Comparison

Smart Othello vs Piccolo

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Smart Othello

Experience the classic strategy board game with this app. Play against friends or a computer with five difficulty levels. Improve your skills with a tutorial and helpful aids, making it easy to learn but challenging to master.

Highlights
  • Five computer play levels
  • Real-time matches via Game Center
  • Achievements and leaderboards
  • Blunder Guard
  • Hint, undo, and replay functions
  • Collection of top player games
Features
Read full description

Play Othello against your friends or the computer. Created by the 1992 US Othello Champion, this is the Othello app you’ve been waiting for. A powerful engine wrapped in a clean user interface. With five levels to choose from, you’ll find the level that gives you the right challenge. The built-in tutorial and teaching aids will help you improve your game — advance to the next level and give your friends a good fight. — A MINUTE TO LEARN … A LIFETIME TO MASTER — Othello has simple rules: just bracket opponent discs and flip them to your color. But proper strategy is more complex than you might think. Smart Othello makes the game enjoyable while improving your play. Features: • Five levels of computer play, from novice to master. • Real-time matches using Game Center. • Achievements and leaderboards to challenge you. • Blunder Guard to keep you from making bad mistakes. • Random openings that give both players an equal chance. • Hint, undo, and easy game replay. • Collection of games by top players for replay and study. Smart Othello was created by the 1992 US Othello Champion, who also developed the acclaimed SmartGo apps for the game of Go. Othello® is a registered trademark of MegaHouse Corporation. Used with permission.

About

Piccolo

Experience the classic strategy board game with a powerful AI and a polished interface. Customize your game with beautiful themes, play online with friends or strangers, and enjoy a seamless experience across devices. Includes fun iMessage stickers.

Highlights
  • Strong, customizable AI engine
  • Polished native user interface
  • Variety of beautiful themes
  • Local and online multiplayer
  • Automatic game saves and move undo
  • iMessage stickers
Features
Read full description

• #1 Most Downloaded Game (April, May, June, July 2021) — Japan Mac App Store! • Featured in Apple's "What We're Playing", "Games We Love" and "Best Games Made in France"! • "Beautiful, minimalistic and highly addictive." — TouchArcade • "A simple but captivating game." — Mac4Ever • "From us, this small but fine application therefore receives an absolute recommendation." — Appgefahren • "Whether you're a fan of the game or not, Piccolo will make you love Othello." — MaxiApple Piccolo® is the best Othello app for iPhone®, iPad® and Mac®. It features a strong, fast AI on top of a polished user interface, with beautiful themes, advanced features, online play and more. Piccolo is available in 20 languages and comes with no ads or tracking. It's an Othello app made for Othello players by Othello lovers. • Strong AI: Piccolo features a custom Othello AI engine written in the Rust programming language, designed to be fast, challenging and customizable. The AI's default Level 1 difficulty can be beaten by beginners, while its Level 8 difficulty is likely to challenge even top Othello masters around the world. Designed from scratch, the Piccolo AI engine is sure to give seasoned Othello players a new type of opponent to play against, with often surprising and creative strategies. • User Experience: Piccolo features a native user experience designed for iOS and macOS. A modern design lets you focus on the game, with helpful move indicators, the ability to undo moves, and automatic game saves between every move in case you close the app by mistake or your phone's battery runs out. Multiplayer play is supported both locally and online. • Themes: Piccolo features a variety of beautiful themes to customize and breathe fresh life into your Othello experience. Othello veterans might enjoy sticking to the Classic theme, while others might prefer the handsome Seasoned Wood theme, the adorable Sailor Moon theme or even the Persian Spray theme, inspired by traditional Iranian ceramics. Additional themes designed by guest artist Aline Corrêa are also available, giving you access to an Othello game on top of an alligator lake, inside an ancient castle, next to Egyptian pyramids, and more! • Play Online: Piccolo Online is a free online service that lets you connect with friends via easily exchangeable Game Codes to play friendly Othello games wherever you are around the world. Piccolo Online also supports automatic matchmaking so that you can quickly play games with random opponents worldwide. Piccolo Online features quick, stable connections, and benefits from a strong privacy policy. • Cute iMessage Stickers: Send cute “chibi”-style iMessage stickers to your friends with Piccolo's bundled iMessage Sticker Pack! Featuring 36 custom illustrations drawn by anime artist Erica Li, the stickers feature Piccolo's adorable mascot in different relatable situations. • No Ads, No Tracking: Unlike a majority of games on the App Store today, Piccolo has no terms you need to accept before playing. Piccolo will never show you a single ad, and will never track you. The app is entirely a labor of love for the game of Othello, made by players for players. • Available in 20 Languages: Thanks to contributions from players around the world, Piccolo has been translated from English into Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish and Vietnamese. No matter where you are, Piccolo's interface will be easy to understand. Othello® is a registered trademark of MegaHouse Corporation. Piccolo: Othello is an independent implementation of the underlying game, which is placed in the public domain.

