My Fire Is Bigger Than Yours Review

Growing a Campfire Until It Swallows the Sun

My Fire Is Bigger Than Yours takes a simple, slightly absurd premise — grow a small campfire until it's larger than the sun — and builds an incremental game around it, starting players off dragging logs into the flames by hand before automating that process through a tree of upgrades. Reviewers consistently describe the theming as the game's most distinctive hook, with the fire eventually attracting a cult of followers and pushing through escalating "phases" that reshape how the core loop works. One reviewer sums up the tonal appeal simply: "its a good game. I like the part when the campfire eats the sun so make more game modes."

The progression is structured around three phases that function as soft prestige resets, clearing placed buildings while preserving purchased upgrades between runs. Reviewers who enjoyed this structure highlight it as more varied than a typical incremental game, with one writing that "the phases concept is a novel one and it makes you change strategy or rethink your plan mid run," praising the design for avoiding the flat, single-note escalation that a lot of games in this genre settle for.

A Fun Core Loop Undercut by Real Performance Problems

Where the review pool turns sharply critical is on technical performance, and specifically on Phase 3. Multiple reviewers independently report the game becoming close to unplayable once enough objects accumulate on screen during that late stage, with one describing a run that "should have lasted a minute or less" instead running for roughly ten minutes at "1 frame every 10 to 20 seconds." Another reviewer, initially positive about the game, reports the same issue directly causing them to change their verdict: "I enjoyed the game. But since the update the game is unplayable starting with Phase 3. The game lags massively. Currently I cannot recommend it." A separate reviewer flags a specific bug where end-of-run stat totals can tick upward even after a run has technically ended, misaligning displayed numbers against the achievements they're meant to unlock.

To the developer's credit, the news history shows rapid follow-up patching specifically targeting these complaints, including a "Simplified Physics Performance Setting" added in mid-September and multiple earlier hotfixes aimed at Phase 3 specifically. Several reviewers who experienced the lag note that later updates measurably improved things, though the underlying problem — a huge number of simulated objects on screen at once — remains an inherent risk of the game's own core mechanic.

Two of Three Modes Still "Coming Soon" at Launch

The most consistent and pointed criticism in the negative reviews isn't about bugs at all — it's about how complete the game feels at its $5.99 asking price. Several reviewers report being greeted, immediately after launch, with a mode-select screen where two of the three available options are marked "Coming Soon." One reviewer writes flatly: "This game should be marked 'Early Access.' The first thing you're greeted with after launching the game is a 'choice' of gamemode. 2/3 of those modes are 'Coming Soon.' If I would have known this game was not yet complete I wouldn't have bought it." Another negative reviewer goes further, calling the practice of releasing at full price with two-thirds of the advertised modes unavailable a case of the game "not yet complete."

Length compounds that complaint: a large share of the review pool, positive and negative alike, reports full completion — including all achievements — in somewhere between eighty minutes and two hours. Several positive reviewers explicitly frame their recommendation around price rather than content, with one advising other players to "get it in a bundle when there's a sale" rather than buying at full price, and another calling it "a steep price for what you get" while still recommending the core experience.

A Responsive Developer Already Patching Fast

What keeps the review pool net positive despite these complaints is a pattern reviewers repeatedly credit: a developer who is visibly, quickly iterating. The news history bears this out, with patches landing within a day of launch and continuing through mid-September, addressing progression balance, performance, and specific player-reported bugs. One reviewer captures this dynamic directly: "love a dev that's listening and reacting fast with appropriate patches," while another notes the same pattern shaped their overall impression: "the dev also reems pretty responsive and fixed a few early pain points." For a genre where incremental games often launch once and get abandoned, that responsiveness is doing real work to offset complaints about launch-day completeness.

Verdict

My Fire Is Bigger Than Yours has a genuinely fun, novel incremental loop wrapped around an absurd premise that reviewers clearly enjoy engaging with, and its three-phase structure gives it more shape than a typical genre entry. But it launched with real, well-documented problems: severe performance issues specific to its most content-dense phase, a short one-to-two-hour completion time, and — most damaging to its value proposition — two of its three advertised game modes locked behind a "Coming Soon" label at full price. The developer's fast, visible patching cadence is earning real goodwill and has already addressed some of the worst performance complaints, but buyers weighing a purchase today should treat this as a promising, still-unfinished incremental rather than a fully realized $5.99 release, and might reasonably wait for the missing modes or a sale before buying in.

Pros:

• A genuinely novel, absurd premise — growing a campfire until it consumes the sun — executed with real personality
• A three-phase prestige structure that adds variety most incremental games lack
• A developer that is visibly and rapidly patching performance and balance issues post-launch
• Reviewers describe a strong "one more run" pull during the phases that work well

Cons:

• Severe, well-documented lag and frame-rate drops specific to Phase 3, when object counts get high
• Two of the game's three advertised modes are locked behind "Coming Soon" at launch, at full price
• Very short completion time, roughly one to two hours to unlock every achievement
• A bugged achievement-tracking issue where final stat totals can misalign with unlock requirements
• Several reviewers explicitly recommend waiting for a sale rather than buying at full price