Smart Lines
Score: 85% ESRB: Everyone Publisher: Rototo Studio Developer: Rototo Studio Media: Download/1 Players: 1 - 2 Genre: Board Games
Graphics & Sound: Smart Lines is a board game that any office worker should be proud to have on their computer for those long weekdays. Each game is quick, it has enough levels of difficulty so that anybody should find an enjoyable level, and it is a take-off of a game that most people (if not everybody) should be familiar with. Smart Lines has two pleasant looks and feels that are relaxing and help you to focus on the game. One mode is called Classic. This one’s Asian music, coupled with flowers and soothing colors, makes this game pleasant to look at and listen to. This mode also uses wooden balls as the pieces. The other mode is called Christmas mode. Here the wooden board is replaced by the top of a Christmas present and the two wooden tokens are now ornaments. The two types of balls, as well as the playing boards, look realistic enough to add to the simple elegance of the game. Though the board, balls, and effects never change (outside of these two modes), there is something to be said for their simplicity.
Gameplay: Like I said earlier, Smart Lines is based off of a game that everyone should remember, Tic-Tac-Toe. Though, in this game instead of trying to match three in a row on a 3x3 board, you’re trying to line up four wooden marbles on a 4x4 board. Another twist is that you can stack the balls up to four high. In order to win the game, you must line up four marbles in any direction. So not only can you win by getting four in a row horizontally, vertically, or diagonally (when viewing the board from above), but also by stacking four balls or even making a diagonal line that comes out of the board. By that last one I mean a line where your marble was the bottom marble in one square, the second one in the next square, the third one in the next, and the fourth one in the last square. The simple addition of allowing you to stack the marbles also adds to the game’s complexity and makes it much more of a challenge than the original. I found myself having to think much more strategically than I have (in a Tic-Tac-Toe game) in a long time, and it was a refreshing change. You can play against the game’s A.I. (in five different difficulty levels -- read below for more on that) or in two-player mode.
Difficulty: Smart Lines has five levels of difficulty: Novice, Beginner, Amateur, Initiate, and Expert. Nothing changes in the dynamics of the game itself. The board stays the same size; you are still trying to line up only four balls, and there are only two colors. Instead, what changes is how well the A.I. plays. As you try your hand at the different levels, it is easy to see that your opponent anticipates your moves better and better. The A.I. also seems to plan its moves a lot more efficiently. It was able to build more complex patterns in order to trap me with more frequency the higher I set the difficulty.
Game Mechanics: The controls are simple; when it is your turn, click the left mouse button on the square you want your wooden ball to fall on. You can also use your right mouse button to rotate the board so that you can get a better look of exactly where all of the balls are. Smart Lines takes an age-old game and adds enough new mechanics to it to make it more than just an advanced Tic-Tac-Toe. You can find Smart Lines at Rototo Studio’s home page here.
-J.R. Nip, GameVortex Communications AKA Chris Meyer
Minimum System Requirements: Windows 9x/ME/2000/XP, 64MB RAM, 500MHz CPU, 4MB HD space   Test System: Toshiba Satellite series laptop, Windows XP Home Ed., 2.0 GHz Celeron, 1 GB RAM, 24X DVD/CD ROM, 32 MB 3D accelerator
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