Tic Tac Toe Free

As well as having clones of video gaming classics the android market also has versions of school ground classics and boards games. One of the most obvious "school games" that the android was going to get was of course "Tic Tac Toe" (or noughts and crosses if you're British).

"Tic Tac Toe Free" by Optime Software is probably the most visually appealing of the numerous Tic Tac Toe clones on the market and is the version I am looking at here. As you can see from the screen shot to the right, the game is for 1 or 2 players and I don't think the rules really need explaining. Though for those few that have never played Tic Tac Toe. You play against an opponent (in 2 player this is against a fellow human in one player it's against the AI) taking it turns to put either a X or a O into a 9 space grid trying to make a line of 3 in either a horizontal, vertical or diagonal line.

On paper the game is an incredibly simple concept, it's why we've all played it since being little kids. Despite most games ending as a draw we all seem to love, but how does it port to the Android system? Is there anything the game can actually add? Or are we treat to a computerised version of a game that really was best left at school?

 

The game, graphically, looks very decent, it looks more attractive than a blank piece of white paper with shoddy drawn lines on it though it was never going to be a game to blow us away with realism. In fact if it looked more "real" I guess we'd actually complain about the looks of it. Though despite a stylish looks upgrade from the pen and paper version the game at heart is identical to the one we all know. There is nothing at all added to the game and yet that was always going to be the problem-what can you do to revolutionise Tic-Tac-Toe? It's not like you can add guns to it or anything.

Whilst it is what we know and love, part of Tic-Tac-Toe's appeal was playing it whilst Mrs Dubois, the eccentric French teacher we couldn't understand was scribbling on the board and we were sat at the back of the class. We weren't supposed to be playing games in class and we did it anyway. With this Android app it just seems rather pointless. The body and the heart are still there but the soul is absent. The sexy French accent in the background isn't there, the noise of chatter isn't there and although, from a technical standpoint, the game is the same, it's just not the same.

Rather oddly, the settings of the app do allow you to choose between having sounds "on" or "off"...it seems no matter what choice you make the game is played in complete silence. There is no cheering if you beat the computer or booing if you lose, it's just silence. There's no in game taunting (another thing that makes the paper based Tic-Tac-Toe so much fun is the taunting "Who's ya daddy?") and although you can taunt away from the phone it seems less fun for some reason.

Hee Hee Buttface wins.
I'm  sooo funny!

Arguably the best features the game adds to the normal Tic-Tac-Toe are the ability to play against the AI and the ability to name the players. Even then it's only funny seeing "Buttface wins" a few times  before even the humour of that wears off.

Whilst it looks nice there simply isn't enough you can do with the game to make it worth your time. It's all fine and dandy replicating Tic-Tac-Toe perfectly and giving it a nice new suit but it's still a game that was meant to be played at school, not sat on the couch or sat in bed with the other half.

Addictiveness-3/10 It's Tic-Tac-Toe with out the heart.
Controls-6/10 Simple and effective. The controls are very basic but their job
Graphics-6/10 Simple but nice. The app adds a nice look to the game but it's still a bunch of X's and O's.
Sounds-0/10 No sounds at all (despite turning them on in the menu!)
Originality-0/10 It's Tic-Tac-Toe
Total score 15/50

Overall it's a game that you might play a few times if you download it, but trust me, it's not one you'll keep coming back to replay.
Game mark C