Virtual Chess 64

"Y'know...I'm horrible at chess"

Yes, I must admit. I am horrible at Chess. I haven't won a single game in my life. I'm pretty sure I'd lose against a 5 year old. But, despite that...I liked this game. It's enjoyable.

Gameplay: 9/10

The most attractive part of this game is the little 3D battles the chess pieces get into in 3D mode. It took a while for this to get old. There are 5 battle scenes for each chess piece, depending on what kind of piece your chess piece is defeating. I'm horrible at math, but I believe this makes for about 30 different battle scenes altogether, which is some good variety.
In addition to the 3D mode, there is 2D mode, and also a 2D mode where you can play up to 4 different games at one time. You can also select what kind of chess pieces you want to use in 2D mode, making for even more variety.
As far as difficulty goes, it just depends on your skill level in chess. For someone as horrible as me, this game was very hard. I haven't beaten it once. I don't believe difficulty is something that can be correctly judged by one person in a game like this.
The control is ok, but I have one complaint about it, and it's what lowered the score of Virtual Chess's Gameplay. The ability to rotate the chess board with the control stick. There really is no purpose to this, other than to emphasize that it indeed is a 3D board. WOW. Not really that amazing, and not that useful. I sometimes found it quite hard to rotate it back to the original viewpoint. A little screwey in this area

Story: N/A

This is a chess game guys. It's like asking for story in a soccer game. The most story is: Black and White are mad at each other. Battle. Win. Yay.

Audio/Video: 8/10

The music was perfect for a chess game. Soft, slow, and relaxing. Nothing too distracting at all. Of course the music was also nothing special, but you really don't want it to be in this game. Anything special would be distracting, and you can't afford distractions in chess. The voices of the chess pieces are a bit muffled, but not TOO bad.
The graphics are ok. Again, nothing special. In the 3D battles the characters are a bit blocky, and some of their limbs look sewed on. But it wasn't anything that'd make you cringe or anything.

Replayability: 5/10

This is hard to judge for me. Chess is something best played in my opinion on a rainy day with a friend. Doesn't have much to offer as replayability except for all the different battle scenes. But those get tired after a while. This game will probably end up eventually in the closet with your non electronic chess games, to be taken out when you're bored.

Buy or Rent?

Definitely a renter. Like I said above, it'll eventually end up in your closet with your non electronic board games to be taken out again on a rainy day.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/30/02, Updated 11/30/02