Rook’s Revenge,
by Astraware,
$14.95 for Palm or Pocket PC version
Reviewed September 2002
If you think this is just another chess
game modeled after Deep Blue, you couldn’t be more
wrong. If you would rather wait and watch Garry Kasparov
playing Deep Junior in October, you don’t know what
you’re missing. Ported to handheld devices by Astraware,
Rook’s Revenge is not a turn-based chess game!
Rook’s Revenge is a chess game, but
plays in real time. You don’t win by the using the
right predictions but by fast reaction. The rules in this
game are similar to the regular chess game except you move
as many piece as you can before your opponent moves a piece,
promoting fast thinking and slick moving. You can’t
however move a piece twice in a row. If two pieces collide
while in motion, the higher-ranking piece will survive. What’s
a real time strategy game without building stuff? If you
miss the Bishop that has just gotten axed by the enemy Queen,
you can just build another one by double clicking on the
empty Bishop slot. How would you like to have 4 Queens to
surround the enemy King? Or double your Knight-Queen checkmate
set up by adding another Knight and Queen? The lower-ranking
pieces will take less time to build than the higher-ranking
ones, and the King can’t be duplicated. This unique
game play can make the game go as fast as you can move the
pieces, or as slow as you need to build, let’s say,
two sets of chess pieces against one? Can you hear the roars
of the pawns?
Rook’s Revenge comes with 3 chess
sets and 3 board designs. You will see the animations of
chess piece moving, blowing each other up and hammer action
in piece building. The graphics look sharp and stylish. There
is an in-game menu that allows you to change chess sets,
board designs, access Help, set the Sound and Pause the game.
Stylus control is fast and smooth, an important feature in
a real time game.
There are 3 difficulty levels where the
opponent AI will increase the speed and level of chess intelligence
as you choose to play in more difficult settings. With my
Chess for Dummies knowledge and Chessmaster training, I find
that Easy mode is extremely easy and Hard mode is not very
hard in chess strategy but quite hectic when it comes to
reacting to enemy’s fast moving pieces. I’ve
won unbelievable number of games in Rook’s Revenge,
which I’d never win in the turn-based traditional chess.
You will earn rankings as you win more games.
The game has some fun sound effects and
requires very little space. Rook’s Revenge supports
Palm and Pocket PC, as well as hi-res Clie devices by fully
taking advantage of their high-resolution screens and enhanced
audio with a special version using high quality 3D-rendered
graphics and sampled wave audio. On the Pocket PC, it supports
ARM, MIPS and SH3. A two-player versus mode as well as a
puzzle mode will be added later on this year.
While you’re waiting for the former
world chess champ Garry Kasparov to battle Blue Junior, why
not get into action with Rook’s Revenge yourself? You
might not win $1 million for beating the new computer chess
genius, but you will for sure have some laughs playing Rook’s
Revenge. For the veteran chess players, don’t expect
to use your polished castling and en passant tricks. But
for those who would never pick a fight with computer chess
game, this might just be your only chance to become a chess
Master!
Playing Hints and Tips
You won’t have time to think or practice
Master’s signature moves. So throw everything you know
about chess strategy out of the window, and play by Rook’s
Revenge’s rules! Build more powerful pieces to take
the upper hand. |
