When it comes to games that feature chess, most gamers will shy away from it immediately with the vision of two old men hunched over a well-carved board pushing pieces around to try and beat each other. What really comes forward with Battle Chess, is that you’re not playing a game like that, but a game that has fully functioning and moving characters that resemble the different pieces that you find on a regular chessboard! The game is rather difficult to learn how to play and devise strategy through, just like normal chess is, but is ultimately fun to play when using the pieces to destroy each other. Rules of the game really haven’t changed much if you’ve played chess before, but if you haven’t there isn’t another game that you can find that really brings the Sport of Kings to life.
To find this game on the 3DO was rather surprising, and it took a bit of horse trading just to get a working copy of Battle Chess to go with the 3DO system. Most gamers will remember this back from the old grade school days where it was readily accessible to the kids, but nearly impossible to find otherwise. With several different difficulty levels that you can choose from that range from beginner to expert, you’ll find that the challenge of the game is simply to out think your computer-controlled opponent! There isn’t any action that can be found in the game other than watching your pieces fight and if you’re really not into games that require plenty of thought to play, then you’re probably looking in the wrong genre.
The game play is as simple or as difficult as you want to make it against the computer. Controlling a board with eighteen pieces, you’ll have to learn what piece can move in what direction while you play. While a knight moves in an L pattern, a rook only moves vertically or horizontally. This is what makes the game difficult at first, in which you have to learn what pieces will move where and how to use them effectively! Through the game play, you’ll find that each move you make will be countered by your opponent with something as simple as pushing a pawn forward to moving a bishop in a diagonal line all the way across the board.
Where this may seem extremely boring, the game offers up something new to the table that you can be rewarded with for taking your opponents pieces in the form of duels! Each duel takes place between the piece that you’re using and the one that is being captured that ultimately ends with a rather grisly death of some sort and with you taking the spot of the piece you just destroyed. This adds a little incentive to actually learning on to play the game and the game control is pretty much selecting the next spot that a chosen piece is going to move to. Simple, but effective in not only creating an enjoyable environment, but allows you learn how to play the game all in one fell swoop!
The control of the game is limited to how well you pick up just how the pieces move and what they are capable of. Beginners to chess will probably find that moving the pieces is frustrating at first, but with some of the pieces, there is a lit up square that tells you that you can move that piece in that direction! The fact that the game offers up the tutorial makes it a different kind of game in which you aren’t thrown into the mix without knowing how the game is controlled. This little addition to the control is a wonderful way to introduce beginners and give advanced players a little reminder of what chess is and how you’re supposed to play it.
The visuals of the game are what really take the cake in this title, in which your pieces all take the detail and form of the piece that it represents! Where the knight would be the horse on a regular chessboard, it is a knight in armor with a shield and sword. The rooks are represented by moving golems of stone that crush and smash anything in its way, where the Queen piece is a sorceress that uses magical attacks to decimate her prey! All of these things really make the game what it is in which the game play only makes up part of it, but the duels that you run into between each piece worth watching! Probably one of the most gruesome scenes that stands out is when the knights go up against each other and limbs are being hacked off with swipes of the capturing knights sword. When they say that there is no quarter, they really mean that there is no quarter and anyone in the way dies a horrid death.
Battle Chess doesn’t really have much to offer you in terms of music, so if you’re expecting something amazing and breathtaking, you can stop expecting right now. The sound effects of the game are what really stand out, with several instances of weapons clanging and the sound of splattering blood and body parts as you kill off another piece! While this may not surprise most gamers, it is a wonderful little surprise to hear in a Nintendo game that is relatively ancient like this one is. Most of the game is effected by the way that the sound effects come off. Much like the other versions of the game, it really is basic unless you have a good stereo set up for your 3DO system. Even then, you’ll still find that the game really doesn’t have much to offer, and that most of the game is comprised of the aforementioned sounds, so be prepared.
Battle Chess is a game of skill and a game that requires you to learn and relearn what you already know. By adding in all of the special visual features that the title has to offer, you’ll find that Battle Chess is a good diversion from playing the actual board game! Considering that this title is nearly impossible to find in most areas with the used game stores, and even with the PC version being nearly non existent, you’ll find that Battle Chess is a wonderful, yet rare find worth looking for. With the amount of game play and the ability to learn from a video game in which you can use the skill here to play in real life by learning the different situations, you’ll find that this is a great way to teach an age old game. 3DO collectors will find this to be something that can be gracefully added to the collection of rather obscure and nearly non-existent games in the 3DO library!
9/10
//Kasket DarkFyre
