Majestic Chess

by Vivendi Universal

Product Details

• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B000083JXC
• Item Weight: 8 ounces
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: August 5, 2003
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #26,879 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
  • #95 in Video Games > PC Games > Board Games
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Chess to Bring Out the Best from Beginner toGrandmaster!Product Information Majestic Chess brings you the classic chess experience plus the exclusive ChessAdventure - an entirely new approach to enjoying your favorite strategy game!  Majestic Chess hasa powerful A.I. opponent that can be adjusted to any strengthor style of play stunning graphics and dazzling animations along with the all-newChess Adventure. Immerse yourself in a world of endless chess adventures. Challengeyourself for hours with multiple play modes. Compete against a variety of opponents to improveyour game.  Choose your competition playing style and favorite chess set- and start the clock!  Or teach  yourself to play with the unique andexciting Chess Adventure.The King of all Chess Games  Player vs Computer Play against any of 24 computer opponents to suit any skill level or style from beginner to Grandmaster. Hone your skills by observing two computer opponents play out a game in the computer vs computer learning mode. Product HighlightsEmbark upon the ultimate chess adventure Journey throughout 8 worlds for multiple levels of play. Up to 20 locations per world with hundreds of challenges to conquer. Buy chess pieces or magic artifacts to help you on your journey. Master each world and move closer to ultimate victory. Earn your army of chess pieces in story-driven chess challenges. As you succeed the fog of war will life to reveal more world to explore. Complete a series of tutorials learning puzzles speed drills mini-games and more. Improve your chess skills with the help of innovative in-game teaching advice. Prove victorious in your quests and earn the right to challenge the ultimate computer opponent.Product FeaturesWorld-Class

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars pretty good introduction to chess, August 23, 2003

By 

Brian E. Mitchell (Dunwoody, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Majestic Chess (CD-ROM)

This is a very interesting game to give you an introduction to chess. It does a few things very right. First, there there is adventure mode where it attempts to teach you about chess without it seeming quite so dull. It pulls this off fairly well, I think. It's less instructional than, say, the classroom in the chessmaster series, but it's probably a bit more fun for some younger players.

Second, playing the game against the computer. Here, I expected it to be largely the same as chessmaster, and it is. It uses the same engine ('the king') and it is a decent player, nothing special there. I looked at some teaching modes, and here is where it shines; it explains the purpose of various moves, and seems to handle this much better than any other chess games i've seen, far better than the chessmaster series or the chessbase products (which can explain all the moves, as well as offer text analysis). This is a strong point for the game, and might be worth the cost of admission alone.

Online play, well I did not care for it. I think there are better choices. Of course, chessbase is the only game publisher i've seen that handles online play even halfway decently. There are plenty of web and ics alternatives from yahoo to fics to icc, so I don't think this is a big drawback.

It's around 30$ which is quite a bit cheaper than the chessbase products (around 50) and slightly cheaper than chessmaster (around 40), and comes with a pocketpc version, should you have a windows ce based pda, so it's a fairly good value.

If you are a strong player, you probably won't find much here (say above 1400 uscf) but if you are just a casual player, you may enjoy it.

One word about the graphics and sound; it is not as polished as chessmaster, and I found some mild issues I did not like in adventure mode. In game mode, it was not nearly as bad.

Also, if adventure mode seems unbelievably slow right after you install it, try a reboot. It was necessary for me to reboot after the install, even though I was not prompted to do so (on an xp laptop).

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Makes chess fun!, September 30, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Majestic Chess (CD-ROM)

Majestic Chess is a great game, especially for people who are interested in learning chess but enjoy playing video games. The unique Chess Adventure mode in this game caught my attention so I bought the product, and am very pleased with it! It has rekindled my interest in chess and made learning the game fun. The graphics are great (the best of any chess program I've seen, especially the 3D boards) and there are plenty of other features in the game including online play, an easy to use interface, and a strong chess engine that will challenge anyone. Of course its not as feature rich as a more advanced program like Chessmaster or Fritz, but for a beginner or intermediate player looking for something different, or someone who just wants to have fun and learn the game, its perfect!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best chess game I've played., August 14, 2003

By 

"overloadut" (Rohnert Park, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Majestic Chess (CD-ROM)

I just picked this game up yesterday when I saw it at EB. The adventure part is a really good way of teaching you how to play chess. I was able to blast through the first couple levels, but now I'm working my way through the third. It's nice to learn how to play chess without having to sit through pages and pages of text. It actually makes it fun.

In multiplayer it's neat because it tracks a rating for you, so you can play against people around your skill level.

The graphics are stunning too. The 3d pieces look much better than CM9k, and it runs smoother too...

If you want to improve your chess skills, or just want a fun chess game to play through, this is the one to get, especially with the nice price tag.