TF
Chinese Checkers by TF
System, Price: $14.99
Reviewed April 2003
Next to Mahjong and Chinese Chess, Chinese
Checkers is probably the third most popular game in China.
There are quite a few Chinese Checkers games for the Palm,
the Chinese developer TF’s version looks the best with
simple yet sharp graphics and easy to play game design.
If you are not familiar with the game of
Chinese Checkers, look at it as a race between two armies.
You will try to get to opponent’s territory before
they occupy yours, and you can only move the pieces by jumping
over another piece, which can be yours or your opponents.
The first player who moves all the pieces into opponent’s
slots wins the game. There is no fight since you don’t
take other players’ checker piece, what you need is
strategy and sharp eyes.
TF Chinese Checkers offers the traditional
game board that can be played by up to 6 players. You will
see three action buttons at the bottom right corner of the
game board: Move, Surrender and Retract. Each time you make
a move you must first select a checker piece and indicate
each jump, then hit the Move button. There are three difficulty
levels, the Normal level AI doesn’t have much offense
and Genius level AI is much more cunning at attacking your
space. As the board indicates, you can have up to 6 players
to play the game and use either IR or Bluetooth to connect
all players. The game could use a little more polish in the
sense of packaging it with more background designs for the
game board or adding a tutorial file for those who are new
to the game of Chinese Checkers.
The sound bites are simple and pleasing
and used mainly to accompany your checker moves. You have
the option to turn the sound on or off. TF Chinese Checkers
supports all Palm OS devices including OS 5.
Just because there isn’t any bloodshed,
it doesn’t mean there is no glory. Chinese Checkers
can be a very exhilarating game especially if you find a
way to get out of the deadly gridlock and put your pieces
ahead of your opponent’s. The TF version allows you
to play against machine or your friends anywhere you go.
Let the race begin!
Playing Hint and Tips
If you want to learn the rules of Chinese
Checkers, here is a good page to read:
http://www.mastersgames.com/rules/chinese-checkers-rules.htm
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