Academy: Checkers

Genre: Board Game

Players: 1-2 Competitive (Local Alternating)

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Review:

Academy: Checkers is a take on the classic Board Game, released on the Nintendo DSi via the DSiWare service in 2011 and also released on the Nintendo 3DS eShop.

This game offers players four variants to play with – an 8×8 board, a 10×10 board, and then those two boards with a ten second time limit on your turn. Curiously, there’s no tutorial or anything to teach you strategy, despite the word “Academy” in the title. Players can play against human or AI opponents of three difficulty levels, and move pieces using the touchscreen.

Unfortunately, while the game offers two game modes, both of these use European rules, where consecutive jumps in a turn can go backwards. US players hoping for a game mode with American rules (consecutive jumps can only move forward, unless a king is the jumper) will be disappointed here.

The game’s board is presented as red and black with orange and teal pieces on a wooden-looking background, with light instrumental music accompanying the gameplay. It’s not much to look at, and the choice of colors for pieces may be a bit jarring, but I suppose it works.

Given its $5 price tag, I don’t think it unreasonable to expect a Checkers game to include a way to play the game using standard American rules. Without it, I think a lot of players getting this game will likely be disappointed. I suppose if you’re okay with European rules, this will work well enough, though that price seems like a bit much for what you’re getting.

tl;dr – Academy: Checkers is a version of the classic board game. It works, but this release makes the frustrating decision to only include European rule variants, and not the American version of the game that players will likely be more familiar with. Even if this isn’t an issue for you, the $5 price tag is a bit steep for what’s on offer here.

Grade: C-

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