Review

This app presents a digital version of Reversi, also known as Othello; a board game for two players. The aim of the game is to claim the most amount of stones, occupying more of the board than the opponent in the process. Players take turns to place their stones, capturing opponent stones that lie between the player's own placed stones. Classic versions of the game employ a simple monochrome theme, with each player being either black or white. This app represents the classic look perfectly, coupled with the traditional rules of Othello.

The game provides helpful hints throughout, indicating where the user can make their next move with a small dot placed on possible tiles. These hints are merely suggestions for the user but cannot be removed even at the expert difficulty setting. A clear and pristine layout is used with contrasting colours to give a pleasing and easy to use aesthetic. The app offers options to change the theme of the game which allows the user to change the colour of the board as well as gamepieces in the settings menu, found in the upper right hand corner. The game allows for two game modes: single player vs. computer and a two player (pass & play) mode. Five different difficulty levels can be selected depending on the user’s preference, ranging from beginner to expert. Given the complexity of the rules of Reversi, we do not recommend this app for anyone unfamiliar or unconfident with the game as the app does not offer any tutorials or game rule listings.

Although the free version of the app includes all features necessary to enjoy the game, it does contain full screen adverts upon exiting and resuming a game in addition to a banner along the bottom of the screen. While these do not interfere during gameplay, users have the option to remove all adverts by purchasing an upgrade from the settings menu.

Tip: In-App Purchases do require a password before completion, but they can be completely restricted on your device, if preferred. For information on how to do this for the Android tablet, click here.

Recommended Settings

There are limited settings available therefore little needs to be changed before going straight into gameplay. However we would suggest that the player begins in easy mode difficulty level as this can be a challenge in itself before progressing to harder levels.