Star Wars Chess
Choose either the Dark or the Light Side of the Force and battle
enemy forces in this galactic version of chess that takes place
a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.
(Software Toolworks, 1993 - for PC and Sega CD)
In the late 80’s, Interplay’s Battle Chess reinvented the
computer chess genre. In Battle Chess, each chess piece was
portrayed by a character on a three dimensional chessboard. The
game followed the same rules as the classic board game – the only
difference being when one piece captured another, it was visually
portrayed on screen through light-hearted animations. Characters
clobbered one another in humorous ways throughout the game, and
the game’s sense of humor along with its stunning graphics and
animation launched an entire wave of similarly styled chess games.
One such game was Star Wars Chess, by Software
Toolworks. Like all the other Battle Chess clones (Terminator
2 Chess, Cyber Chess, Chess Maniac Five Billion and One, etc),
Star Wars Chess replaced standard issue chess pieces
with recognizable characters, this time from Lucas’ franchise. Each
side (light and dark) has unique characters: Luke and the Emperor
serve as kings, Princess Leia and Darth Vader act as queens, an army
of R2 units and stormtroopers represent pawns, and so on. Although
the game’s graphical mode is quite dated, the characters themselves
are quite detailed and gamers should have no problem recognizing
their favorite trilogy characters.
Most graphical chess games suffered from a few common problems,
and Star Wars Chess is no exception. The first problem
is that, while it is simple to tell what chess piece a character
represents before the game starts, after pieces begin moving it
becomes more difficult to remember. Is Chewbacca a rook or a knight?
What about Boba Fett, or Tusken Raiders? Chess taxes your brain hard
enough without having to constantly try and figure out which piece
is what!
A second problem Star Wars Chess seems to have
inherited from Battle Chess is painfully slow load times.
When one piece takes another, first the animation of one piece
walking is loaded and displayed, then the animated fight scene must
be loaded and displayed, and finally the AI must make its next move.
(Also worth noting is that each “capture” only has one animation,
taking the cutesy animations from entertaining to boring in light
speed.) Chess isn’t known for being a particularly fast-paced game,
but Star Wars Chess moves like space-molasses,
especially while waiting for the computer to move.
And speaking of the game’s AI, it’s not particularly good. Even
moderately experienced players should have no problems making bantha
poo-doo out of the computer’s defenses. Star Wars Chess
does support two-player mode, but you’ll have to have to find another
die-hard Star Wars fan with a lot of free time
on his or her hands to complete even one full game.
Star Wars Chess is only recommended for die-hard
Star Wars fans who are also computer literate. It’ll
take some work to get this game to run on modern computers. The game
refused to launch under Windows XP, and I had to install DOSBox (a
DOS emulator) and spend several minutes configuring it to get
Star Wars Chess to work. The game ran so slowly that
I often thought it had locked up, and the game’s interface is so
sparse that I had trouble figuring out what piece I had selected,
or occasionally which side of the board I was playing.
The Force is not strong with this one. Not even a little bit.
Rating: 
One quarter - your powers are getting weak, old man.
Reviewed by Rob O'Hara
theLogBook.com Staff Writer
 
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