Hanto

Hanto is a really well done knock off of the boardgame Hive and is currently my favorite two-player app. Hanto is a strategy game similar to chess where you’re protecting a particular piece (in this case your Queen is a Butterfly) and the different types of game pieces have different movement abilities. The object of the game is to completely surround your opponent’s Butterfly.

Take turns placing a tile or moving a tile. You must place your Butterfly within the first 4 turns. Drag and drop your tile to one of the available spots. The nice thing about the Hanto app vs. the Hive boardgame is the app highlights where you are able to place a piece, which is really helpful for learning the game. For example, you can only add a new tile if it touches one of your own. If you’re moving a piece rather than adding it, it can be moved next to your opponents as long as it follows its movement rules. Different creatures have different abilities. Creatures that jump can only go over tiles within the same line. Creatures that walk can only move horizontally. Don’t forget you can move your Butterfly!

Hanto is listed as a free game in iTunes. It has advertising almost on top of the area where you select your pieces to play. To disable the ads, you can do an in-app purchase of the game for $0.99. It’s well worth it. Hanto is a very additive game, I highly recommend it.