One of the games I bought for my iPad early on was Days of Wonder’s Small World, based on their board game of the same name (BGG entry). Whilst it looked pretty nice, I never got around to actually playing it because it was 2-player only, a point that Doug also mentioned in his blog post on iPad Euro games. However, DoW had promised that the next version would have an AI to allow solo play, so when I saw that there was an update available, I jumped on it to see. Sure enough, DoW were as good as their word, and there is now the option to play solo against an AI.

After three games I’m more than impressed with the game. The graphics are busy, but clear, the interface is very easy to understand and operate, and anyone who’s played the board game version should be able to jump right in and play. I’m not a good Small World player, but I comfortably won my first game, and I was concerned that the AI wasn’t particularly good. However, after getting spanked in my next two games that doesn’t appear to be a concern.  The game is very stable, with no crashes or hangs so far, and I haven’t identified a single issue with incorrect game play.

There are a few things that I’d like to see changed, but they’re all fairly minor. First is that when you are playing solo, it still has the AI’s turn showing as ‘upside down’ as if it were playing opposite you like a human player. It does make it hard to read the race/skill that has been selected. You can use the screen lock button for this, however. The other thing that I didn’t like is that there appears to be no way to quit a game in the middle and return to the menu.. Finally, I’d like some way to turn off the music in the game and listen to my own music, as the game music gets a bit wearing after a while.

However, none of those are enough to really detract from my enjoyment of Small World. A definite two thumbs up on this one – go download it from the iTunes App Store, and you’ll soon be as hooked on it as I am.