Chess Ultra

Genre: Board Game

Players: 1-2 Competitive (Local, Online)

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Review:

Chess Ultra is… um… chess. You know chess. Even if you’ve never played chess, you probably have a good idea what it is, as it’s one of the oldest games still commonly played today, with its roots dating back as early as 280AD, and the last major update to its rules occurring in the late 1800s. It’s considered to be an absolute masterwork of game design, and as such, any criticism of a chess videogame must of course come down to the trappings it finds itself in.

The presentation here is very good, with multiple styles of chess pieces (some available via paid DLC), as well as the ability to render those styles in different materials. In addition, the game itself can take place in one of multiple locales, with these locations very nicely detailed and realistically lit… although this can actually be a bit of an issue (but I’ll get to that in a bit). The framerate here isn’t fantastic, but it doesn’t really need to be, since it’s… well, chess.

The realistic visuals, while nice, do have a few issues. The low lighting, while realistic, can make it difficult to see the pieces, especially in handheld mode, where the resolution is low enough that the pieces and board can easily blur together. As much as I appreciate the realism, I honestly wish the game included a tile set that was purely digital like you find in countless cheap versions of the game. Yes, this might run counter to the otherwise fancy presentation of the game, but it would do a lot to make the game more functional.

The game’s visuals are accompanied by a nice selection of music ranging from classical to jazz to operatic, and while all of it is quite nice, I wish there were some ability to select songs you like or make a playlist. As-is, you’re stuck with whatever the game decides to play. In addition, each of the game’s locations includes environmental noises, like rustling in neighboring rooms or crickets chirping, and again I feel like this is a nice touch, but I would have liked to be able to independently turn these off if I wanted to – as it is, you can lower the volume of the sounds in the game, but this also lowers the volume of the game itself.

While the presentation is a mixed bag, the options that accompany the rest of the game are all pretty top-notch. Players can have up to six games running concurrently if they desire, including local and online games (although I should note that the online lobbies are currently empty), in addition to games against the CPU. Players can start up or join a tournament, go through a thorough tutorial to teach them everything from the most basic parts of the game all the way to more advanced strategies. There are also 80 puzzles players can opt to complete – 10 each of the “mate in 1”, “mate in 2”, “mate in 3” variety all the way to “mate in 7”, as well as 10 additional puzzles based on famous historical games of chess, an excellent inclusion.

In handheld mode, this game does support the use of the touchscreen, though it’s not very practical here. The camera is difficult to work with, and the game will mostly be depicting the pieces so small that it’ll be difficult to select them with any accuracy.

There are definitely places where Chess Ultra could do with more options and improvements. The lack of more simple options for visual clarity and the lack of options to select preferred music tracks are particularly disappointing. However, the game does have some good content included here, as well as a solid presentation, so while it’s not perfect, this is a solid version of chess to have on the Nintendo Switch.

tl;dr – Chess Ultra is a version of the classic Board Game with nice, realistic graphics and classy music, though I find myself wishing for more options when it comes to that presentation, which can even make it difficult to see the pieces sometimes. On the bright side, there’s a good amount of content here, and overall this is a solid game of chess, despite these issues.

Grade: B

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