Merge Cooking® vs Solar Smash

How do Merge Cooking® and Solar Smash compare on difficulty, ad pressure, in-app-purchase pressure and what real reviewers say? A side-by-side look, grounded in App Store data.

	Merge Cooking®	Solar Smash
Genre	Simulation	Simulation
Price	Free	Free
Difficulty	easy	easy
Ad intensity	low	medium
In-app-purchase pressure	high	low
Typical session	short	variable
Rating	4.7 / 5	4.8 / 5
Ratings count	50,067	391,238
Reviews say	What players like Addictive merging mechanics World tour with diverse cuisines and themes Relaxing, mindless gameplay Common complaints Energy system caps at 100 with 2min regeneration per point, blocking play after 15-20 mins Heavy monetization and pay-to-win progression after early game Generous initial rewards/energy diminish significantly at higher levels	What players like Wide variety of destruction weapons Creative sandbox planet/system building Physics-based destruction mechanics Common complaints Ads block/interrupt building menu Game freezes during custom planet creation Infrequent updates and developer support

Merge Cooking® — Merge ingredients and cook global cuisines while renovating themed restaurants across world destinations. (rated easy difficulty, low ad pressure) Solar Smash — Unleash cosmic destruction by smashing planets and building solar systems with 50+ creative weapons in a physics sandbox. (rated easy difficulty, medium ad pressure)

Data: Apple App Store, as of 2026-09-17. Last updated 2026-09-17.