Asmodee Digital has launched a major update to Abalone, an abstract, two-player marble game loosely inspired by sumo wrestling. In Abalone, players are challenged to push six of their opponent’s 14 marbles off the edge of the board. Only a longer line of marbles can push a shorter one, and with six sides flanking each game piece, players will have to toe the delicate line between defensive and offensive play to come out on top...

The new version of Abalone offers advanced graphics to bring it a little more up to date, as well as allowing players the chance to play against AI opponents, other Abalone masters in online multiplayer, or a local pass-and-play multiplayer mode.

In Solo mode you can face off against three levels of difficulty against the AI (Easy, Medium, Hard). There's also the Solo campaign which offers unique challenges. Or you can enter the Game mode which lets you create your own game, your own rules, and place the first marbles.

The game was reviewed on an iPad Air and while at first there were no issues I could detect, more recently I decided to go through the tutorial again, after which the game crashed. After that it failed to open and no amount of rebooting the iPad fixed it. So I was forced to uninstall and then reinstall the game, which seemed to fix this issue.

For Chess, Domino and Backgammon fans, Abalone offers a slightly new gaming experience. The rules are simple to pick up and it's quite fun.

7

Nick Smithson