Unlock The King 3
So, you haven’t learned your lesson and you’re here for your third outing on Black Friday. Set your watch and hit the panic button, because it’s go time. When the clock strikes midnight and myriads of strangers produce an assortment of cutting utensils—some legal and some not so legal—you realize you goofed, and it’s time to abort for the third time in a row. You shove strangers, but not too many since it’ll make it easier for the devil to follow you. Dodge descending blades, leap over toppled grandmas, and slap on your gravity boots so you can take to the walls and bypass the mob. You now understand the gameplay concept of Unlock the King 3.
– Real player with 4.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best Abstract Minimalist Games.
The bugs, poor camera, and annoying 3D boards of Unlock the King 2 are gone, but now the camera is Y-inverted, there are fewer levels, and it feels as though the developer just didn’t care about the quality of the puzzles anymore. So many sections of puzzles, including pieces and buttons, go unused – and not even in a “red herring” manner. They don’t serve to distract or confuse because there’s no reason to consider them.
It’s cheap and I didn’t hate it, but it’s not really worth the time. The first in the trilogy was the best.
– Real player with 2.5 hrs in game
Knight’s Retreat
Knight’s Retreat is a simple chess-themed puzzler which requires careful planning to complete its 80 stages. While the difficulty isn’t consistent, it’s easy enough to play in short sessions, ideal for break times or multiplayer queues. It’s cheap, suitable for all ages, and awards achievements for completion.
Pros
✅ Easy to understand, with ample tutorial stages
✅ Pleasing low poly design, including different environments
✅ Chill music and SFX
✅ Multiple mechanics (sliding panels, flip switches, linked pieces)
– Real player with 8.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Abstract Minimalist Games.
Too many bugs when using the undo button, such as some tiles becoming inaccessible, and sometimes it seems to undo a few moves at once at once (I’m not certain of this, but I sometimes notice that a few of my knights have somehow moved backwards on their own, which I assume was caused by me while undoing a different move), and when you move a piece onto a tile with a button and then undo the move, the effect of the button is reversed but the piece remains on the button. This game only allows you to undo one move per turn, so you can imagine how frustrating it can be when the undo button is as wonky as it is. This isn’t a problem for most levels, as this is a relatively easy puzzle game, but there is one particular level near the end that is significantly more complicated than the rest which I’ve been trying hard to solve, but the wonkiness of the undo button keeps forcing me to restart the whole level, which eventually led to me giving up on it.
– Real player with 8.3 hrs in game
Chesskoban - Chess Puzzles
A great puzzle, mixing chess and sokoban in very well done levels, for sure one of the best sokoban I’ve played. I highly recommend
– Real player with 1.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best Abstract Minimalist Games.
Sokoban + Chess is a perfect match. Recommended for everyone who likes puzzles.
– Real player with 1.5 hrs in game
Super X Chess
An excellent game for chess variant enthusiasts.
Game play: This game sports multiple game rules and a plethora of new fairy pieces while still keeping the core of the game intact. The tutorial and the AI make learning the new rules easy and the game offers a lot of potential for improving your strategic thinking. The AI can be adjusted from easy to challenging and either side can be handicapped material. The new scenario selector offers additional opportunities for new and exciting situations to explore. There is also a list that lets you review the games you have played which is another major plus.
– Real player with 245.9 hrs in game
The music choice for this chess game is really good, and the chess is… well, chess. and what could be better?
– Real player with 19.2 hrs in game
The Steps as we know them
The Steps As We Know Them is a nice restricted-movement path-finding puzzle game using some movements as per usual of chess pieces. While it uses the chess pieces and in some ways imitate the standard moving patterns of the pieces, the actual game has very little to do with chess. The game could be given a completely different skin and would still make perfect sense without the chess pieces.
– Real player with 4.7 hrs in game
all I know about chess is how each piece moves, and it’s more than enough for the steps as we know them. in fact, you can go in completely blind, as the game will tell you all the relevant rules as they come up.
6 worlds are laid out like chess boards connected with colored areas serving as separate puzzles. each world features a different chess piece, though their movement doesn’t immediately or always match the real thing. for example, the bishop moves like a pawn until it steps on a special purple tile that unleashes its signature diagonal move.
– Real player with 3.1 hrs in game
Zen Chess: Blindfold Masters
Game has mistakes at least in 126 and 149 levels.
– Real player with 7.2 hrs in game
Beautiful minimalist chess game, which challenges you not only solve the level but tests your memory capacity as well. It is challenging at start but, when you realize how to play, the experience is very immersive. Relaxing soundtrack, a trademark of Zen Chess series, makes a great overall experience. You must give it a try!
