The Timeless Paper-and-Pencil Game
Tic-Tac-Toe — or Noughts and Crosses if you prefer — is probably the first strategy game most of us ever played. It's deceptively simple: nine squares, two players, and a whole lot of "wait, did I just lose?" The game takes about two minutes to learn and a surprisingly long time to stop playing.
The Rules
- Get three of your marks in a row — horizontal, vertical, or diagonal — and you win. That's the whole game.
- Players take turns placing X or O in any empty square on the 3x3 grid. Simple enough.
- Land three in a row and the winning line gets highlighted so there's no argument about it.
- If all nine squares fill up and nobody's got three in a row, it's a draw. Happens more often than you'd think once both players know what they're doing.
Game Modes
There are two ways to play:
- Pass-and-play against a friend on the same device. Great for settling scores in person.
- Go up against the AI. There are three difficulty levels — Easy, Medium, and Impossible. Easy is a good warm-up. Medium will keep you honest. Impossible? Well, the name isn't a bluff. Good luck.
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