Screenshots

Smart Othello4 screens
Piccolo4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Piccolo at every 4 days against Smart Othello's every 2 months. Piccolo also leads on review sentiment (77% vs 65%). Smart Othello's advantage is iOS requirement (16.0 vs 26.0). On price, rating, ratings volume and ads there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Smart Othello sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Piccolo sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.6 for Smart Othello against 4.7 for Piccolo. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 535 and 603 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 65% of Smart Othello's written reviews are positive against 77% of Piccolo's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Smart Othello ships an update every 2 months, Piccolo every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and September 16, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Smart Othello versus Piccolo: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSmart OthelloPiccolo
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (535 ratings)4.7 (603 ratings) — better
Positive reviews65.3% of reviews76.6% of reviews — better
Number of ratings535603 — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 4 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, MaciPhone, iPad, Mac
Requires iOS16.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size7 MB61 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSmart Go, Inc.Symbolic Software

Customer experience

Smart Othello

All ratings535 ratings
Positive89.9%
Neutral4.1%
Negative6.0%
Written reviews49 reviews
Positive65.3%
Neutral6.1%
Negative28.6%

Piccolo

All ratings603 ratings
Positive92.2%
Neutral4.1%
Negative3.6%
Written reviews175 reviews
Positive76.6%
Neutral8.6%
Negative14.9%

User reviews

Smart Othello

From 535 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🧠 Excellent AI with challenging difficulty levels
  • 💡 Helpful hints and tips for learning
  • ↩️ Undo button for reviewing mistakes
  • 🎨 Clean, elegant, and intuitive interface
  • 📚 Extensive expert database (126,000 matches)

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Frequent app crashes and freezing
  • 🔋 Excessive battery consumption
  • 🌐 Online multiplayer doesn't work reliably
  • 📧 Support email feature non-functional
  • 🎮 Inconsistent difficulty scaling (too easy or too hard)

Piccolo

From 603 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Addictive gameplay
  • 👍 Beautiful and simple UI
  • 🚀 Smooth and responsive
  • 🔒 No ads or in-app purchases
  • 👍 Challenging AI opponents

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional bugs and glitches
  • 🔍 Difficulty balancing issues (too easy or too hard)
  • 🤔 Lack of online multiplayer
  • 🤔 No option to undo moves
  • 🤔 Unclear win/loss indication at the end of games

Bugs and requests

Smart Othello

Reported bugs

9 issues
  • App freezes on launch when Game Center is enabled
  • Game crashes mid-play on certain difficulty levels
  • Online play fails to find opponents or pair players
  • App locks up when switching to other applications
  • Game Center notifications excessive and intrusive
Show 4 more
  • Online games create duplicate concurrent matches
  • Game sync fails between multiple devices
  • Support email from within app doesn't work
  • Game becomes unresponsive during online play

Requested features

9 requests
  • Fix online multiplayer functionality
  • Add local 2-player head-to-head mode
  • Implement time limits for online moves
  • Add option to remove/customize player avatars
  • Improve Game Center integration and sync
Show 4 more
  • Better online mode instructions and documentation
  • Auto-play engine for replay functionality
  • Restore previous purchases
  • Improve difficulty level progression

Piccolo

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • AI getting extra moves in certain situations
  • Settings button not functioning properly
  • Game freezing or crashing on some devices
  • Inconsistent piece size on different screen sizes

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add online multiplayer mode
  • Implement an undo move feature
  • Add a tutorial or tips section for new players
  • Introduce a 'watch AI vs AI' mode
  • Allow customization of game board and piece themes

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Smart Othello

One-time1
  • Pro Pack$2.99
2 purchases

Piccolo

One-time2
  • Theme Pack: Around the World$2.99
  • Theme Pack: Great Painters$2.99

Questions

Is Smart Othello free?
Smart Othello is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Piccolo free?
Piccolo is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Smart Othello or Piccolo?
Piccolo is rated higher. Smart Othello averages 4.6 out of 5 from 535 ratings, while Piccolo averages 4.7 from 603 ratings.
Do Smart Othello or Piccolo have ads?
Neither Smart Othello nor Piccolo shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Smart Othello or Piccolo?
Smart Othello ships an update every 2 months, and Piccolo every 4 days. Most recently, Smart Othello was updated on September 22, 2026 and Piccolo on September 16, 2026.

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