Catchup - Abstract Strategy
| Category | Price | Seller | Device |
|---|---|---|---|
| Games | $2.99 | Martin Grider | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
"Catchup is as elegant as a game can reasonably be, presented in a marvelously user-friendly way.” -Pocket Tactics (5-star review)
"If you're even a little bit into strategy games, you need to get some Catchup all over your mobile device." -Touch Arcade (4 & 1/2 star review)
Can you have the largest group at the end of the game? Connect your hexes to master this beautiful abstract strategy game.
Features:
- an interactive tutorial to teach you how to play
- a challenging AI opponent whose difficulty changes as you play
- online turn-based multiplayer via Game Center
- two-player pass-and-play on the same device
- beautiful and haunting music by Tori Kamal
- minimalist graphics with customizable colors
- Game Center Leaderboards & Achievements
- simple and easy to learn rules and gameplay
- difficult to master strategy
Here are all the rules:
1. One player plays all the hexes of one color and the other player plays all the hexes of the other color. The first player begins by claiming 1 empty hex for their color.
2. Starting with the second player, each player must claim 1 or 2 hexes on their turn.
3. If the largest group of hexes at the end of a turn is larger than the largest group of hexes at the beginning of that turn (regardless of color), the next player may claim up to 3 hexes on their turn. (This does not apply after the first player claims a single hex in step 1 above.)
4. The game ends when the board is full. The player with the largest group wins. If the players’ largest groups are the same size, compare their second-largest groups, and so on, until you come to a pair which aren’t the same size. Whoever owns the larger of the two wins.
Catchup is an original Board Game designed by Nick Bentley.
Reviews
Fun and addictive!
mitc0185
Really enjoying it so far. Easy to learn but open ended enough that it stays challenging.
Excellent game, sleek app
Reviewer9889
This is definitely one of those games you learn something new every time you play. App is well designed for it and runs really smoothly.
Beautiful
A note taker
A beautiful implementation of a new but seemingly timeless abstract game in the tradition of trivial-to-learn-impossible-to-master classics like Hex and Pente. Both deep and accessible. Pretty much perfect.
Starts simple and grows more challenging
Nate12345652
Great implementation of an indie boardgame. The controls are very easy and there are many customization options. The AI has a wide range of levels so it is nice to play at low or high levels of skill.
Charming Strategy Game with Surprising Depth
Zachstronaut
Catchup is at first glance a game with a charming look and feel. I love the ultra modern aesthetic and the peaceful music. My first match was enjoyable (and I even won!), and after a few more games I actually understood the nuances of the board game style mechanics. Sometimes I really prefer single player AI driven experiences, so I really appreciated that Catchup has a great single player mode. I’ve ramped the AI up to level 20 (being able to scale the AI difficulty is a GREAT feature!), and now I’m starting to see a great depth to the strategic planning that can go into every round of this game. I’ll be playing for a long time to come.
Great Abstract Game, and works really well
Brother_Gilbert
I don't write many reviews, but this one didn't have any yet (that I saw) so I felt I had to say something! This is a really cool game. It feels like a classic abstract game (like Chess, Go, or Mancala) but is a lot easier to pick up and understand. Yet it has a modern feel to it, like Hive. Just an all-around well-designed game. The app itself also works incredibly well. It's fast, easy-to-use, and full-featured and customizable, without feeling bogged down by unnecessary options or features. The AI can automatically adjust to your skill level as you play more games, which is a cool feature that I haven't seen much before. All around, this is a great app. The only reason I wrote this review was that I was just so surprised that others hadn't already. Consider checking it out.
Wonderful game
ehirgelt
Catchup is an abstract strategy game with extremely simple rules(place one or more stones on a board) that turns out quite deep and challenging. It is simpler than Go, but is quite complex and challenging. Run to your nearest app store and buy it.
Great potential
Loriffic
Great abstract strategy game. Wonderful soundtrack. Could someday be worth the $2.99 price, but it's not there yet. Nowhere close. As soon as the developers fix about a gazillion bugs, this could be a great game. Very difficult to play when the names appear wrong on some of the games, so your tiles are marked as your opponent's and vice versa. And the "next game" feature only works sporadically. Frustrating to go back to the current turns menu. An asynchronous turn-based game should streamline the process of taking you to your next available turn, not make it a source of frustration.
Fun variation of Go
svanoz
I thought this was a simple little game until the first time the AI beat me! It is well done, with turn-based online games. It does allow Spotify (and other music apps?) to play during games. One area for improvement is notification when online opponents have moved - it doesn't seem to update reliably quite yet. Overall a great game!
