Battle Chess II: Chinese Chess

Battle Chess II: Chinese Chess

Just like I remember! Fun to play, and has the option of using the 3D or 2D board. The game does in fact have a quick and easy Manual (under “Move”-“Online Manual”) that tells you how the settings work AND how to play. You just have to, from what I can tell, hold the right mouse button to access the menu options and place your mouse over the option you want to select (while still holding the right mouse button) and release and it selects it.

That aside, it seems like a fun and challenging game. I recommend it.

Real player with 9.0 hrs in game


Read More: Best Chess Turn-Based Games.


The first evolution of Chess since the Persian Empire!

Real player with 0.5 hrs in game

Battle Chess II: Chinese Chess on Steam

Knight Swap

Knight Swap

Two knights and their countrymen must overcome their racial differences as they are forced to rule over each other’s kingdoms for a fortnight. Will they recognize similarities between their goals, mindsets, behavioral patterns, abilities, and more, or will they focus on the differences and fail miserably?

The Good:

  • You’ve probably seen other puzzle games that involve moving knights around, but this one manages to be unique.

  • The puzzles are actually challenging.

  • Throws a few gimmicks at you to mix things up: moving across different planes/gaps, portals, switches, etc.

Real player with 6.6 hrs in game


Read More: Best Chess Sokoban Games.


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 4.9 hrs in game

Knight Swap on Steam

Battle Chess

Battle Chess

Simply amazing. Literally the best Chess game on Steam. Nostalgia goggles or not, I remember playing this game on my Dads old PC - an Amiga, no less - sitting up in the morning before school sneaking a few games in, sitting up at night before bed watching him play. It was a different time. A better time.

It might be old, but there are some things that never go out of style. The game offers a game of Chess in both “3D” pixelated/voxel graphics with medieval characters as playing pieces instead of figures, and a standard “2D” mode that is merely a simple top down view of a standard chess board with appropriate images for each piece. You can play hotseat/couch multiplayer, or you can pit two CPU (lovingly called I.B.M’s in this game) players against each other and watch the carnage. Back in the day, I remember sitting and waiting for minutes at a time until each CPU made a move once the was underway, but those problems are somewhat lessened now, it’s good. On higher difficulty levels the CPU does like to take its time though.

Real player with 8.1 hrs in game


Read More: Best Chess Classic Games.


This is an interesting chess game. You can select two modes: Normal or 3D chessboard. It also includes many useful features, such as save and load. Your rival can be set to a human, a computer (IBM) or a network player (Modem). But I don’t know how to set the last one.

By the way, I once thought this game was based on a sword and magic world. Until I saw that enemy king used a laser pistol to kill my soldiers…

Basic control:

Press ESC to enter the game.

Click LMB to select your chess piece and move it.

Real player with 6.2 hrs in game

Battle Chess on Steam

Chesskoban - Chess Puzzles

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

Sokoban + Chess is a perfect match. Recommended for everyone who likes puzzles.

Real player with 1.5 hrs in game

Chesskoban - Chess Puzzles on Steam

Knight Swap 2

Knight Swap 2

The fight for racial equality continues as green, purple, red, and yellow knights are required to get along to make their way home. Can they trust their fellow knights to guide them to their goals? There are trapdoors this time, so they better hope so.

The Good:

  • It gets very challenging. As of writing this, 12.1% of players made it past level 30 and 5.6% completed the game.

  • The puzzles are actually challenging.

  • The game offers up some new gimmicks along with the old: trapdoors, portals tandem pieces, board flipping, 4 different colors for pieces, and tandem switches.

Real player with 15.2 hrs in game

Not great, but good considering the cheap price

This sequel retains all the mechanics of the first game, while adding 3 new ones which happen to make it significantly harder than its predecessor. These mechanics are:

1. vanishing tiles: tiles which disappear once they are no longer occupied after being activated;

2. linked pieces: some knights have a light on the back of their necks. The light can be in 3 possible positions: top, middle or bottom of the neck. When you move a knight with a light, others with the same light pattern will copy its movement, as long as there is an available tile for them to move to.

Real player with 9.6 hrs in game

Knight Swap 2 on Steam

Unlock The King 3

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

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

Unlock The King 3 on Steam

Unlock The King

Unlock The King

Shuffle chess pieces to clear a path for its titular centerpiece in Unlock the King. While its 100 stages aren’t of consistent quality, the sheer quantity offered for its minimum price point make it an easy shoe-in for brain teaser fans.

Similar to its developer’s other works, UTK is about making way for its central figure. Apart from pawns, every piece makes an appearance here, differing primarily in quantity and stage geometry to keep you invested. It’s a simple formula that’s guaranteed to work, though it is admittedly repetitive. Bread-and-butter chess boards make way for switches in its late half, transforming the playing field and opening up new possibilities.

Real player with 6.5 hrs in game

Imagine it’s Black Friday, and you’ve made the misguided decision to take advantage of some deal you are convinced is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity (if only because you went and got trampled). 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. You shove strangers, dodge descending blades, leap over toppled grandmas, and shimmy through paths so narrow they would make a spelunker fill their adult diaper. You now understand the gameplay concept of Unlock the King.

Real player with 5.7 hrs in game

Unlock The King on Steam

Unlock The King 2

Unlock The King 2

2D is replaced by 3D puzzles. It is more complicated now, harder to manage and understand all the possible move options and possibilities.

At least Undo option is added - that I missed during the Part 1. But this option is buggy sometimes, made the piece invisible.

Level 14 - this was not explained before that you can rotate the view with your right mouse button. Discovered that the second before I was giving up and planned to look for solution. And the rotating stops working sometimes, you need to close the game to make it work again.

Real player with 4.8 hrs in game

upd: What you can read below is my original review of the first version of this game. I was pretty upset with my first impression which didn’t live up to my expectations, as you can see it. After I posted this review, the developers were fast to respond, and they fixed things I noted here, and I really, really appreciate it. I played this game to the completion and I must say that now it is a good example of a minimalistic puzzle. So feel free to try it and support the developers. Also, I want to thank Raphael, one of the devs, for the answer you can also read below. It means a lot for me, too.

Real player with 3.9 hrs in game

Unlock The King 2 on Steam