Ultimate Tic Tac Toe — Play Free Online

Ultimate Tic Tac Toe takes the game everyone has doodled in a notebook margin and nests it inside itself. The board is a three-by-three grid of small tic-tac-toe boards, so there are nine local games happening at once and one big game sitting on top of them. It is still X against O, but a single move now carries far more consequences than it does on a plain grid.

The twist that makes it work is the way moves are sent. The square you pick inside a small board decides which small board your opponent must play in next. Pick the top-right square of any board and the other side has to answer somewhere in the top-right board. That one rule turns a children's game into something closer to a chess puzzle, and it is why a quick round can still make you stop and think for a minute.

For anyone who comes to Doodle Jump for fast, one-more-try sessions, this is the quiet counterpart: no reflexes, no falling, just a board and a decision. It runs in the browser with nothing to install.

How to play

Play is by pointing and selecting: click a square with the mouse, or tap it on a phone. The controls listed for the page also mention the arrow keys and WASD, but the game itself is about choosing a square, so the mouse or a finger is the natural way to play.

• Win a small board by getting three of your marks in a row inside it. That whole small board then counts as yours on the big grid.
• Win the game by claiming three small boards in a row on the big grid.
• Each move sends your opponent to the small board that matches the square you just played.
• If you are sent to a board that is already won or full, the usual rule lets that player choose any open board. Check the on-screen highlight to see where you may play.

Tips

• Look one move ahead for where you are sending them. Before you place a mark, check which board it hands your opponent. Never send them to a board where they already have two in a row.
• Do not chase every small board. Winning a board that does not line up with your other boards gains you little. Centre and corner boards matter most because they sit on the most lines.
• Use a won board as a weapon. If a square would send your opponent to a board that is already decided, they get a free choice. Avoid that when they are ahead and aim for it when you need to break out.
• Take the middle squares early. The centre square of a small board points your opponent to the centre board, which is usually the board you most want to control.

Similar games on Doodle Jump

Ultimate Tic Tac Toe is a thinking game on a site that is mostly about movement. If you want something puzzle-like with more action, Fireboy and Watergirl is a co-operative platform puzzler where two characters need to reach their doors. Helix Jump keeps the one-input simplicity but asks for timing rather than planning, and Bloons Tower Defense 2 is another strategy game where placement decisions decide the outcome.

It suits short breaks and head-to-head sessions where you want to think rather than react, and it works the same on a touch screen as on a desktop.