Wii Chess
So here it is, as per the requests. Firstly, for some you may be glad to hear that this review will not be as long as my other reviews (mainly because there is not that much that can be said about this game in comparison). But here goes.
Title: Wii Chess
Format: Wii
Price: RRP £19.99
Wi-Fi: Yes
Players: 2
So chess, we if your reading this review, there is a chance you will know what chess is, after all you probably wouldn’t open this review otherwise. This review will try and keep the excitement levels to that in the arena of an international chess competition, so shouting out is to be refrained from. Finally before I go on, yes this a review of Wii Chess, its actually just Wii Chess, not Mario’s Wii Chess etc.
Graphics:
I am in no intentions of kidding you here, but as far as talking about the graphics is concerned, I am just about stumped from square one. You see, you have a plain and simple chess board, I think its supposed to be wood effect.
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On top of that you have the 32 pieces required to complete a chess board, and they look, well they look like chess pieces so, generally so far this game is heading for 10/10 with what you should expect. To be honest there is nothing else here, the menus are clean and crisp, is Wii Sports style, but generally, the white background disappears when you get submerged into your game.
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So realistically, based on what you actually want from this game Graphically it dose score 10/10, because they could not have done anything to improve their graphics, of what they have. They could have added a studio background or an opposition player to see whilst your sat opposite them, but I guess its just not in the heart of the game here.
Graphics : 10/10
Audio:
…… Im not sure what to say here. You have the mundrone tune of Nintendo’s standard gaming music, but nothing special, and as you progress into a game, the silence falls, I think. Well to be honest I cant remember any music during the gameplay so if there was any, its not great.
Audio: 1/10 Theres just nothing there.
Gameplay:
This is where my review becomes important to most of you, this is where it could be make or break on this game.
Firstly there is no tutorial on the disc itself, so if you don’t know how to play chess, don’t go searching on the game, because it wont help you, however the booklet includes a beginners guide to chess.
One Player – As you can imagine really, you are player one, you choose your difficulty (1-9) and choose your colour (white or black), and play a game of chess. It really is that simple. Using either the classic controller, or the D-Pad on the Wii-mote you move your pieces across the board. When you select a piece it helpfully highlights all the places that piece can move also.
Two Player – Its not that much different to one player, as I am sure you will appreciate, instead of playing the computer you play yourself.
WiFi – Play online, as with most Wii Games, you have to get your friend code, and exchange with all the others who love this game so much. These games are timed, and limited to either 5min Blitz or 20Mins. Although I have yet to experience this as not to many people have got the game yet.
In addition to adding your friend codes, you can play against random people online on the same systems, but again I have yet to find another player.
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Finally, Recording. Each of your games is recorded and you have the opportunity to save the video from the last match, play back your progress and see where it all went wrong.
Saving, this could be a key factor for those of you who know chess, it can be a long gruelling game, and thus the ability to save your game mid way through does come in handy, so you can pick it up another time.
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The computer in this game, is the worlds 3rd smartest computer, (did someone mention that the first two were smart enough to realise that this game wasn’t going to sell), which brings with it some good qualities, i.e on easy you can win, but smack it on hard and it will eat you alive unless you know what you are doing.
The good thing here is though, as you start to get confident on each difficulty you can move up, and you will challenge yourself just a little extra each time. It makes it quite good.
The sad side of things however, how many of you will remember Virtual Chess on the N64.
Well to be honest the graphics were not a lot better in this game, yet it kept my attention much longer than Wii Chess did, but why. Well the animation included made it more fun. Yes Chess isn’t the most exciting game, but I would want some excitement, after all I wouldn’t be buying unless I expected some excitement. So sadly it’s a let down here (and you only get 200Wii Star Points, I would expect 1,000 for joining this parade).
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Gameplay: 2/10
Innovation:[/b]
Its chess, its got nothing added, its simply chess. Chess was created BC, so the innovation here, is like -10/10.
Innovation: -10/10
Realism:
I think the only way that this game could become any more real would be to put an actual Russian with a Wii-mote into the seat next to you when you play. Aside from that the game is blank, so maybe some more background detail. I don’t know its just really basic, and yet for the same price as say, Endless Ocean, your getting a Hell of a lot less.
Realism: 5/10
Overall Thoughs:
I don’t want people to take this review the wrong way, I went out and bought this game in good faith, and I still have it, with no intentions of sale (£25 +P&P) joking. No I am proud to own the game and proud when I win.
I don’t want to put people off from buying this game, because its not awful, its just chess. If you like chess then you should like this, if your indifferent to chess then rent it, see if you can enjoy chess, but don’t go out and buy this thinking that its got loads of great characters.
Final note, the cover could have had a little extra added, I thought they were joking when I took it to the counter, but to my surprise it was actually the case.
I hope this review was of help to some of you.
Graphics: 10/10
Audio: 1/10
Gameplay: 2/10
Innovation -10/10
Realism: 5/10
Total: 16% Well I don’t think I have seen a review this low yet. Its not low to be bad, its just the game has its flaws.
How did you find this review?
Alex
Wii Chess
Linear Mode
