App Profile: Four In A Row - Classic Games

Rowdo piper

Rating: 5/5

I've played thousands of games across a had full of apps on each new phone for the last 8 years. You can only judge a connect 4 app justly by playing it on hard mode to see if it has the single pattern strategy built in so that the AI will make a mistake resulting in a win rather then continuous ties. This is built Indo the game is beatable because a top tier player and the AI are capable of knowing every moment where it's crucial to place a chip in a spot that seems unimportant and a waste. At that moment the AI messes up to throw the game. There is always several variations on how you will reach this point and over 75% are unique enough that you really have to think it through till you master them all. This game has that and more. A PvP system which many games get wrong and an achievement system that measures your ability to advance skills past the hard mode with speed tests the 4+ in a row chip win. Well played development team, well played.

Semimetal

Rating: 4/5

I enjoy having this game with me to pass time with my children or when I am bored. The online version is difficult to use (I have not succeeded in making it work) and the “hard” mode could be a little harder than it is without detracting from it. Or perhaps there could be an even higher level called “master” is something like that. I feel the “hard” level player is making mistakes deliberately about 4 moves ahead. Interestingly, the computer player seems to be tuned to play against real humans, because I see when it is doomed to lose it will tend to make moves that maximize the chances of the human player making a dumb mistake, rather than avoiding defeat as long as possible. So, perhaps the algorithm was built a a machine learning algorithm based on gameplay with humans rather than a recursive positional merit algorithm. Lots of fun things to pay attention to while playing against the computer. Don’t make it too hard, of course because this game is like tic-tac-toe in the sense that the player who goes first can always win or tie if no mistakes are made! Aside from these two small defects, it is great, so I give it 4 stars.

Socal1001

Rating: 5/5

Honestly, I’ve played this for 800+ games and I must say that it’s definitely the connect 4 app to download. The AI is not dumb and knows where critical chips need to be placed. It will not blunder- the hard AI that is. Singleplayer is top tier for a connect 4 app, however the multiplayer takes a while to get someone sometimes but it seems that the devs have actually been improving the multiplayer experience via updates so good on them. Devs are active and I love the achievements as they show your progress and how much you’ve learned/improved. Ads every fed games but it isn’t overwhelming, I guess this is what I get for using a stupid Apple product. There are statistics and a leaderboard- my only complaint lies here. Statistics don’t always load and glitch sometimes as well as the leaderboard sometimes places me completely incorrectly and changes when I reboot the game. There’s also the problem that I can’t see the people around my rank on the leaderboard and it’s frustrating as I’d like to see how many points I need to advance from where I am. The top of the leaderboard seems sketchy almost as if they’ve been cheating but I suppose it’s possible and points from all the players and ranks increases in a mathematical via rough increments that could be evidence against cheating in the top 100 but who knows.