– Real player with 6.7 hrs in game
Zen Chess: Champion’s Moves
It’s okay, and sort of what I expected. I like the music, I like how you have the option to change the pieces & the coloring of board. I like how it occasionally mentions something about the game or the famous chess dude. It’s all very pretty. However, the colossal flaw is not showing you the entirety of the mating sequence. It just says you solved the puzzle & on to the next one, without showing you the end result. I want to see it play out the rest of the moves until checkmate is achieved (especially if it is a mate in 10 or more). What the developer could do is just put the entire game in each puzzle and let you scroll through the move list. That would make this game (& all of the Zen chess puzzles) soooooo much better. Ugh..frustrating! But okay, I grudgingly give it a thumbs up because I think these exercises will improve your chess game & I sort of like it.
– Real player with 16.7 hrs in game
What can i say, i liked Zen chess mate in 1, 2,3 and 4 moves. For 0.51 cents on sale i would say this a good deal on Zen Chess Champion moves. But i feel as if there are too many errors in the chess moves. On board #47 there is an illegal move made by the game. You can not put the kind in check but that is what it did. There are several boards you can finish with better moves but the game is inflexible. It feels wrong some how. Or maybe my chess skill is too high as the game is not really a challenge for me. I feel that this game is a miss somehow, it should of been better.
– Real player with 8.6 hrs in game
Zen Chess: Mate in Four
There are some really good exercizes in here for developing calculation skills (as long as you calculate the entire puzzle to the end before moving even 1 piece. no matter how long the puzzle takes). However, some of the puzzles have more than 1 answer and the puzzle only accepts the one that it is programmed to accept. Which is annoying some times. Only noticed it on about 4 of the puzzles.
Worth noting. The game description on the store page say’s there are 50 puzzles, but there are 100.
– Real player with 175.8 hrs in game
ATTENTION!
THIS IS A REVERSE REVIEW, WHICH MEANS IT WILL START FROM THE END TO THE BEGINING!
IF YOU LIKE CHESS, BUY THIS GAME! NOW!
FURTHERMORE, BUY ALL THE CHESS THEMED GAMES FROM MINIMOL STUDIOS!
I HAVE BEEN PLAYING THEIR GAMES AND THEY ARE ALL FREAKING AWESOME!
ZEN CHESS MATE IN ONE
ZEN CHESS MATE IN TWO
ZEN CHESS MATE IN THREE
ZEN CHESS MATE IN FOUR
ZEN CHESS CHAMPION’S MOVES
ZEN CHESS BLINDFOLD MASTERS
KNIGHT SWAP
UNLOCK THE KING
HANG THE KINGS
AS I SAID IF YOU ENJOY CHESS YOU SHOUD HAVE GOT ALL OF THEM ALREADY!!
– Real player with 5.0 hrs in game
Zen Chess: Mate in One
ಠ_ಠ A decent minimalist chess puzzler, but it has significant sticking points.
I picked up Zen Chess: Mate in One when its bundles went on sale. While I definitely got my 59 cents worth out of this game, I can’t recommend picking it up for full price after going fully through the experience. If you’re serious about learning, you’re probably better with lichess.org .
You’ll practice many of your chess skills to get through this game.
– Real player with 6.0 hrs in game
75/100 Fun but lacks depth.
The game comprises 300 mate-in-one puzzles that I got through in 2.9 hours. They are nicely chosen/well constructed puzzles that would be a fantastic learning aid for someone newer to the game who is keen to improve their skills, and are a fun set of puzzles for more experienced players. I enjoyed it.
A few suggestions for improvement:
-firstly the music is really jarring, a volume control would be a great addition (there is just a mute button).
-secondly as soon as you solve, it immediately jumps to the next puzzle. It would be nice if there were an option for a mode where each puzzle pauses after you solve, to reflect on the puzzle and solution, eg displaying the unsolved puzzle, with the chess notation for the move now added on the side (with eg ability to press space to go to next puzzle).
– Real player with 3.8 hrs in game
Zen Chess: Mate in Three
The user interface is pretty straight forward, the game provides exactly what it offers, mate in 3 puzzles. However, I question if there are multiple solutions to some of these puzzles and the program only allows the answer it is programmed to accept.
– Real player with 46.4 hrs in game
THERE ARE NOT MULTIPLE SOLUTIONS!! DON"T LISTEN TO THE PEOPLE SAYING THERE ARE!! Remember your first move will almost always put the king in check. Your second move will have to check the king again, and with the third move you can checkmate. You should not have to brute force anything with this in mind. The Zen Chess series are some of the best on Steam. Buy them all!
– Real player with 17.6 hrs in game