Battle Chess

STORY / GAMEPLAY
The game, as in real chess, needs strategy, patience and skills. What actually makes Battle Chess unique compared to the rest of chess video games is that the chess pieces come to life and battle one another when engaging; there are 35 battle animations for this awesome feature. Some battle sequences like “Knight versus Knight” or like “King versus Bishop” are direct references to the black knight fight in “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” movie and the short fight sequence between Indiana Jones and a swordsman in “Raiders of the Lost Ark”. The animations vary depending on the piece combinations. Some pieces, like the rooks, are castle walls that actually transform into a giant golem that moves around the chess board. It’s truly a very nice thing to watch! Note that in the NES version, all animated battles are done on their own screen (scene) rather than “live” on the chess board. Also, the action on this version is quite slow and you cannot skip the animated sequences, so your next move needs to wait until the battle sequence is finished. So we have a Battle Chess that’s rather slow paced but with some nice twitches!

GRAPHICS / SOUND
The game on Atari ST features nice colorful graphics (16 colors) with detailed sprites like knights, royals and infantry and the animated battle scenes are smooth and fun to watch. Every type of pawn has its unique way to kill, i.e. the Queen uses magical power and by raising her hands fires lighting to an enemy challenged or the rook turns into a rock monster and kills a pawn by smashing his head! In general, the Atari ST version looks great and has minor differences compared to the Amiga. The sound features excellent digitized effects during the battle sequences that are almost identical in both versions. Battle Chess is one of the most impressive games of the Atari ST library.