Sometimes, the truth isn’t very dramatic. Sometimes, it won’t blow the lid off things, won’t set people free, and won’t even hurt that much. Sometimes, then, the truth is that VooFoo’s new downloadable chess game for the PS3 and Vita is rather good.
I’m enthusiastic about chess, but wonderfully unfettered by any kind of skills, so Pure Chess‘s handy range of low-ability settings – there are also higher settings, naturlich – suit me down to the ground (even if the simplest is called, um, Monkey). The 3D assets are ludicrously glossy and detailed, and you can spend a few happy minutes before each trouncing messing around selecting your pieces and your backdrop and all that kind of stuff. There’s a tutorial for newcomers, a range of different views, and touch-based or button-based control options if you’re on the Vita. If you’re playing the handheld version, incidentally, there’s even a delightfully pointless gyro-powered bit built in. Also: Chopin on the soundtrack either way. High five!
Throw in play-by-mail for friends, a bunch of brilliant puzzles, a tournament mode, and a shameful ranking system – only shameful for players like me, obv. – and you have a pretty smart package. The whole thing’s not enormously exciting, perhaps, but it’s going to stay in my Vita’s LiveArea until the sun explodes and planet Earth is shaken to pieces in the aftershocks.
£4.99, incidentally – and buying one version won’t get you both.
