Battle Chess
System: NES
Release Date: July 1990
Developer: Beam Software
Publisher: Data East
Genre: Strategy
Capture your opponent’s king to earn glory in Battle Chess. This isn’t going to be a long one, folks. What we have here is classic chess with a hook. Instead of just taking pieces from your opponent when captured, you get to see an animation of the pieces doing battle with the capturer winning.
The Select Button brings up your options menu where you can start a new game, take back a recent move, and get hints on where you can go. You can also switch between the Battle Chess 3d pieces and regular 2d representations. The 3d pieces need to walk from one spot to the next, which takes forever. The 2d pieces move instantly, but the AI can take a really long time to make their move.
I was able to beat the novice after it made a castling mistake. Then I bumped the difficulty up another level and it took me out. Every time… My poor king got flattened…
Graphics: 1.5
The 2d mode is just chess pieces like you can see anywhere else. The 3d mode was confusing to my eyes. The battle animations are neat the first couple times.
Sound: 0.5
Barren. No music outside of the opening tune and the death march. Angel wing flapping is awful.
Gameplay: 2.0
You are given several levels of computer skill and the ability to take back moves, but the amount of time the AI takes to make a move in the mid game is atrocious.
Difficulty: 2.0
Do you know how to play chess? You can beat novice. Are you good at chess? I hope so if you want to beat any of the other levels.
Fun Factor: 1.0
Too slow to be of much fun. Once you see the animations once, you’ve seen it all.
Overall Rating: 1.4
Battle Chess earns a D+. The animations are only novel for a short amount of time, but waiting for the pieces to move across the board is super aggravating.