Game Reviews

Chess Classics

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Chess Classics

When Gameloft launched this game on the App Store, it was called Chess and Backgammon Classics, giving both games equal billing.

However, just a week later, backgammon's been muscled out in order to provide a clearer product pitch to iPhone owners. Poor old backgammon.

Actually, forget that. Backgammon doesn't need our pity, since a) it's a board game without any emotions, and b) it's only played by old men, who are hardly descending on the App Store looking for iPhone games.

(There's talk it's also played by hip young people for big cash sums in casinos, but we remain doubtful.)

Anyway, it's fair to say that the renamed Chess Classics is the most niche out of Gameloft's iPhone launch titles. Despite the name change, the game itself remains split into two separate titles - chess and backgammon.

On the chess side, you can play against your iPhone, play pass-the-handset multiplayer with a friend, or take on a special Quiz mode, which gets you to solve specific puzzles (e.g. finding a move that takes your King to safety).

There's also a 'Classic Games' section that lets you walk through some famous games of the past, complete with explanations of why they get chess scholars in a tizzy.

As you'd expect, there's a good range of difficulty levels when playing against the iPhone, ranging from 'Monkey' to 'Master'.

The presentation is impressive too, offering a choice between top-down 2D and isometric 3D views, and themes like classic wood, mechanical, glass and tribal. You can tap on a camera icon to rotate the chess board, which can be handy for getting a different perspective.

Moves are handled using taps and drags on the touchscreen, which works well. The fact that legal moves are highlighted is good for beginners too. However, it's when thinking about newer chess players that the cracks in Chess Classics appear.

Why? The game could really do with some richer tutorials beyond the simple 'suggest a move' feature. If you play Gameloft's Platinum Solitaire, there are excellent tutorials explaining the rules of every variant, yet there's nothing similar here.

Sure, most people who'd pay GBP 5.99 for an iPhone chess game will know the moves, but Gameloft could have included more useful stuff on actual strategy, with the aim of helping people become better players.

Without that, Chess Classics isn't the attempt to bring chess to a casual gaming audience that it could've been. Maybe Gameloft is assuming everyone who buys this will be a chess buff, but it feels like a missed opportunity.

Plus, there's nothing around the games - you just play, then play again. Okay, it would've been silly to have you playing for cash in casinos, as you do in Platinum Solitaire - but it would be nice to be working towards something, or at least playing named opponents in tournaments.

In short, the chess element feels a bit bare-bones, and while the bulk of the effort has rightfully gone into the AI, it'd be nice to see more features around that core gameplay, as in Gameloft's other games.

What about that backgammon mode though? It's pretty fun, if you like backgammon, which sounds like faint praise admittedly.

There's a good tutorial, and the option to play in tournaments and side events, including Blitz, Super-jackpot and Mini-matches, earning cash as you go.

That's more like it. Again, you can flick between 2D and 3D modes, and rotate the board to your heart's content. You shake the dice by shaking the iPhone, which is a nice motion-sensing touch. As I said, it's fun if you like backgammon, but probably won't convert you if not.

Rating Chess Classics is hard. It's certainly the most polished chess game available for iPhone in terms of graphics, and offers plenty of challenge with its difficulty levels.

But if there were more features around the core chess action, both in terms of strategy tutorials and some form of progression, it'd rate even higher.

Perhaps chess buffs don't want all that, but given iPhone's generous file sizes, surely there's room to include that stuff for the rest of us?

Chess Classics

Good-looking chess title provides a challenge, but could do with some more pizazz
Score
Stuart Dredge
Stuart Dredge
Stuart is a freelance journalist and blogger who's been getting paid to write stuff since 1998. In that time, he's focused on topics ranging from Sega's Dreamcast console to robots. That's what you call versatility. (Or a short attention span.)