Online Chess Kingdoms

This game’s title says just about as much as any person can about what you’ll experience when you pop it into your PSP. Still not sure? The answer is online chess. Though the concept may seem somewhat interesting, it’s really not. Konami took a good idea and butchered it to a point where even the most hard core chess players out there will be disappointed.

Story/Gameplay

In Online Chess Kingdoms, there’s a “battle mode” that makes up the single player story portion. The idea behind this battle mode is to move your pieces as fast as you can to attack your rival. All the rules of classic Chess apply except for that whole taking turns thing. The first few games can get pretty intense for even an intermediate Chess player, but after a good half hour, you’ll realize how poorly the AI was designed.

When you get tired of the story mode however, you have the option to go online, and pit your wits against some real life foes. You can play classic chess (which is available off line also) or battle mode. Konami tried to make the online mode somewhat interesting with the ability to gain prestige by choosing a “faction” and taking to the battlegrounds to try either capture land from the opposing force or protect yours from others. It’s all too bad that you’re unable to communicate in any way shape or form with your opponent online, because it could be a pretty interesting experience. Not even a text based chat was implemented. As far as online gaming goes, no matter what you’re playing, do you really feel like you’re playing a human opponent if you can’t communicate?

Visuals and Sound

Graphically, for a Chess game, OCK makes pretty good use of the PSP’s innards. During battle mode, some of the effects of taking out an opponent’s pieces can be awe inspiring. Too bad they didn’t fix some other aspects to go with it.

The sound is pretty basic. There isn’t much to comment on truly, but what’s there isn’t too shabby. But sadly, the battle sounds cupped with the battle graphics give just about as much satisfaction as watching Snake put down a room full of enemies in Metal Gear Acid. It’s a nice looking experience but just sit back and watch.

Overall

In the end, the game of Chess works. It has always worked. People enjoy it, and it truly is a game of intellect. Had the story mode in this game been switched up for some means of communication during online play, the game would have been worthy of a much higher rating than it is. Heck, with such a simple game whose title even indicates that the majority of it is based on online play, how hard would it have been to add headset support?