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Category: Strategy games
Developer: 99games
File Size 4.5MB
Version Reviewed: 1.1
Requirements: iPhone 2.0 software
Compatibility: iPhone and iPod touch
Price: $3.99
Age Rating: 4+

When it comes to chess games for the iPhone, there is a plethora from which to choose. 99games contributes two games to that collection with Chess Lite and Chess Pro. Chess Lite is targeted at beginners, while Chess Pro is, well, for professionals and those of us who hate knowing there’s a better version available…you know who you are. But are either of these games worth the money?

First up are features. Chess Pro has a bunch, including:

• 3 complexity levels - Easy, Medium, and Hard
• 3 variants (game rules) - Regular, Suicide and Losers
• Undo, last move highlighting, move hints and highlighting for legal moves
• Save, load and resume games
• 3D graphics
• 2 player mode

Chess Lite is basically the same engine as Pro with some restrictions. There are no options for complexity, variants or themes; you’re stuck with Medium, Regular and 2D. So, ironically enough, the Pro version is also for chess newbies since Easy is not available in Chess Lite.

Next are options. The game has options for Complexity, Themes, Variants and Sound. Here’s a quick rundown.

• Chess Pro has three levels of complexity, which are accurately named. I had no problem capturing the opponent’s King on easy. Medium and Hard are, well, a different story. I never said I was a Chess Grandmaster.
• Along with the standard rules of Chess, there are a couple other variants that change the rules of the game (maybe variations would be less confusing). The two other variants, Suicide and Losers, make losing the goal. So, if you’re no good at chess, just crank the complexity up on Losers and pretend you’re trying to win!
• There are three Themes to choose from, two are 3D while the last is 2D. More about this later
• There’s an option to toggle sound on and off. If you switch sound off, music can be played from the iPod, which is awesome!

The game engine is great. It’s easy to keep track of movement since the last move made is highlighted, along with legal moves for a selected piece. And just in case you made a dumb move that allowed your opponent to capture your queen, there’s an undo button. If only I could get one of these in real life.

Controlling the game can be a little difficult if you’ve chosen one of the 3D themes. You can’t just grab the pieces, you have to tap the square that it’s sitting on. Sometimes this is a little hard to remember when pieces get crowded in an area and you try to grab the top of one of them. If you hadn’t been told this, you might actually think the game had serious interface issues. Just remember, touch the square below it. It should be noted that this isn’t an issue with the 2D theme. Plus, distinguishing pieces from one another is much easier in 2D.

I also experienced a hiccup with resuming games. If you’ve started a single player game as Black, left and later returned, the perspective may have changed by 180 degrees. The game is still playable, but it’s hard to visualize moves from the other side of the board. This issue could easily be remedied with an option to flip the board.

Other than the piece selection and viewpoint issues, there are a few other things I’d like to see in future updates. This game would be awesome in full 3D. The game looks 3D now, but it’s closer to 2.5D. Being able to rotate and zoom in and out would be nice, but I’m told that not going full 3D was a performance choice. I’d also like to see the current themes improved; they could stand to have a bit more detail and contrast. More themes are always great, and it would be nice to separate board and piece themes from each other. Perhaps there could be an option to pick a set of pieces followed by the desired color, allowing for many more possibilities. Lastly, I’d like to see the gameplay interface look more like an iPhone app is “supposed” to look like. I just like seeing a consistent interface across all of my apps

I really do like this game. It has everything a chess game should, and has a lot of potential to add to itself. The chess engine is great, and there are enough complexity levels for a mobile game. I like that there are variants, though I’m not sure how many players will actually use them. Themes are great, and 99games says more are coming. Piece selection could use some work, and the viewpoint issue needs to be addressed, but overall, this game is solid.

Should you buy it? Well, that depends. If you’re a chess nut, then yeah, buy it. If you’re on the fence about how much you like chess, you might opt to wait for some enticing upgrades. If you do decide to buy it now, at the time of this writing 99games is running a 25% off sale on Chess Pro and offering Chess Lite for free. So, if nothing else, you can try it out yourself.