Last updated on November 27th, 2025 at 02:00 pm
Rust Bucket – Puzzle Game Review
Rust Bucket is a Puzzle/Strategy game from Nitrome, first launched in 16th December 2015.
It’s rated 9+ and currently has 173+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Rust Bucket Stand Out
Rust Bucket is a turn based dungeon crawler that is built with mobile in mind. Swipe to take a step, swipe into enemies to attack. It’s as simple as that, but don’t be fooled into thinking this is a casual game!
• Navigate using simple swipe to move controls.
• Game play is fast and death is never far away so it’s perfect
for your daily commute.
• Puzzle your way past deadly traps or use them to catch enemies.
• Many monster types, each with their own distinctive rules to overcome.
• Make your way through the levels to become a fully qualified looter
• Explore an endless dungeon, with more to discover the deeper you go.
• Become a master of strategic combat and reach the top scoring dungeon rooms.
• Compete against your friends high scores on Game Centre
Important information!
This game is funded by adverts but is completely free to play with no timers or boosters to ruin your experience. There is an option to remove popup ads for a one off In app purchase. Please note that this does not remove Cross Promotion ads for other Nitrome games
We hope you enjoy our little game. If you do please consider giving us a nice review, tell your friends and maybe try some of our other games.
This Puzzle game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Rust Bucket is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 22nd January 2025
Recent improvements include:
Increased camera scrolling resolution.
Fixed various checkpoint edge cases.
Swipe dead-zones added.
Buttons for more Nitrome games now show a confirmation pop-up.
Minimum iOS version is now 12+
Download & Availability
Rust Bucket is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
One of the most engaging chess-like puzzlers out there. Good fun. Really well-designed levels. We just wish there were more because infinite mode is kinda boring. Still, 5 stars.
Rust bucket is an AWSOME game. It teaches you mechanics purely through play in fact when we were going through the tutorial we didn't even realize it was the tutorial until we saw the achievement. The enemies all look unique and it's easy to remember how they move how they attack and how to how to best attack them while also not getting: crushed from above, crushed onto a wall, trapped between sentient statues, combust, slimed, teleported onto, bashed in the head with a living skull, getting killed by vengeful pigs, chomped by a murderous chest, chomped by slime gators, fungus slimed, and probably other ways of dying we haven't found yet. And of course the amazing pixel art which reminds us of the countless hours we spent playing nitromes flash games on the family computer a few years back. Basically what we're saying is download this game now.
We haven't found a puzzle game this good since Pixel Defenders. It's turn based so you have plenty of time to think, and it's not difficult to learn quickly either. Great pixel graphics. Five stars from us.
Our favorite Nitrome game by far! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE add more levels.
We love Rust Bucket, it's an awesome game that requires you to learn first, and learn again, and again, through actual tutorials and then through trial and error.
Minus the Ads we loved the game, we were sad when we finally finished it but a bit of relief also lol.
Great puzzles and game mechanics. Will keep you busy for hours.
Brilliant mix between action and puzzle. Clever! Can't stop playing.
We really like this game. Very strategic and addicting. Perfect game in our opinion.
This game good but we want to be able to customize our character.
We love this game quite a bit but now it crashes when ever we try to load it, which makes it unplayable, if this is fixed we'll give it the 5 stars it deserves.
Would like to see an update though. Also, we have no idea what coins are gathered for. Haven't seen anywhere to use them.
Rust bucket is such a challenge and we love it! Problem is, the restore purchases button does not work.
When we first started play it was fine until we beat the whole game. We didn't think there was going to be 10 lvls. We're just asking if u can put more lvls.
Rust Bucket to us was a very new concept. The game is part puzzle, part rogue like, and it seemed to us that the game reminded us an awful lot of playing chess. Now we got this game when it first started with only one level set and a pretty basic endless dungeon mode, and we're very glad to see good work being done on the level sets, because we don't really like the endless dungeon. Just recently we completed the fourth level set. The set was very difficult especially the third from last level, but we were able to complete it eventually by looking up a small walk through at one point. The endless mode we feel doesn't reward the player very often for playing it. In a game like binding of Isaac there is usually some sort of payoff in every room, or some sort of encounter that you get locked into. In rust buckets current endless, we only ever find coins from smashing pots and the ones lying around, and that's really the only reward to playing. We'd like to see a reward for defeating all enemies in a room, more unique rooms even at lower levels, something interesting in our starting room occasionally, maybe some sort of boss rooms or challenge rooms that lock you in and you could get a special weapon for completing them? We really like this game and recommend it to anyone looking for a nice puzzle game.
