Chess Ultra

Chess Ultra is a welcome arrival on the Nintendo Switch; it's a visual treat, while also soothing you with pleasant music as you engage in a tough match. There are plenty of options and variety for online and offline matches, with the former being particularly enjoyable if you're able to get into a real-time contest. With Tournament play and some well constructed Challenges on board, along with Tutorials for newcomers, it ticks most boxes. It's another checkmate for the Switch eShop.

Chess Ultra is an almost perfect digital recreation of the classic game. It's visually appealing, provides numerous features to tailor-make your experience and relies on few gimmicks to sell Chess as a video game.

Chess Ultra is a great chess game and a welcome addition to the Switch's digital library of titles. Its in-depth tutorial offers a useful starting point for those new to the sport, while challenges, AI difficulties, and customizable matches ensure that established players have the tools needed to improve their game in a variety of formats. While the lack of a real-time filter for matchmaking is a bummer, Chess Ultra more than justifies its budget price tag of $12.50. Whether you are a grandmaster or a complete novice, Chess Ultra is a worthy entry into the world of virtual chess.

Accessible to all, Chess Ultra will undoubtedly please aficionados of the strategy game while marking the perfect entry point to those that have always wanted to learn how to play. With the chance for your Nintendo Switch to become a virtual chess board to play against someone across a table, the portable home console could also be seen as the perfect home for it.

If you're looking for the best way to digital play chess, this is exactly what you need!

A videogame based on chess requires some particular assets to stand out and Chess Ultra on the Nintendo Switch fulfills all the requests in ways that make it a very welcome addition to the system's catalog. Thanks to its impressive variety of game modes, its choice of difficulty levels that are very suitable to all sorts of players and a high quality audiovisual component, Chess Ultra is an outstanding game that should be on everyone's radar.

It would be hard to make a bad chess game, but it's not easy to make a beautiful one and that's what Ripstone have achieved with Ultra Chess. It's priced reasonably, plays and looks fantastic and if you are a strategy or chess-afficiando then it's a no-brainer. Unlike some of the matches you might play...

Chess Ultra is a nice little game to own. When Nintendo first began marketing the Switch, they really hammered home the idea of taking it where you go, and playing it to pass the time. I feel that this title is a perfect example of that. If a player has a few hours to kill, it's probably best to play a big game like Super Mario Odyssey or The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. On the other hand, if someone has a mere few minutes to spare, turning on the Switch and playing a match of Chess would surely suffice.

Chess Ultra is ultimately a triumph as an atmospheric, streamlined chess game that both newcomers and experts can enjoy. What the game lacks in environments and chess sets it makes up for with high production values and plenty of extra features. Cross-play with the Xbox One and PC versions is a welcome bonus.

What resonated with me the most was just how accessible it is to players of all skill levels. For newcomers, tutorials and novice level computers help to ease you into the game. And for veterans, challenge modes and difficulty up to Grandmaster will certainly be a test of your skill. While I found some set pieces to be unusable and wish there was an online option for a continuous game, these were merely minor complaints in an otherwise outstanding offering from developer Ripstone.