Roughly two years ago, Electronic Arts thought it would be a nice idea to add some new spice to one of the oldest games in the world: chess. This they did in the form of Battle Chess, an animated action-
This version features many of the qualities that made Battle Chess such good fun: there's the ubiquitous modem/
Several new features have been added, just to show that EA aren't slacking. For instance, there are no less than four versions of the board, a 3D, two 2D and a 2D window on the main 3D screen. Byusing these it's a lot easier to clarity where pieces are located, because the 3D board has a habit of obscuring your view.
Music has been added, with a tune for each piece. These are quite cute at first, as their Chinese-
Samurai strategy
The game of Chinese chess itself has been well-
Kings cannot move more than two spaces from their start-
All in all, the game is more ruthless and barbaric than chess. Pieces are traded a lot earlier and because there are fewer pieces the whole game is generally quicker to play. It's difficult to learn the game and cope with the obscured 3D at times, and this is where the 2D window really comes into its own. There's even a selectable help mode which highlights all the legal and illegal moves that pieces can make, to really spell it out if you're unsure.
Slow boat to China
The animations are similar in style to those in Battle Chess, and sadly, they suffer the same drawbacks too. Disk-
The animations themselves are attractive and often highly amusing. Each piece has its own attack and defence sequence against each other piece. Obviously, there are a finite number of possibilities, but only the most frequent ones become boring.