Minesweeper

My Experience with Minesweeper

I’ll be honest, I grabbed this app a little over a month ago just because I was curious. I’d seen a buddy mention it on Twitter and a few people in a work Slack channel were bragging about their times. I grew up playing the classic Windows version during boring afternoons, so I figured, why not? The first few games were fine—tapping away on my iPhone 14 during my train commute into the city. But after a couple weeks, the cracks started showing. One evening last Tuesday, I was trying to beat my best time on hard mode, and the app just froze mid-tap. I had to force close it and lost my progress. That’s frustrating when you’re in the zone. I reached out to support through the in-app email link, and it took them four days to reply with a generic copy-paste answer that didn’t even address the freeze. They asked me to restart my phone, which I’d already done twice. It felt like a brush-off, and I’m not a fan of wasting my time on unhelpful support when I just want a game that works.

Features Worth Noting

The core gameplay is solid—tapping squares, avoiding mines, using numbers to figure out where to click next. That part is unchanged and addictive, especially if you’re into logic puzzles. The app has three difficulty levels: easy with a 9×9 grid, medium with 16×16, and hard with 30×16. I appreciate that you can also customize your own board size, which is handy when I want a quick 5-minute session during lunch versus a longer one on a Sunday. The flag system works well; you press and hold to mark a mine, and there’s a counter that tracks how many flags you’ve used. The tutorial is decent for newcomers—it shows you the basics without being too wordy. There’s also a leaderboard that lets you compare times with others, though honestly, most of the top scores look suspiciously fast, so I take those with a grain of salt. The color scheme is clean and not overly flashy, which I like because I don’t need dancing animations when I’m trying to think.

What Needs Work

The biggest issue? Ads. They pop up after every single game, sometimes even in the middle of a session if you tap wrong. I get that it’s a free app, but it’s so frequent it breaks my concentration. One time I was two taps away from clearing a hard board, and a 30-second video ad crashed the app. Not cool. The touch controls can also be finnicky on smaller grids—sometimes the tap registers as a long press, and I accidentally flag a safe square. That’s a rookie mistake for a developer. And the support experience left a bad taste in my mouth. I’m a busy guy; I don’t have time to wait days for a useless reply. They need a FAQ or at least a faster turnaround. Also, the game doesn’t save your session if you switch apps for a second. I accidentally swiped up to check a text on my iPhone 14 and came back to a fresh board. That’s annoying when you’re 10 minutes deep.

Pricing

It’s free to download and play, which is great if you’re just dipping your toes in. But there’s a catch. You can pay to remove ads via a one-time in-app purchase. Last I checked, it was about $3.99, which honestly isn’t bad if you play a lot. I’m debating whether it’s worth it given the other bugs. There’s also a pack of “hints” you can buy for like a dollar, but I never needed them because the game is straightforward. No subscription nonsense, which I appreciate. I hate recurring charges for a puzzle app. If they fixed the stability stuff, I’d probably shell out the four bucks just to stop seeing those annoying video ads for random mobile games.

Developer Notes

Evkar Games seems to be a small studio. The app hasn’t been updated in a few months, so I’m not counting on quick fixes. The last update note just said “bug fixes and performance improvements,” but clearly some issues remain. I wish they’d be more transparent in their changelogs or have a public roadmap. I’d also love a dark mode option—my eyes get tired staring at the bright white background on my phone late at night. The app runs okay most of the time, but those freezes and ad crashes make me wonder if they tested it properly on newer iPhones. If you’re a developer reading this, please add a save-state feature. It’s standard in most mobile games now.

Security & Privacy

The app asks for minimal permissions—just notifications (which I declined) and internet access for the ads and leaderboard. It doesn’t demand my contacts or location, which is a relief. Their privacy policy is a short paragraph in the settings menu, but it’s vague about what data is collected for ad personalization. I assume they track some analytics. Nothing too creepy, but if you’re privacy-conscious, you might want to turn off ad tracking in your iPhone settings. I haven’t had any weird data issues or spam since installing it. Still, I’d prefer a clear opt-out for analytics. Overall, it feels safe enough for a casual game.