Great game to play if you like chess! It is an amazing game with a pretty user friendly adaptation.
GAMEPLAY- The game play is great but can be more realistic. 6 out of 10
GRAPHICS- The graphics are nice but in accordance to the DS the graphics are quite simple with resemblance to the plain 2 D game. 5 out of 10.
SOUND- Good sound but does not have much music effects in it. 5 out of 10
LEARNING CURVE- If you know how to play chess or you don't. There is a help section to learn playing Chess from introduction to the Advance tactics.
The game is easy to learn and play. . Ubisoft Bulgaria has done a good job in preparing the game. Josh Waitzkin is the trainer. Josh puts players in his shoes during some of the most riveting moments of his career. Introducing beginners to the fundamentals of the game and providing revealing commentary about the road to mastery. But If we talk about the graphics, then the game lacks that. It seems like the game is being made for some previous handheld devices of early times. Some cut scenes may have been added to enhance the attraction but as it is a board game so it does not matter much. The AI is also quite well formed although sometimes moves are really unexpected, it gives a tough competition.
The players can create their own profiles to save their individual scores and achievements. While creating the profiles the user can also change their picture. Several different pictures are available to choose with. The board is being divided into 8 rows and columns. The rows are numbered as A to H while the columns as 1 to8 starting from lower right corner. While moving any Pieces, their move set is being displayed on the upper screen (without touch screen) and also increases their own ELO rating (a number which tell how good you are as a chess player). While playing the game Josh explains the movements of pawns, knights , bishops, rooks & kings. The character performs lip movements while explaining, all the movements are well synchronized with the dialouges. Two players can battle each other using the wireless option on the DS. A variety of exciting multi player games are available, including: Dark Chess, in which the opponent's pieces are invisible; Extinction Chess, where the winner is the first player to capture all of the opponent's pieces; and Losing Chess, a game that rewards the first player to lose all of his/her pieces! Six original mini-games: Each mini-game is packed with its own music, sound effects, a high-score record and 20 levels of game play. Players can look forward to: Minefield, in which chess pieces are used to locate mines hidden in the board; Breaking the Lines, where the knight is moved to capture all of the pawns; and Fork My Fruit, a game that uses chess pieces to fork fruit of the same kind, among others. Players have access to 900 of the most important chess games, which are analyzed to provide key tactics Four player profiles are supported, each profile stores mini-game progress, program ratings,and more. If user have never played a game of Chess then there is a practice mode which teaches players how to play. The tutorial is broken up into several different parts (such as the board, the pieces etc..) which should make the game rather approachable to those who are genuinely interested in learning Chess. The game becomes interesting to play for all skill set of players. The game of Chess has stood the test of time. Both casual and hardcore chess fans will get a challenge out of this game.
The AI is pretty decent, with very nice difficulty levels portrayed as different people.
The music is basic, but really it is Chess so you're not likely to care.