Last updated on February 14th, 2026 at 01:31 pm
Oware Master – Strategy Game Review
Oware Master is a Strategy/Board game from Rodolphe Boulanger, first launched in 6th January 2015.
It’s rated 4+ and currently has 1,059+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Oware Master Stand Out
Play the most captivating of the African sowing games!
• Learn to play in less than 5 minutes with a step-by-step tutorial
• Play online against friends or other players from all over the world on Game Center
• Play against the artificial intelligence, with 5 difficulty levels available in the free version: Beginner, Easy, Intermediate, Medium and Hard
• Improve your high scores to get to the top of the Game Center rankings!
3D game board with high resolution textures:
• Change the viewing angle by dragging 2 fingers
• Zoom by pinching
• Adjust the grain distribution speed
Buy the Premium version to add these benefits:
• No ads
• 2 additional levels of difficulty: Pro level and the virtually unbeatable Master level!
• Double points during online play (40 instead of 20 for victory, 10 instead of 5 for defeat)
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This Strategy game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Oware Master is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 19th August 2022
Recent improvements include:
• The App is now display full screen on iPhones with notch screen.
• The "Intermediate" level is now slightly easier than before.
Download & Availability
Oware Master is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
This app is so well designed! We have only played it offline against the computer and still cant win every time against either Medium or Hard levels. Its a more realistic learning experience than the versions Ive tried that have an undo feature. This way you either have to quit and start again or play all the way through to learn from your mistakes just like playing against a human.
noadsorinteruptions#easyorhardorintermeditetowin#75%rating.
The teaching method was excellent for an old codger like us.we wanted to learn the basics in order to give a wooden set to our chess master grandson.To learn,we only had to follow the on screen options to move.If we did good ,it immediately told us and if we did poorly it explained the reason why.The instructions were so simple,they used the words,sow,harvest,and starve to make the concepts stick in our head! The visual wood and stones were very pleasing and easy to see.we downloaded several apps and this is only one we liked.
We have a nice mahogany board with those green beans that we were gifted by our stepmom when she and our dad were working in Nigeria. We never get a chance to play with anyone, so this is cool. We had an earlier version that we tried and the beginner mode waxed us. We used to be the family champ. Maybe with practice we can advance.
Ive been playing mancala games for a minutes but oware takes it to another level. The game play is fun and it didnt take long to learn how to play it. After the first day of playing Im not on medium and it is noooo joke lol. We wish more ppl all over the globe would learn more about this West African game.
We love learning games from different parts of the world and the presentation of this one is so well done! Makes we want to travel to Africa and play! Thank you for a great experience.
We love this app, very well designed and playable. However, trying to play online with Game Center doesnt work. It simply freezes on the connecting to opponent screen every time one is found. We would give this 5 stars if that were changed.
This game is a cheat when it comes to the hard aspect.
We so much love the game but not allowing Facebook friends to play with would have made it best.
Realistic, good music, good difficulty options, nice background and animation.
We got many mancala apps and this was the best. One of the best apps all around even.
Its a good game but we wish you could customize the seeds and the board.
The game play is perfect but the jump between easy and intermediate is TOUGH AF. We can beat Easy 19 times out of 20 with half of our moves basically at random. However going to the next difficulty is WAY harder, imo. Ive played dozens of games and the closest Ive came to beating it was 11 seeds. It crushes us every time.
Nice graphics and its easy to count.But thats not the rules of the game is actually and totally different from the real Oware ….. We think the name should be changed.
Id appreciate it if the pop up to declare the winner and his points comes up with an option to fully complete the game. For some of us, the real fun is skill of moving the few seeds at the end of the game. Thanks.
When trying to play an online game, the wait for another player is never ending. Have never managed to get an online game.
Update: Game still occasionally gets stuck, and only recourse is to quit the game. Theres too big a skill gap between Easy (we almost always win) and Intermediate(almost never win). As mentioned elsewhere, an Undo button would be nice. We havent played this type of game in many years (since we had a similar app on our Mac)., and we really like this version. We were glad to see the addition of the Intermediate level. Unfortunately, the first time we tried it, the game eventually got stuck. We still had a move left, but got no response when we tapped the pit, and there was no loss or other indication from the app.
We're new to oware but we're already addicted to this app! The game itself provides the thrill — but our real love of this app in particular comes from the graphics and sound. The rhythmic sound of the ticking stones as they drop into piles is soothing. We love that it's uniform stones versus different colored beads — it makes the counting easier. The tutorial also helped a lot.
Good game, and great difficulty levels. Would like no-ad purchase option for a few $.
This is the best version of Oware/Mancala available in the App Store. Period.
We actually enjoyed playing every single level of this amazing game. It was nice finding this indigenous African game here. Kudos to the developer(s).
We were able to beat beginner and easy pretty quick, but we beat medium maybe one out if 20 times. We wish there was some more useful strategy info online. But the game and program are awesome! One feature we would love to see is the ability to go back through a game to find out where we went wrong.
We play it every chance we get. It really is cerebral, especially the hard level. The game will benefit from an "Undo" button. Really, it will. That's the only real drawback we see. Need more people playing it online. Have tried in vain the past 3 weeks (since installing) to match up with someone online.
We enjoyed the game play, but we have the following complaints: 1. The advertisements were obnoxious. 2. There should be an "undo" button for eliminating accidental plays. 3. There should be an option to disable the "positions have already been played" prompt. For us, these annoyances proved to be too much, and we removed the app after a short time.
It's so hard to find a program that lets you play a real mancala game. Almost all of them utilize the dumb American kids' game where you capture stones opposite your final stone if it lands in an empty space on your side of the board. This app teaches you (quite nicely) the traditional Ghanian game played in international tournaments, which is just as easy to learn and much better to play. And it has unlimited play in the free version with very unobtrusive ads. Nice graphics and a truly easy Beginner level. Purchase the advanced levels (and ad-free play) once you're hooked (if you get good enough).
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 1.5
- Size: 34.88 MB
- iOS: 12.0 or later
- Languages: EN, FR
- Content Advisory:
- Developer: Rodolphe Boulanger
Last updated: 19th August 2022 | Genre: Strategy, Board | Developer: Rodolphe Boulanger