''Lego Chess'' is a

Lego Lego (, ; ; stylised as LEGO) is a line of plastic construction toys manufactured by the Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. Lego consists of variously coloured interlocking plastic bricks made of acrylonitri ...

-themed,

chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

-based

strategy Strategy (from Greek στρατηγία ''stratēgia'', "troop leadership; office of general, command, generalship") is a general plan to achieve one or more long-term or overall goals under conditions of uncertainty. In the sense of the " a ...

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

developed by

Krisalis Software Krisalis Software Limited was a British video game developer and publisher founded by Tony Kavanagh, Peter Harrap, and Shaun Hollingworth in 1987 under the name Teque Software List of games Developed Published References Ext ...

, published by

Lego Media Lego A/S, also known as the Lego Group, is a Danish construction toy production company based in Billund. It manufactures Lego-branded toys, consisting mostly of interlocking ABS plastic and rubber bricks. The Lego Group has also built several ...

, and released for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

in 1998.

Gameplay

The rules of the game can be changed to cater to many popular variations, though the most common rules of chess are the default rules. During a game, clicking on a piece will show the available places to move to. If a piece is captured, a short video plays showing the captured character being caught, with each different capture having its own video clip. These clips are rarely related to chess. Because each individual piece has a set of separate video clips for catching an opposing piece, there are 60 clips in total.

Story mode

In story mode, the player can pick either a

western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

pirates Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and valuable goods, or taking hostages. Those who conduct acts of piracy are call ...

theme. After selecting the theme, a three-round chess tournament against the AI opponent begins, with each round featuring a more difficult AI opponent, up to 75% at the third round. When starting a round, a story

cutscene A cutscene or event scene (sometimes in-game cinematic or in-game movie) is a sequence in a video game that is not interactive, interrupting the gameplay. Such scenes are used to show conversations between characters, set the mood, reward the ...

plays. In the western theme, a

sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland, the , which is common ...

sets out to capture three bank robbers, and in the pirate theme, a colonial navy officer races against a pirate captain to find buried treasure. At the end of a round, another cutscene plays, depending on whether the player won or lost. Once a full story is completed, a printable certificate is rewarded. The story mode takes around an hour to complete.

Tutorial mode

The tutorial mode teaches how to play chess, from the basics of movement for the different pieces, to advanced playing techniques. The player is taught by the "Chess King", a king

minifigure A Lego minifigure, often simply referred to as a Lego figure or a minifig, is a small plastic articulated figurine made of special Lego bricks produced by Danish building toy manufacturer The Lego Group. They were first produced in 1978 and ha ...

with an

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one of the most significant cultural figures of the ...

-esque voice who commands an army represented on the board by the white pieces. The Chess King slightly modernizes the explanations of the pieces. For example, it is said that the reason knights can jump over other pieces is that they ride BMX Motor Bikes. The King on his throne was also a Lego set, packaged with the first release of the game.

Versus mode

In this mode, the player can choose the difficulty of the game when playing against the AI opponent. Multi-player mode can also be selected here. Alternatively, the player can watch a simulated game between AI players. In addition, a third, traditional chess set (though still constructed from Lego bricks) can be chosen, and all three sets can be mixed (pirates playing against western, for example), but animations for capturing pieces are disabled when playing with mixed sets. Players can also remove or add pieces from gameplay before or during the game.

Reception

''Lego Chess'' received favourable reviews from game critics, stating its creative way of using Lego pieces as a "fun" and "entertaining" way of playing chess. Other reviews were not as positive, due to the bland style of the cutscenes and claims that cutscenes featuring the tribal drum noise were "creepy".

References

{{Lego video games 1998 video games Chess software Krisalis Software games

Chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

Multiplayer and single-player video games Video games about pirates Video games about police officers Video games developed in the United Kingdom Western (genre) video games Windows games Windows-only games