Lego Chess

Lego Chess

Cover art of Lego Chess
Developer(s) Krisalis Software
Publisher(s) Lego Media
Distributor(s) Lego Videogames
Director(s) Andrew Ware
Producer(s) Dave Upchurch
Programmer(s) Graeme Richardson
Artist(s)
  • Rob Richardson
  • Phillip Hackney
  • Paul Dobson
Composer(s)
  • David R. Punshon
  • Richard Wells
Platform(s) Microsoft Windows
Release date(s)
  • NA: 4 February 1998
  • EU: 1998
Genre(s) Strategy
Mode(s) Single-player, multiplayer

Lego Chess is a Lego-themed strategy video game based on chess, developed by Krisalis Software and published by Lego Media.

Gameplay

The rules of the game can be changed to cater to many popular variations, though the most common rules of chess are default. During a game, clicking on a piece will show the available places to move to, and if a piece is captured a short comical video plays showing the captured character being caught, with each different capture having its own movie (and they rarely have anything related to chess in the clips). Because pawns, knights, rooks, kings, queens and bishops all have separate clips for catching other pawns, knights, rooks, queens and bishops, there are 140 clips total: 60 western themed (2 sets of 30, depending on the capturing team), 60 pirate themed (2 sets of 30, depending on the capturing team), a special one when one completes tutorial mode, 3 western themed story mode; 3 winning western; 3 losing western, 3 pirate themed; 3 winning pirate; 3 losing pirate, and an introduction cartoon. The characters in the clips are different, depending on what side they are on, resulting in 100 separate video clips, which can be viewed in the "Scrap Book" after they have occurred in the game. The queen take rook / rook take queen cartoons are similar for both Wild West and Pirates.

Story Mode

In Story Mode, The player can pick either a western or pirates theme. After selecting the theme, A three-game chess tournament against the AI begins. In the first game the AI is at 25% difficulty, in the second game the AI is at 50% difficulty and in the third and final game the AI is at 75% difficulty. Before each match a cut scene plays, ending with the protagonists having a task to complete. In the western theme a sheriff is trying to capture three bank robbers, and in the pirate theme a soldier is trying to beat some pirates to a treasure. After each match is over, another cut scene plays with the protagonists either succeeding or failing the task, depending on the match's outcome. (Using the same example, either the sheriff catches a bandit, one for each match, or all of them escape.) After completing a story, a printable certificate is rewarded.

Tutorial Mode

The tutorial mode teaches how to play chess, from how the different pieces can move to advanced playing techniques. The Player is taught by "The Chess King", a Lego King Minifig that talks like Elvis who supposedly commands the white army, and 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. Multi-player can also be chosen here, or watch the computer play against itself. 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) However, capture animations are disabled when playing with mixed sets. Players can also remove or add pieces from gameplay before or during the game.

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