Smart Othello 4+

Excellent Othello Game

Brilliant gameplay, one of my favourite games to play on mobile. Recommended

Online features need much improvement

Pros: the game looks slick and the algorithms used in ‘vs computer’ modes are great. A lot of other Othello apps have very simple algorithms that are deterministic and too easy to beat. Not this game! It offers a real challenge to improve one’s game.

Cons: the online mode, competing against other humans, is poorly executed, and mostly a waste of time, because:
- there’s no instructions explaining how it works or what to expect
- is the online mode buggy or are very few people actually online? When you make a request to find another player the dialog box just sits there spinning for minutes. It never finds anyone and all you can do is cancel. But, maybe, a few hours later a game request comes in from a random player.
- because it’s not clear how the online mode works, it’s easy to send out 3+ game invites, and you end up with 3 games running concurrently with the same player. When you thought cancelled the request, you hadn’t really, you just dismissed the dialog box.
- the online games have no time limit per move, and so you can wait days and days for the next person to make a move. It’s very disincentivising to play the game
- there’s no indicator that the other player is currently online, or not. Have they given up? You’ll never know.
- if someone does send you an invite, it seems you _have to_ accept. No other options work.
- the game does not stay in sync if you have it installed on two devices. It tries to stay in sync, presumably by game centre, but it’s buggy. I had to uninstall it on one device so that all the moves came through properly.
- wow, be prepared for a lot of game centre notifications to come through. I had to turn off notifications because the game is so chatty.

Generally, I think using Apple’s Game Centre leads to a poor online experience compared to other apps. At least, please explain how it’s supposed to work because it absolutely isn’t clear when you start. This app is SO close to being the best Othello game on the App Store, but the laggy features of the online gaming mode lets it down. I hope it improves in a later update.

Awful

This app was good for years, now it’s just a series of glitches and frozen screens. Sadly, it’s not worth your effort downloading it.

Developer Response ,

This hang with Game Center has been fixed in SmartOthello 3.1.2. Please download the newest version and let support@smartgo.com know if you still see an issue. Thanks!