For 400 points ($5), you can now play chess online on Xbox Live. Or, if that's too highfalutin' for your tastes, you can play checkers instead...or, if you're some kind of weirdo board-game aficionado, reversi (otherwise known as Othello) and mancala. These four games are what make up Spyglass Board Games, a bare bones collection that lets you play all of the above online against friends, as well as against brain-dead computer opponents. The presentation's been stripped bare and there's a real dearth of options here, but if all you want is to get your checkers or chess on against friends on Xbox Live, this is a suitable way to go.
If you don't know how to play chess or checkers, you can just stop reading right now because this game isn't for you. It's probably safe to say that at least a few people have heard of reversi, the game that gives its two players either white or black tiles that must be placed on the game board to create lines of same-colored pieces. We'll hazard to guess that the vast majority of you haven't heard of mancala. In this game, each player has his or her own colored pieces, and the board consists of a series of pits that contain varying numbers of those pieces in stacks. At the end of each row of pits is a primary pit, and your goal is to move the pieces onto that primary pit. When you move a stack, a piece moves to each subsequent pit leading up to the main pit. So, if you were to move a stack of four pieces off of the fourth pit, a piece each would land on the third, second, first, and primary pit. Pieces can also end up on your opponent's side and be stuck there until moved.
Hopefully these explanations are good enough for you, because that's about as good as you're going to get within the game itself. There's a fairly detailed help document on chess, but the remaining help files are woefully inadequate, meaning you'll probably want to do some online research before embarking on these more obscure games.
Once you know the rules, each of the games function accordingly. The interface is simple and effective in each game, though the presentation leaves much to be desired. There's plenty of board and piece customization for each, but all the options are dirt ugly, and there's no option to play anything but 3D chess. If you prefer your computer chessboards to be 2D, too bad. Also, there are no options to mess with beyond the main rule sets for each game. Want to play speed chess? Can't do it.
It also doesn't help that each game borders on being embarrassingly easy against the computer opponent in most situations. Checkers, reversi, and mancala opponents will completely wreck newcomers, but at the same time can be easily exploited once you know what you're doing. The chess computer makes a lot of random, dumb moves, and will also fall for certain mates every single time. As white, try e2 to e3, Qd1 to f3, Bf1 to c4, and then Qf3 to f7. Four moves and done; works every single time.
So it's good that the game has online play, both ranked and unranked. Unranked matches are kind of fun because you can actually switch to any of the four games at any time. Getting bored with chess? Just jump to checkers. It's a neat idea, although also an exploitable one if you're playing with anyone but trusted friends. Then again, if you're playing unranked matches against strangers, you're out of your mind. Ranked matches stick you to one specific game type, though they are exploitable as well. Losing players can effectively sandbag for eternity by sitting around for a few minutes, then moving the cursor, but not actually making a move. It doesn't help that there's no concede option when you feel like you're hosed in one game or another, so you're stuck playing through a losing battle. If you can get into a game against a friend who you know won't grief you, you might actually have a good time with the online mode--especially if you have the Vision Cam, which is supported. Beyond that, be prepared for some irritating headaches.
Spyglass Board Games is by no means a bad value. In fact, four board games that are playable online for $5 is a pretty solid deal. The thing that drags this package down is how shoddy everything feels, from the game options, to the presentation, to the online implementation. Those desperate to get online and play their friends at chess or checkers might be willing to look past those problems. Anyone else can just skip this one and hope something better constructed comes along in the future.
