by JOEDOG
I know chess isn't suppose to be a "cool" thing, but I do enjoy a good match once in a while. Usually I lose, but that's besides the point. Chess is a contest of wits, which probably explains why I lose. But I'm getting side tracked. There has been many computer chess games over the years. Heck, even the Atari 2600 had a chess game. Now with all the fancy graphics bells and whistles they've come up with Virtual Chess 64 for the Nintendo 64 obviously. Hands down this is the worst chess experience I have ever encountered. I would rather play the Atari 2600 chess game than this piece of turd. Virtual Chess 64 claims to be in the great tradition of Battle Chess. Which basically means when you capture a piece they show you a little animated sequence showing one character conquering the other. Which usually involves his or her dismemberment. Star Wars Chess was an excellent example of that. Virtual Chess however features some of the worst excuse for animation I have ever seen. If you even want to call it animation The battle animations are suppose to be humorous, but they only leave a funny feeling in my stomach. The character designs are corny and childish. And except for maybe the revolving chess board there is nothing "virtual" about this experience. The music is non existent, the sounds are about as tolerable as a Polly Shore movie. The control is no biggie, its just basic chess. If you do choose to move the board around for a better view of what's going on. It takes one button to rotate the board to the left only. and another button to make it revolve around vertically. There are some good features to this game I suppose. It does have a nice Chess tutorial. It can be played in multiple languages. In German I'm sure it still stinks though. Mensch! Virtual Chess 64 uses the same game engine which won the 1996 and 1997 microcomputer chess championship. Its very smart and can adapt to any skill level. It even features what they call artificial stupidity which allows the cpu to make a dumb move...hmmm maybe that's what I've got. I don't know that I was really expecting a revolutionary game here, but I was hoping for a good video chess experience. I know the Nintendo 64 is more than qualified to produce a much better chess game than this. It may not be able to produce great animation but a lot can be done with polygons these days. Not to mention a little bit of creativity.
PUBLISHER: TITUS
GRAPHICS: 2 SOUND/MUSIC: 0
CONTROL: 4 ORIGINALITY: 1
REPLAY: 3 SECRETS: 0
OVERALL: 2