~Battle Chess 4000

Reviewed by Martin Keen


For some people there is nothing more boring than playing a game of
chess... apart from WATCHING a game of chess. But Battle Chess seems
to have a funny effect on these people. It makes them want to learn
the game, play the game, and even watch the game. Why? Because Battle
Chess is damn funny.

The basic concept has been around for ages. A chess game based around
turning each of the chess pieces into little characters who fight
each other whenever they land on the same square. The cartoon style
graphics may show a Knight have all his limbs removed by an opposing
Queen, or a Bishop turn a Rook into a frog.

But its the new incarnation of the game (this may not actually be the
4000th version, but it has progressed some way since the aging
original game was released several years ago) that takes the animation
to a new level. The SVGA graphics feature beautifully rendered and
animated characters; the sound effects are now far more frequent; and
the general humour level is better than ever.

Take the Rook as an example. It may take the form of a castle in the
original board game but here it's a huge robot that extends to twice
its size once moving and should be enough to terrify any opposing
pawn who as much as looks in its direction. 

Thats all well and good but after you've seen the animations a couple
of times they soon lose their charm. Once you've seen the pawn take
pawn scene a few times in one game you'll become sick to death of
the lengthy intrusion into your quest. To make matters worse there is
no way of stopping the animations in mid flow so you just have to
grin and bear it. Yes, you can play on a 2D board with no animation 
but any shareware chess package could do the same for a fraction of 
the price.

And thats the big gripe with Battle Chess 4000. The first couple of
times you play it its great, but soon you become impatient, and 
eventually you become just plain bored of the whole thing. You'd have
to have money to burn if you could afford to buy a game like this 
which offers such limited long term appeal.

Its very well executed, but the idea behind it is a non-starter.


Copyright (c) 1995 Eurowave Leisure Ltd
