Ahhh, Reversi; it’s such a simple concept, yet has become so popular. And with Reversi Reloaded, you can now play this classic game on the move with your iPhone or iPad. Before I installed the game, my first concern for it was space – the iPhone does not have a lot to offer in terms of screen space, and when I started my first Reversi game, the squares were indeed quite small. Despite this, however, I had absolutely no trouble selecting the correct boxes… so kudos to Mobivention for making this typical board game work with the iPhone’s limiting factors.

So for those of you who do not understand how Reversi works – it is a strategic game and to win you must have the most coloured pieces showing your colour by the end. It works by placing a new piece in an empty square and turning over all of your opponent’s pieces in a diagonal, vertical and horizontal direction. It’s quite difficult to describe but once you start playing it doesn’t take long at all to get used to, and can actually be surprisingly addictive.

One feature I love on Reversi Reloaded is the ability to change the computer’s difficulty. By default, it is on easy, but you also have the options of medium and hard. Easy is relatively straightforward and you shouldn’t have any trouble beating the computer here. Medium is where it gets more difficult, but hard is where it gets serious. The Othello computer runs a program which can beat anybody at Reversi – it’s simply not possible to beat it. It’s defeated all of the world champions. Luckily, I think Mobivention have been slightly kinder here and I’m sure it is possible to win this game. I’ve been at it for a good 2 hours and haven’t cracked it yet, but I just randomly tap and guess the best places to go. The pros have established techniques and strategies, so it really is up to you whether you simply do this for fun on easy/medium or develop and enhance your reversi skills on hard.

Best of all though: this game is FREE! You can pay to remove the ads, but I don’t see the point because they are quite unobtrusive. You also have the option of paying for more board designs, and at 59p, why not?! But I think the one feature this game is missing is a statistics panel or profile page. It would be really cool to store all of your reversi scores and results and look back at them. An even better idea would be for these to be uploaded to a website where you can compare your stats with other Reversi players. I hope this sort of functionality is looked into, but for now, this game is a great time-passer and actually makes you sit and think.

iPwnGamers Score: 4/5

DigiDock has released Reversi Sister, a new board game application for iPhone and iPod Touch. The game contains unique elements of Japan’s animation culture and has colorful animations. Although Reversi itself already has widespread popularity, Reversi Sister is designed to address a
global niche market, which differs from that of conventional users of Reversi, through use of
animation characters and new gaming features. Reversi Sister is now available in the App Store for $2.99, you can find more info on the game after the jump.

Most of the board and card game applications currently available through the iTunes Store have simple graphics that are merely faithful reproductions of their physical origin. And with gaming
features few applications have adopted unique additional features for iPhone versions. The recently released “Reversi Sister” is a modern piece of entertainment in which the familiar rules of Reversi are combined with “Moe” voice patterns and animation-taste graphics as well as adding the additional feature of a “special move”, which helps beginners to win.

While the gauge to the left of Riko (the girl character) is full players can make the special move
by pushing the button above the gauge when it is glowing. The special move flips the opponent’s
stones to show the player’s color, regardless of Reversi’s original rules. (There are some
variations in terms of the number and position of the opponent’s stones to be flipped.)
The player can experience the exhilaration of suddenly changing the color of a large number of their
opponent’s stones in a single move using the special move, maybe even resulting in all of them.

In addition, Riko responds to various situations in the course of a game with comments, usually
after the player or the CPU have placed stones. For example she yells out “Yosshaaa” (Yes!) in joy
if the player has made a good move but panics with “Awawawa …” (Oh, no.) if the CPU does.
How responsive Riko is can be selected from three levels on the settings screen.
Moreover, as the player’s score with “Reversi Sister” depends on the number of the opponent’s stones
they have flipped, players can enjoy repeat plays with the aim of getting better scores, in addition
to enjoying the exhilaration of winning by an overwhelming margin.

Reversi is a two player (in single-player games between the player and a CPU) game where players
alternately place stones, one at a time, on a grid. The stones have opposing black and white faces,
with one of the colors being allotted to each player. A valid move must be in a straight line between the new stone and another stone of the same color
already on the board, thereby capturing at least one of the opponent’s stones in between. Captured
stones are flipped to show the other color.

If a player cannot find a place to put their stone in making a valid move, as they take alternate
turns, the other player gets to make additional moves until they can.
The game ends when either the entire grid is filled in or both players can no longer make valid
moves. The player with the most stones on the board wins.

Astraware Board Games for iPhone and iPod Touch includes classic board games such as Ludo, Checkers, Reversi, Nine Men’s Morris, Tic Tac Toe, Snakes and Ladders, Chess and Backgammon. The games include a range of difficulty levels and customizable rules to make it easy for gamers of all ages. The game is now available in the App Store. Here’s the feature list of Astraware Board Games:

• Eight classic boardgames in one easy-to-use pack
• Suitable for casual players & non-experts
• Touch & slide your piece to move it!
• Shake your iPhone to shake the dice!
• Play against a friend on two devices using a local Wi-Fi connection

• Use your touch screen to flick and drag property cards and simulate real-life game experiences
• 3D view of the board and movers
• Wi-Fi Multiplayer Mode allows 4 players to connect via the same router on a Local Area Network
• Give your iPhone/iPod touch a shake to roll the dice or animate the movers
• Automatically replaces players who leave with AI
• Select full-board view or zoom in for a close-up
• Play solo against the computer or Pass n’ play for 4

Developer Freeverse has dropped five of their games in price. Five games, five dollars each!

• Big Bang Board Games
• Big Bang Sudoku
• Flick Bowling
• Monkey Lab
• Moto Chaser