Show HN: Phive, a Gomoku-like game to play with friends or solo

A simple new browser game called Phive has landed with a cozy pitch: play with friends or go solo against an AI in a five-in-a-row battle where pieces must stay connected. Sounds chill, right? The community response was mostly delight with a side of backseat game design, which is honestly the most internet outcome possible.

The loudest reactions weren’t about whether the game works — people seem to think it’s genuinely fun — but about how it feels. One player admitted the giant red “new game” button was so tempting they smashed it by accident twice, basically turning the menu into the thread’s unexpected villain. Another said the AI moves too fast when it sees an obvious play, making the whole thing feel a bit abrupt, like the computer is smugly speed-running your defeat. Others wanted small animations to make turns clearer, though even they confessed that making that smooth on phones and computers alike could be a nightmare.

And then came the dreamers. One commenter didn’t just praise the game — they launched it into full art-house fantasy mode, imagining piano music, story lines, and puzzle modes, with a shout for inspiration from Opus Magnum. That’s the real drama here: Phive showed up as a neat little board game, and the comments immediately started treating it like the seed of some future indie masterpiece. In short, the verdict is: people are into it, but they’re already trying to redesign it, slow it down, prettify it, and turn it into their next obsession.