ad frequency because users cite it as the primary reason for deletion → improve retention
High-frequency complaint theme regarding ad disruption post-update.
Trade-off: Accept short-term ad revenue dip — long-term LTV depends on player retention.
A counter-intuitive read
The app's high Android install scale is a liability, not an asset, because the current ad-monetization strategy is converting a massive user base into a massive negative-sentiment feedback loop.
Feature Gaps vs Competitors
- Real-time multiplayer (available in Drive Ahead!)
- Level editor (available in Geometry Dash)
Key Takeaways
The app retains a strong core loop but is actively destroying its user base through aggressive ad frequency and broken legacy purchases, so the PM must prioritize restoring purchase recognition to stabilize the rating baseline.
Where Is It Heading?
Declining
The casual arcade market is consolidating around titles that balance monetization with player-friendly progression, leaving this app exposed. The current update cadence focuses on maintenance rather than feature expansion, which will accelerate user migration to modern competitors by next quarter.
Aggressive ad frequency post-update disrupts the core gameplay loop, which drives high churn among the casual base.
Broken ad-free purchase status for legacy users erodes brand trust, leading to negative sentiment and rating drag.