What Is Battle Chess?
Battle Chess is a computer game version of chess released for the 3DO, PC, Apple IIGS, Commodore 64, Amiga, Amiga CDTV, CD32, AtariST, Apple Macintosh, Acorn Archimedes, and Nintendo Entertainment System. Developed by Interlay Productions, Inc., the game was designed to draw even people that did not play chess to it.
With Battle Chess, chess is no longer a mere cerebral game; it is a full-fledged battle with riveting graphics and animations that make each piece life-like. The different chess pieces come to life and battle one another. The aim is to capture enemy pieces and finally the King.
The animations are very wittily done. The Bishop fights with the opponents by twirling his staff, which has retractable blades, just like a martial arts expert. He also uses magic. The Pawn is more realistic, he simply kicks the Knight in the genitals! The Queen uses magic to capture opponents, and also blasts them to pieces using bolts of energy. In one of the animation sequences, the Queen decimates the opposing Knight, and also blasts the Bishop with such power that only his skeleton remains!
The others have their moments of glory too, and it’s not always only about the Queen. For example, when the Queen throws her energy bolt at the Knight, the Knight can in turn use his shield to redirect the bolt back at the Queen, turning her into a small dragon. The Rook too has his own powers; he turns into a large rock monster when on the move, attacks the Queen and swallows her whole. Not just that; the Rook pounds the Knight’s head with such brute force that he shrinks down to a mere helmet with two feet.
The Pawn too is able to perform some level of wizardry; he hits the ground with the butt of his lance and creates a large hole that swallows the Bishop. The King also has his own bag of dirty tricks, like taking a gun against the Bishop, striking down the Rook with magic powder, hurling a bomb at the Knight, and a morning star at a Pawn. When capturing the Queen, he embraces her passionately before hitting her with his scepter when she tries to stab him in the back with a knife.
When defeated, the king ends up like a deflated two-dimensional cartoon character. The Knight cuts open the King’s robe, and pounds him into a two dimensional version of himself, much like a cartoon character run over by a steam roller. The Pawn then, with a flip of his lance, takes the King’s crown for himself, and the King is reduced to pounding the ground in frustration.
Battle chess attracted a large number of imitators but none matched the humorous animation of artists Todd Camasta and Bruce Schlickbernd. The game can be played with 3D animation, and there is also a version in 2D, without any animation. There are totally 30,000 different moves in the game’s library. The game itself can be played across 10 levels, each of increasing difficulty. You can play the game against another human, or against the computer. Alternatively, you can watch the computer play against itself.
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