Battle Chess

For a game that's essentially a mini-war, chess can be the most languorous of pastimes. In films, it's frequently played by the wise, older man who's willing to spend hours, days, months or even years on the same match. The whole process takes on an almost holy significance whilst the audience commences some serious, philosophical beard-stroking.

As the title may suggest, Battle Chess tries to inject some of the action back into the ancient pastime. Its raison d'être is a selection of nifty 3D animations that play whenever a piece is taken. These are a nice feature, especially since most of the actions are pleasingly over the top. One shows a sword-wielding soldier somersaulting through the air, only to chop the head off his opponent on his descent.

Disappointingly, though, some animations seem to be missing. Take on another piece with the queen, and you'll see her face up to her enemy only for the game flick back to the board screen again. Apparently her majesty can do away with people just by walking up to them.

Underneath these flash 3D fireworks lies your traditional game of chess. It's not a simplified rendition, either, so you may well find yourself playing on for quite some time, like the aforementioned wise old dude. Battle Chess does allow the game to be saved at any time, though, so a game can easily be split over several play sessions.

The Classic Chess mode, which is your bog standard game of chess, offers three difficulty levels. On top of this, there is a pass-the-handset multiplayer mode and the 'Chess Arcade'.

In this section, there's a generous selection of other chess types. In Speed Chess, you have to make your moves within three minutes or lose the game. Situation offers five different games in mid-play to test your chess prowess, while Puzzle sees you having to attempt certain tasks (taking a specific piece, for example, within a set number of moves). They're not throwaway additions, either – there's a generous 24 brain teasing conundrums in the Puzzle mode, for instance.

So, Battle Chess does indeed tick a fair few boxes, but it also comes with its own share of problems. When those fancy 3D animations aren't playing, the pieces are drawn as animated isometric figures. Unfortunately, this means they tend to obscure nearby parts of the board a bit. Squares the pieces can move to are outlined in blue, but a cluttered board can still leave you confused.

Granted, there is an option to make the board fully 2D, with very simple piece symbols, but this looks pretty ugly, defeating the main intention of the game. In pure gameplay terms, though, it's perhaps the better choice.

Another concern is the fact Battle Chess doesn't cater particularly well for the casual chess fan. While the Puzzle mode is much quicker than a full match, its taxing nature doesn't exactly make it the main game's easy-going companion.

Lastly, despite the flashy 3D, the game has a certain clunky feel to it that puts you off wanting to spend enough time with it to play whole matches.

If you're going to base your game around a gimmick, you need to make sure it works. In Battle Chess, the 3D animations that are there are good, but those that are missing are glaringly obvious and irritating. Considering the game is more likely to please the chess aficionado rather than the curious browser of the Puzzle section, how long the 3D gimmick will hold interest is also a valid point. Because, ultimately, we shouldn't forget there are better 'straight' chess sims already available on mobile.