Chessmaster
System: NES
Release Date: January 1990
Developer: Software Toolworks
Publisher: Hi Tech Expressions
Genre: Strategy
We get Chessmaster to open up 1990 and I can’t say I was too impressed with it. I like chess. I like to play against my son because I beat him 49 times out of 50. But I don’t like playing a computer, because unless I play it on the super novice difficulty, it beats me 10 out of 10 times.
Chessmaster is no exception. You can set the difficulty from the pause menu by pressing the Select Button. There are plenty of options available, including start a new game, play against another human, have the computer play itself, turning on the teaching mode to highlight available moves, and more.
If you make a mistake, you can press the B Button after making a move to go back. You can do this many times to check out different scenarios. You can also set up the board in any legal configuration you want to and play it out from there.
Graphics: 0.5
Graphics are pretty bad, two-toned with no animations.
Sound: 0.5
Sound is bare bones and pretty boring.
Gameplay: 2.5
There are a surprising number of options for you to play with.
Difficulty: 2.5
The computer is hard, unless you’re a chess whiz, then it’s probably easy enough.
Fun Factor: 1.5
I guess I know how my son feels getting schlacked by the computer.
Overall Grade: 1.5
Chessmaster earns a C-. This isn’t going to set the world on fire, but it’s a competent chess simulation.