Video Game Review: Star Wars Chess

Star Wars Chess is one of a few Star Wars video games available as abandonware. While the game is pretty basic and suffers from a few glitches, its comical animations make it definitely worth checking out. You can download Star Wars Chess for free at Abandonia.

The Software Toolworks released Star Wars Chess for MS-DOS in 1993. (They were apparently very proud of their work, since "The Software Toolworks" is just as big as "Star Wars Chess" in the opening logo.) You can run it on modern computers using a DOS emulator, such as DOSBox.

Star Wars Chess doesn't have a complicated installation process, so it's easy to start up. Once the game started, however, I experienced glitches such as the music cutting out, pieces moving on a delay, and the mouse freezing when I tried to click on a menu. Depending on how the game behaves on your computer, it might take some time to get it running smoothly.

In terms of gameplay, Star Wars Chess is a clone of Battle Chess, a 1991 game that featured comical, animated fights when one piece captured another. While the pieces in Battle Chess made sense, the choice of characters for Star Wars Chess is a bit questionable. Why are Luke and Leia the king and queen, and Han Solo just a part of the background scenery? Why are the Sandpeople fighting with the Imperials? Wasn't there another actual character they could use for the Imperial rooks instead of an AT-ST?

Despite the odd cast, the battle scenes between the Rebel and Imperial sides are both humorous and largely in-character. C-3PO, for example, captures Boba Fett by bumbling around and knocking his gun to the floor, leading to an accidental discharge. Darth Vader, in turn, captures C-3PO by cutting him to pieces with his lightsaber and kicking his head off the board.

The game also includes options for a harder AI opponent, rotating the board (so the Rebel pieces face you), and a mentor setting to help you pick a good move. The AI's default setting is good for beginner chess players, but more experienced players may not find Star Wars Chess much of a challenge.

Ultimately, the animation is Star Wars Chess's weakness as well as its strong point. The pieces are animated as they move, not just for the battle scenes; this can slow down the game considerably, especially if you're experiencing glitches. The novelty of the capture animations also starts to wear off fairly quickly.

There's a menu option to turn off the animations, of course -- but if you do that, you might as well just play a better chess game.

Overall, Star Wars Chess is average both as a chess game and for its Star Wars content, although it gains an extra half-star for being free and relatively easy to run. While it's worth playing for the animations, the fact that it wasn't memorable enough to have its own Wookieepedia article is not surprising.