We personally enjoyed playing this game, but it was ruined every time there were 10 second ads everytime you died.
Weak for a Nitrome game. After the first few levels, it gets very confusing, so trial and error means dying every few seconds, and there's an ad after every. Death. That gets old fast.
Don't get. No instructions. Died same place every time. Timing? Why? Totally senseless. Bad UX. Glad it's free. Bye. Cool graphics tho.
Used to love this game, super fun. Now it constantly crashes. Can't even play it. Please fix.
Doesn't work it gets on a purple screen then gets off the app fix the iOS 7 glitch.
We used to play this all the time, but now when we try to get into the app it goes to the purple loading screen and then it kick us out. We would love to play it again, we really liked the bow and bombs.
Beware. We found our son watching some kind of "ad" having to do with virtual reality porn. Complete with 17+ language. This mom is coming for you Rust Bucket.
As soon as we open the game it gets stuck on the loading screen and then kicks us out, playing on an iPad Air and other games run just fine, don't download unless you want to gamble on it working.
Nice little game, with forced ads between levels. No thanks.
Get ready to have ads constant popping up.
Great game, but current version crashes every time you open it. Please fix.
Can't play the game It closes as soon as you try to open the app Would have been a great game like redungeon but turns out you can't play it Waste of time downloading and memory space.
Lol it doesn't even open. Can't play it, crashes. Way to go.
The games shuts down and closes as soon as we launch it. Can't play at all. Also trying to rate and review this game took us several tries cuz it keep kicking us out of rating it.
To people complaining about ads: go to airplane mode and become ad free.
Good game, great concept. Love it.
It's very difficult, but we have been eating for a game like this for a while.
We really like this game. It's an excellent puzzle game. It's very challenging and fun to play. The turn based strategy makes it even more fun. We would definitely recommend this game.
Awesome little game! Get ready to be challenged to think ahead! Lots of ads after you die a few times, but nothing to quit over! We highly recommend it.
We had a good time playing this game! No problems launching it on an iPhone 6.
We love how this game makes you think ahead and plan for success. Unfortunently ever since the new update we can no longer open up the game while all the other games we have open perfectly and play seamlessly we have a iphone 4 and we would love if you fix this new and upsetting glitch thank you.
We loved this game. Unfortunately, recent updates have added incessant advertisements that overwhelm an otherwise excellent game. Every three deaths or so, a blaring ad offers us the same obnoxious app over and over. When stuck on a tricky puzzle, this came mean an ad every minute or so. This jarring interruption makes carefully planning a strategy very difficult. Typically, Nitrome games have higher standards in filling their games with advertisements. We're disappointed that this is the path they've taken.
It would be a 5-star game, however watching an ad every minute is just to annoying. We've tried to purchase ads free addon, but the purchase button does not work.
Theres still the icon to remove the ads but doesnt do anything. You now have to play with annoying popup ads. Instant delete.
Not worth keeping on our phone with advertisements after each level.
Game crashes on every start up, 5/5.
Such a fun puzzle game but it glitches and crashes way too often especially when you get into higher levels.
We would love to see more content added to endless like weapons, enemies, etc. But since thats extremely unlikely Ill have to look for another game. Its a shame though, because even with the relatively little content this game has, years later we still really enjoy playing it.
We really enjoy this game. The level design as well thought out.
So, we don't get why people are leaving negative reviews. It's amazing. By far Nitrome's best game. This game needs to be featured. We've easily spent a couple hours on this game, and can entertain us for hours. Really, it's just amazing. C'mon, guys.
2 hit and everything super fun game.
This game is fun, addicting, and at some times challenging.
All levels are unique. Love this game.
This game is very challenging and provides difficult and changing puzzles; which really make you think and we were very sad to finish! The game also does a great job of teaching you everything about with hardly any text! Best strategy game we've ever played, and we highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys a challenge.
This game is pretty good and actually has some parts that took us more than 10 minutes to figure out. Gr8 m8 we r8 8/8.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 73
- Size: 104.78 MB
- iOS: 12.0 or later
- Languages: EN
- Content Advisory: Infrequent/Mild Cartoon or Fantasy Violence
- Developer: Nitrome
Last updated: 22nd January 2025 | Genre: Puzzle, Strategy | Developer: Nitrome