3-D Tic-Tac-Toe

"A creative game that's harder than it looks."

I believe everyone has played the game Tic-Tac-Toe at some point in their lives. If not, it's the game where you have to connect X's or O's on a 3x3 board vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. It's a fun game to go on the fly if you have nothing to do, if only for a minute. This game takes the idea of Tic-Tac-Toe and is able to make a completely different, as well as unique, game.

In the 3D version of this classic, you're the X's and the computer's the O's. Keep in mind that he gets to go first when playing this, which makes it a lot harder for you. You are also able to get a Tic-Tac-Toe in a variety of ways in this game. You can get them vertically, horizontally, and diagonally like in original Tic-Tac-Toe. You can also get them going through the 4 layers, such as diagonally with one X on each layer, assuming it would make a diagonal Tic-Tac-Toe if the squares were one layer. (In other words, you can put an X in the lower left corner of the bottom layer, in the middle bottom left square of the third layer, the middle upper right square in the second layer, and the upper right corner in the top layer for a Tic-Tac-Toe.) It's less confusing after playing the game a couple of times.

Now, the first thing you may or may not notice is the lack of music and minimal sound. Personally, I don't have a problem with it, as you probably don't play music when playing this game with friends anyway. It makes it a lot easier to concentrate on this game when you don't have annoying Atari music blaring. Also, the graphics are next to nothing. Again, graphics are never an issue with a game such as Tic-Tac-Toe. That would be like complaining whether Hangman should be done in pen or pencil—it doesn't really matter, as long as you know what you're doing. In this game, you will know what you're doing due to the simplicity of the graphics and the controls, which are simply the stick to move the piece, fire to put it down.

As I've said a couple times, it is fun to play against another, yet playing against the computer is a completely different challenge. The computer in this game is a lot harder then it needs to be. It will take you many hands to beat the computer, as it obviously practices this game when you're asleep. At least it keeps you wanting to play this game again, trying to beat the annoyingly hard AI in this game.

In conclusion, the reply value and simplicity of this game make it a surprisingly good Atari game. Even though the AI is pathetically difficult, the game is simple enough that you can have fun for minutes, or even hours, on end. One you begin beating the computer, it will get boring, but until then, this game is a lot of fun.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 01/19/05