Shotgun King: The Final Checkmate

A mix of chess rules, turn-based tactical shooting and rpg-ish selection of skills and penalties. If you can at least navigate each of those elements proficiently, you'll do well in the game. The main campaign has 12 successive chess boards that you complete by killing the enemy king each time (then you unlock an endless mode and apparently a chase mode after that, but the campaign feel like the main attraction for players wanting a more bounded experience with a clear end goal). Each board is pretty short and when you complete it, you have a choice between two sets two cards (one card in each set is a bonus, the other one is a penalty). The cards you get at each level are cumulative until the end of the campaign, so you need to pick your cards well. For example, if you pick a lot of penalty cards that spawn more enemy pieces, you might be overwhelmed by the late game. The sets of cards you get are random and you might get a couple of hopeless runs because of the card selection you get, but usually, you'll have hope if you pick your cards judiciously. Barrings cards that affect the way pieces move (there are plenty), the pieces move like regular chess pieces. A big difference: you'll play a couple of moves and then, a couple of enemy pieces will move at once. Also, enemies kill you by moving in your square like chess, but you kill them with a shotgun (or blade if you have one and they have low hp) and a lot of enemy pieces will take more than one shot to kill. Barring cards altering the rules, the opponent will play in a manner closer to a classical chess fashion and you'll need to see them coming. For your part, you'll try to position your "king" to shoot at their king in a manner closer to a tactical shooter. The game involves navigating those two things simultaneously and picking your cards well. Overall, not a extremely deep game, but a very original entertaining one, especially if you have a passing interest in chess, tactical shooters and rpgs.

So, you only have your king, versus the White Army. Like in chess, you and your opponent take turns. Like in chess, you win by killing the enemy king. Like in chess, your king moves on one nearby square, and enemy pieces use their chess movement rules... Unlike in chess, you have a shotgun. Pieces have health points, you cannot capture them by moving, but who cares ? It's a nice strategic turn-by-turn game, first created during Ludum Dare, where it won a whole lot of (well deserved) accolades. The game is organized as a rogue-like, as a number of "rounds", where you each time must kill the king (or its replacement). After each round, you choose one "reward" package, out of two available. Each package contains both a BLACK card, which improves you (better damage, more ammo, ability to hit in melee, grenades, better movement, a moat to help you defend, etc...), and a WHITE card, which improves the enemy army (+3 pawns, +1 queen, or "Theocracy", which removes the enemy king, adds bishops, and changes the win objective to "Kill all the bishops", for instance...) If you manage to win enough rounds (like, 11 ?), you get a final round where the TRUE white king comes down, boss-style, to personally lead its army and try to kick your ass. The game is surprisingly easy to learn, but hard to master, and is quite addictive. A game can be quite fast (especially if you goof up early), and even if you go "far", you can win a full game in around one hour. There are different shotguns to choose from at game start (which must be unlocked first by reaching some in-game objectives), which add to the replayability. There are also two other game modes (different from the Throne mode, which I discussed), which I haven't tried yet ("Endless", and "Chase", which is unlocked by reaching level 15 in Endless) Graphics are like CGA, and the sounds are ultra-basic. But who cares ? The gameplay is very good, and that's what we need ! All in all, a very good little game.

Some people like Tetris, others like Candy Crush, but now I too, finally have a "time-waster" type game that I like playing. The game seems simple at first glance but no encounter is ever the same (except for the very first level) since after every level both you and and your enemies get a random buff though there is a strategic element in that you are able to choose which random buff set is applied to you and the enemy (either A or B). Sometimes if you're lucky you can get the right buffs to stack some amazing synergy and you feel almost invincible (almost, it's never THAT easy ;). I was never really that good at chess but for me this is just the right amount of difficulty to be challenging, but not frustrating. I just really wish there was an option to replay a level even if that meant you can't progress any further, because sometimes you lose and you really want to know if you could have progressed any further had you played differently. Either that or some kind of "sandbox" mode where you can play around with different buff sets and practice different mechanics. The grenades seems simple at first but I still haven't gotten the hang of properly throwing them and keep killing myself by throwing them too close to me. I don't understand why it couldn't just be "click grenade, click square to throw it". Other mechanics like jumping over pieces or grabbing nearby pieces and throwing them I haven't gotten to work properly yet. Maybe it's just me? Overall it's a great way to blast through a couple of hours when you're just chilling.

After playing chess for many years, this was an unexpected pleasure to play. The cards can be punishing, but it was well worth it. Unless there is a follow up that can improve on the fun or there are better chess options here, this remains my favorite.