Mancala - Android Phone

Mancala

Because this will be a shorter review, I will also throw something up here about this game I just downloaded to my Android phone.  It is Mancala by AppOn downloaded through the Google Play Store.

I enjoy Mancala in "real life" and saw this, so I decided to try it out.

Mancala is a "board game" played by two players on a board with 6 divots and a Home divot to the right of each side.  Each divot has stones, and you play the game by the rules to try to clear your side/have the most stones in your home.  I'm not really looking to explain the whole game, just discuss what I thought about this version.

Graphics - 3/5
Mancala doesn't really need graphics, since it's just a board and stones, but what graphics are here are actually okay.  The board itself is a pretty good image, and the stones are okay.  There are no animations really necessary, but the movements of the stones is a little odd as you are selecting to move them.  It would be cool to see other boards or stones to choose from though.

Music - 2/5
The song is okay for a few minutes, but then you realize it's just the one song.  The games run pretty quick, but if you are planning on playing more than a few games in a row, it gets pretty repetitive.   Probably better to just run your own music in the background.

Gameplay - 3/5
Gameplay is really more dictated by the rules of the game, of course, but playing it is pretty fun.  Mancala probably isn't for everyone, but if you enjoy it, you might find a few good minutes out of this every now and then.  The AI might need some work though.  Easy and Medium levels, I won the first try each.  On Hard, by the third try, I tied.  It's probably not the best game for AI anyways, but at least it gives me a way to play Mancala.  There is also 2 player, but not online.  Online with ranking, and I would probably get hooked.

Overall Experience - 15 minutes played
I will likely leave this installed on my phone and play it every now and then.  At least until I get a real win on the Hard AI.  After that, it may just be a little too basic to want to deal with the ads before and after running the game.  If there is a full version, maybe it adds a little more flavor, but it probably just removes the ads.

I would rank this as a ShortTermGame.  I will probably pick it up every now and then, but it won't last forever.