Little Go

While out of the box the computer will mercilessly defeat a beginner, this is a FREE amazing learning tool. You MUST read the instructions and understand how to adjust it to your skill level otherwise prepare for a very uneven match that will make the most stubborn challenger want to give up. After tweaking I found the features quite useful and the game is now addictive in ways i can only describe a three hours of satisfying gameplay I that was traded for sleep or time with my family.

As a beginner, I have a lot of fun with this app. Even on weaker difficulty, I really struggle to keep up with the AI, and that’s great. Anytime I mess up I will consistently get harshly punished and it has really opened my eyes to the weaknesses in certain play styles. I’ve learned so much from this app and I’ve gotten to watch the margin of loss drop more and more as I keep playing. Sometimes it is frustrating to lose all the time, but every game I learn something and get a little better. I noticed that the game is open source, but I haven’t gotten a chance to check out the algorithms used. It surprises me that there isn’t a way to tweak the difficulty level to easier levels, as that’s usually pretty easy to do from a developer standpoint. I’ve read that Fuego uses MCTS to make its moves and there should be parameters one could tune to make playing a little easier. Thanks again for this tool, its really great!

My favorite part about this app is how much you can customize & tweak. Overall, everything else about it is also pretty strong; display, UI, and even the manual is pretty clear/thorough. People whining about the AI being difficult don’t understand just how high the skill ceiling is for this board game, and even the weakest setting should still take some decent practice to overcome. Besides, if you’re constantly losing to the AI, then that’s a perfect opportunity to see what types of moves are being used to beat you — Look for patterns and adapt your strategy accordingly!! To the developer(s): Very nice work. 5/5