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edit: the game got renamed, as gomoku and gobang aren't the same after all.

gomoku looks like othello/reversi at first, but plays more like tic-tac-toe, as it's not about jumping over the opponent's pieces to convert them to your color. of course, this one's played on a much bigger grid with the goal of getting 5 pieces in a row (diagonals also work, naturally), and by default the black player starts.

there are dozens of single player challenges with preset layouts and a limited number of moves to score a win, and of course endless matches against the computer on 9 difficulty levels, plus online and local multiplayer with leaderboards and stats of your progress. if you play in practice mode, local matches won't change your rank, otherwise it's a few points for a win, a few points off for losing.

you can either play with classic/freestyle rules (no restrictions), or unleash renju rules by enabling restrictions on the black player. this means they can't create two rows of threes or fours with a single move, nor can they win with an overline, i.e. a line with 6 or more pieces.

excellent presentation with 3 environments, great music and ui, and lots of settings and quality of life, such as various languages, resolution options, windowed mode, graphics detail, separate volume settings, undo and animation toggles, etc. sadly, no settings while playing, only in the main menu, but that's pretty much my only complaint and should be an easy fix. same with no actual challenge numbers while playing.

I'm not really into this sort of thing, but I enjoyed both this and the developer's previous game, othello let's go. I'm pretty sure I made more progress there, but this is an easy recommendation as well, done really well, sold for a low price.

[quote]For more puzzle game reviews, news and everything puzzle-related, follow [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/25928931-Puzzle-Lovers/]Puzzle Lovers[/url] and check out our [url=http://steamcommunity.com/groups/puzzlelovers]Steam group[/url].[/quote] [b]edit:[/b] the game got renamed, as gomoku and gobang aren't the same after all. [b]gomoku[/b] looks like othello/reversi at first, but plays more like tic-tac-toe, as it's not about jumping over the opponent's pieces to convert them to your color. of course, this one's played on a much bigger grid with the goal of getting 5 pieces in a row (diagonals also work, naturally), and by default the black player starts. there are [b]dozens of single player challenges[/b] with preset layouts and a limited number of moves to score a win, and of course [b]endless matches against the computer[/b] on 9 difficulty levels, plus [b]online and local multiplayer[/b] with leaderboards and stats of your progress. if you play in practice mode, local matches won't change your rank, otherwise it's a few points for a win, a few points off for losing. you can either play with [u]classic/freestyle[/u] rules (no restrictions), or unleash [u]renju[/u] rules by enabling restrictions on the black player. this means they can't create two rows of threes or fours with a single move, nor can they win with an [i]overline[/i], i.e. a line with 6 or more pieces. [b]excellent presentation[/b] with 3 environments, great music and ui, and lots of settings and quality of life, such as various languages, resolution options, windowed mode, graphics detail, separate volume settings, undo and animation toggles, etc. sadly, no settings while playing, only in the main menu, but that's pretty much my only complaint and should be an easy fix. same with no actual challenge numbers while playing. I'm not really into this sort of thing, but I enjoyed both this and the developer's previous game, [url=https://steamcommunity.com/id/dohi64/recommended/1256490]othello let's go[/url]. I'm pretty sure I made more progress there, but this is an [b]easy recommendation[/b] as well, done really well, sold for a low price.