Little Go vs The Othello
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Little Go
Play the strategic game of Go on your iPhone or iPad. Challenge a human opponent or test your skills against a powerful AI. Customize game settings, analyze moves, and save your progress.
- Multiple board sizes (7x7 to 19x19)
- Play against AI or human opponent
- Adjustable AI strength
- Score calculation (area/territory)
- Handicap stone placement
- Customizable rulesets
- Save and load games
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Little Go is a free and open source iOS application that lets you play the game of Go on the iPhone or iPad. You can play against another human (on the same device), or against the computer. The computer player is powered by the open source software library Fuego (http://fuego.sf.net/). The minimum requirement for running this version of Little Go is iOS 16.0. Features: - Board sizes between 7x7 and 19x19 (start a new game to change the board size) - Let the computer player suggest a move or immediately play the move for you - Calculate the score at any time during the game (area scoring is the default, territory scoring can be selected at the start of a new game) - Adjust the computer's playing strength and resign behaviour by selecting from a number of presets, or by fine-tuning advanced settings - Play even games, or games with 2-9 handicap stones (fixed stone placement) - Select from 5 pre-defined rulesets when you start a new game, or adjust game rules to your preference (komi, ko rule, area/territory scoring system, number of passes to end game, resume play by alternating/non-alternating play, four passes end game) - Optionally play with time limits (Main time only, Overtime only, Main time + Overtime), with a choice from 5 Overtime systems - Place arbitrary black and white stones for initial board setup before a game starts - View board positions for moves played earlier during the game - View and create game variations - Discard moves (aka "undo") - Display move numbers and coordinate labels - Zoom & scroll board - Create and edit board and move annotations (e.g. good/bad move, good position for black/white, etc.) and add textual notes to a position - Mark intersections on the board with symbols, markers and labels, and draw arrows or lines on the board - Display player influence (aka territory statistics) for an estimate who owns an area - Computer vs. computer game for entertainment - Save & load games to/from the archive using the SGF file format - Support for almost all properties of the SGF file format, with strict conformance to the specification - Use file sharing to transfer saved games from your iOS device to your computer, and vice versa - Import/export game files from/to other apps on your device (e.g. Mail, DropBox) - In-app user manual - Submit bug report email from inside the app (yes, this *is* a feature :-)) - For the technically inclined: Watch what happens behind the scenes when Little Go and Fuego talk to each other over the Go Text Protocol (GTP) Your contribution in any form (coding, UI design, testing, bug reports, creating an app video preview, website design) is welcome - please contact me or visit the support website to find out more. A note about the project state: Several years of development have gone into Little Go since its inception in January 2011. The app now has a feature set that is, I believe, quite nice :-) for a free program. My main focus therefore lies on fixing any remaining bugs (of which I am sure there are plenty) and keeping the app running under future versions of iOS. Little Go is released under the Apache License 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0).
The Othello
Experience a visually stunning Othello game with 30 difficulty levels for all skill sets. Challenge the computer to unlock special boards and stones, or play with friends on a single device. Save your progress, get hints, and even share game records via email.
- 30 difficulty levels
- Unlockable special boards and stones
- Human vs Computer play
- Human vs Human play (single device)
- Handicap game option
- Save/Load game records
- Email game record transmission
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If you are looking for a real Othello app with beautiful graphics and animation, this is it! --------------------------------------------------------------------------- "The Othello" is a wonderful version. With this single app alone, you can play with all of iPhone/iPod touch/iPad ! And... Enjoy "real" Othello whenever you like, wherever you want. *30 difficulty levels from beginner to expert. You will find the most suitable strength among the 30 levels for "head-to-head" game. *Challenge to win the special style boards by defeating computer! If you defeat computer under the given conditions, you will get the new surprising boards and stones to replace. *Other features: - Human vs Computer, Human vs Human (sharing a single device) - Handicap game(a game starting with 1-4 black handicap-stones) - Save/Load game record - Hint - transmit game record by e-mail - play this game while listening iPhone music
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Little Go at none against The Othello's 1. Little Go also leads on ads (none vs shown) and ratings volume (121 vs 40). The Othello's advantage is iOS requirement (11.0 vs 16.0). On price, rating, review sentiment and update cadence 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
Both are free to download. The Othello sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Little Go asks for nothing beyond the download.
The Othello holds the better App Store score, 3.5 against 3.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 121 and 40 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 50% of Little Go's written reviews are positive against 55% of The Othello's.
Little Go ships an update every 4 months, The Othello every 3 months. Both last shipped on November 1, 2026.
| Parameter | Little Go | The Othello |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.3 (121 ratings) | 3.5 (40 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 50.0% of reviews | 55.3% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 121 — better | 40 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Every 3 months — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 | 11.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 51 MB | 63 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Patrick Naf Moser | UNBALANCE Corporation |
Customer experience
Little Go
The Othello
Bugs and requests
Little Go
Reported bugs
9 issues- Cannot pass to end the game
- Human player cannot place stones (sometimes)
- AI makes illegal moves
- AI resigns too early
- Undo button glitches
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- Game crashes
- AI plays the same game repeatedly
- Scoring inaccuracies
- Forward/fast forward buttons too close
Requested features
7 requests- Add a tutorial for beginners
- Improve UI clarity and intuitiveness
- Add a demo board for teaching
- Add a rematch option
- Add Game Center support for turn-based matches
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- Option to turn off auto-scoring
- Add a Windows program version
The Othello
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Little Go
No in-app purchases
The Othello
- Remove Ad$2.99









