Taikyoku Renju is one of those classic Game Boy puzzlers that sneaks up on you—it looks simple at first glance, just another take on Gomoku (five-in-a-row), but the AI actually puts up a decent fight. The board’s tiny, so every move feels tense, and the computer doesn’t just roll over if you make a mistake. I lost my first few matches embarrassingly fast before figuring out its patterns.

There’s something satisfying about the chunky pixel stones and the way the game beeps at you when someone’s about to win. No frills, no fancy modes—just pure, grid-based strategy that makes you lean in closer to the screen. If you’ve got a soft spot for old-school handheld logic games, this one’s a solid time-waster. Just don’t blame me when you realize you’ve been hunched over for an hour trying to outsmart a 30-year-old algorithm.