Chess Royal

Genre: Board Game

Players: 1-2 Competitive (Local Alternating, Local Wireless Alternating)

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Review:

Chess Royal is a version of the classic Board Game released on Nintendo Switch in 2021. With a bargain bin price of $3, this game undoubtedly makes a tempting budget alternative to pricier offerings on the Nintendo Switch, but then of course the question becomes, “do you get what you paid for?”

The presentation here is extremely simple, with 2D artwork for the game’s pieces in six different available styles. The menus have a repetitive acoustic guitar theme, and you get a brief fanfare when you finish a game, but aside from that the only sound in the game is the tap of pieces on the board. It works, but it’s just about as plain as it gets.

For gameplay, players can choose to take on a computer opponent in a variety of difficulty settings, or play against another human in local or local wireless play. There is no online play here, one of the game’s biggest glaring omissions. Players can use a time clock in multiplayer, but oddly that option does not appear to be present when playing against the computer.

In addition to the core game of chess, there are a whopping 1000 chess puzzles for players to take on, which is an incredible amount of content for a $3 game. In addition to that, there are achievements and unlockable cosmetics for your in-game profile… which seems a bit pointless since the game has no online play, but it’s still something for players to aim for, I suppose. Unfortunately, the game doesn’t have a proper tutorial for newer players, so if you’re looking to learn the game and become a chess pro, this may not be the game for you.

The gamepad controls in Chess Royal are a bit stiff, but aside from that they work well enough. This game also makes good use of the Nintendo Switch’s touchscreen.

In the end, Chess Royal may be missing some of the features we would expect from a standard-priced chess game (again, no online play), but for $3 it’s hard to fault this game for being a solid version of the classic Board Game with an absolute wealth of puzzles to solve. If you want a super-cheap version of Chess on your Nintendo Switch, you want Chess Royal.

tl;dr – Chess Royal is a bargain-priced version of the classic Board Game. It doesn’t have online play or a proper tutorial, but it’s a solid game of chess with an absolute ton of chess puzzles to solve. For $3, this is an absolute steal.

Grade: B-

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