- Abstract Strategy Game: Players alternate placing solid-colored disks into a plain grid, trying to outmaneuver the other to create four-in-a-row in any direction.
- Color-Coded Multiplayer: One player controls the red pieces while the other controls the yellow (black, if the frame is yellow). Connect 4x4 adds blue and green for the other players.
- Dexterity Game: Launchers and Shots require players to create a four-in-a-row, as usual, but use projectiles instead of disks, requiring players to use the implements skillfully.
- Digital Tabletop Game Adaptation: Be it standalone or with other Hasbro titles, Connect Four has been officially made playable one-for-one on many platforms. Given the ease of programming, finding a bootleg is pretty trivial.
- Morton's Fork: If a player can spot a three-in-a-row, they can play to avoid it. However, a move creating two open threats means the opponent can block one, but in doing so, allow the other to be claimed.
YMMV
- Game-Breaker: Connect Four has been solved, and becomes a first player win
for perfect play. To two sufficiently advanced programs playing the game, the game comes down to who wins the coin flip for first turn.- Maths: This should probably be replaced with a reference to Connect Four's status as a combinatorial game and moved to the main page after Combinatorial Game gets launched. After all, the winning strategy is objectively winning, not just something that's arguably overpowered.
- Memetic Mutation: A trend of digitally editing the Connect Four box art to make absurd variations of the game cropped up as early as the late 2000's, including "Connect One" and "Connect Flour".
Trivia
- Kids' Meal Toy: In December 2022, small versions of Hasbro board games were issued, including Connect Four. Previous promotions featuring the Hasbro Gaming lineup were done in 2018 and 2021.
Referenced By
Homsar: Oh no! You shanked my Jengaship!
Strong Sad: I shanked your Jengaship? We're playing Connect Four!
- Homestar Runner: In "Where's the Cheat?", Homsar and Strong Sad are playing what looks to be a weird mix pf Battleship and Jenga but it's actually Connect Four. This is meant to highlight Homsar's obliviousness, randomness, and general cloudcuckoolander behavior.
- Scrubs once featured J.D. playing Connect Four with Death on behalf of a patient in an Imagine Spot, and Death wins on the diagonal, prompting J.D. to say "Pretty sneaky, Death!" in a parody of an old commercial.
- (Web Animation) "Hiro, the Dense Shonen Protagonist," inspired by a thread from an image board, is about a warrior who seems completely mentally incapable of comprehending innuendo.Izilith: How about we skip ahead to the part where you lust for me while I drain your will and—
Hiro: Wait! You said we were going to play together. To do that, we need a game!
[...]
Hiro: [playing Connect Four] Aha! Four in a row! Another victory for Hiro!
Izilith: Oh you're so skilled... Such a masterful tactician deserves a reward!
Hiro: Quite! Take me to your leader!
Izilith: But wouldn't you rather have me?
Hiro: Why would I want you? - Academy of Merlin: Scarlett Heyne wins games of Pictionary, Scrabble, and Connect Four against the Devil fair and square, which serves to underline how she's more than her quiet, humble disposition suggests. Of course, the Devil is a treacherous bastard and has far more power than a mere mortal, so this comes to bite her in the ass later. Scarllet's Fatal Flaw is hubris and the Devil doesn't play fair — it's madness to think he'd let her become Queen of Hell.
- Neopets: Amongst the many games to play were virtual versions of card and board games like Sakhmet Solitaire, Cellblock (Connect Four), and Puzzle Adventure (which is basically Reversi). Sadly, many of them were taken down when Adobe Flash was removed.
