I tested Gemini 3, ChatGPT 5.1, and Claude Sonnet 4.5 – and Gemini crushed it in a real coding task

I've dreamed of this silly game for years, and only Gemini 3 could bring it partially to life.

Google unveiled its powerful new Gemini 3 models this week, and I decided to take Gemini 3 Pro for a test drive on one of my pet projects: Thumb Wars, a digital version of the classic hand-to-hand game I used to play with my kids. You know the one, where you grasp each other's hands and then use just your thumbs to battle it out or "wrestle". To win, you simply have to "pin" the opponent's thumb under your own.

For the digital version, I envisioned a virtual ring and some floating thumbs all controlled by screen taps or keyboard controls. With the release of a far smarter Gemini, I thought I would let it try its hand, er, virtual thumb at it.