Video Game / Star Wars Chess

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Star Wars Chess is an adaptation of Chess based on Star Wars, released for the MS-DOS, Sega CD, and Windows 3.x in 1993 by The Software Toolworks.

The game is very similar to Battle Chess, in that it takes an ordinary chess program and spices it up with animated pieces and battle animations whenever a piece is captured. However, naturally, the pieces are all represented by different characters from the original Star Wars trilogy.

Star Wars Chess includes examples of:

• Adaptational Badass:
  • R2-D2. While he's a Non-Action Guy in the movies, in this game, he can go toe-to-toe with the villainous members of the Empire and win, and some of the battle sequences where he wins are surprisingly brutal.
  • Also C-3PO, being a Bishop, he has a lot more mobility than R2-D2 does. Also, even when he wins through dumb luck there are times when he shows genuine badassitude. Like when he snatches Boba Fett's blaster from him and then accidentally shoots him with it, or takes advantage of his severed arm to club Darth Vader to death with a single swing!
  • While Princess Leia is an Action Girl in the movies, here, as a Queen, she can go toe to toe with the likes of Darth Vader and the Emperor and easily come out on top. Not to mention how she easily handles Boba Fett by first attempting to bribe him, then throwing her necklace in his face and using the brief distraction to blast him dead.
• Adaptational Jerkass: Jedi Master Yoda uses the Force to make a Stormtrooper shoot themself rather than say, deflect their firepower.
• Adaptational Wimp: Zigzagged with Luke and the Emperor. While the battle sequences involving both depict them as being just as powerful as would be expected from them, during gameplay, they are used to represent the King and are therefore not particularly useful for capturing other pieces.
• Anachronism Stew: A New Hope farmboy Luke wields a green lightsaber, which he does not receive until Return of the Jedi.
• An Arm and a Leg: Many animations involving C-3PO have him losing limbs. This can happen regardless of whether or not he's on the winning side.
  • When he captures a Stormtrooper, his hand gets shot off before he wins.
  • When he captures Darth Vader, His whole arm gets cut off by Vader's lightsaber. He then proceeds to pick up his arm, clash it with the lightsaber, and somehow deactivate it, allowing him to club Vader with his arm.
  • If Vader is on the winning side, however, 3PO isn't quite so lucky. That's right, 'tis but a scratch.
• Armor Is Useless: The Stormtrooper subverts this whenever he manages to capture some of the pieces; his armor deflects shots from Chewbacca, Leia and even his own blaster when Yoda tricks him into shooting himself. Played straight when he gets captured otherwise.
• Artistic License – Chess: When you promote a pawn it automatically promotes to a queen - you do not get the standard choice of queen, rook, knight or bishop.
• Bullet Catch: Yoda does this with the blasters of an AT-ST when he captures it.
• Butt-Monkey: C-3PO. Not only does he get most of the more humiliating defeats when he's captured, but even the battles where he wins have him bumbling his way to victory, and getting hurt a lot in the process.
• The Cameo: Han Solo appears frozen in carbonite in the background of the computer versions. The Sega CD version omits this.
• Cane Fu: The prequel trilogy weren't in production when Star Wars Chess was released, so Yoda has a cane instead of his lightsaber which he uses to smack the opposing pieces. This includes knocking out Darth Vader while his back is turned, and throwing it like a boomerang at Boba Fett's jetpack to make it malfunction.
• Catch and Return: When Yoda checkmates the Emperor, he defeats him by absorbing his Force Lightning with his cane, then uses the Force to turn the lightning around back towards the Emperor.
• Family-Unfriendly Death: The battle animations include characters getting electrocuted, set on fire, shot in the heart, beaten to death, graphically exploding, or having limbs torn off.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: If R2-D2 captures Darth Vader, he defeats him by stealing Vader's lightsaber out of his hands, and turning it on him.
• Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels: The difficulty levels for the AI players are represented by portraits of the various characters in the game. From easiest to hardest, we have Chewbacca, C-3PO, Yoda, and Luke for the Rebel side, and a Stormtrooper, Boba Fett, Darth Vader, and the Emperor for the Empire side.
• I Just Shot Marvin in the Face: When C-3PO captures Boba Fett, the former will angrily snatch away the latter's blaster after the bounty hunter shoots him with it. While the droid reprimands him for handling a dangerous weapon, it drops from his grasp by accident and misfires upon hitting the floor, shooting Boba Fett in the stomach. C-3PO exclaims "oh dear!" as Boba Fett keels over.
• Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Naturally, most of the Stormtrooper's losing animations have them take shots at the Rebels and miss.
  • If a Stormtrooper captures Luke, the Stormtrooper manages to hit Luke by not even aiming at him at all, instead shooting at a random part of the floor which ricochets the shots toward Luke, catching him by surprise, implying that their aim is better when they're not actually trying to aim at targets.
• In Case You Forgot Who Wrote It: Most versions of the game present The Software Toolworks' Star Wars Chess on the title screen and packaging, with the company name in the same font and size as the rest of the title.
• Man on Fire: If Yoda captures Boba Fett, he forces poor Boba's jetpack to malfunction, setting the bounty hunter aflame until he crashes spectacularly.
• Me's a Crowd: Yoda defeats Darth Vader by making numerous Force Clones appear around him, which confuses him as he turns around. He then clubs him with his cane when his back is turned.
• Multiple Endings: There are two, depending on which side wins the game.
  • If the Rebels win, you get a scene of the Death Star exploding.
  • If the Empire wins, you get a more ominous ending depicting the Death Star surrounded by TIE Fighters, as Darth Vader says "Now you know the power of the dark side."
• No Body Left Behind: All Force users, from Yoda to Luke to Vader to the Emperor, generally "become one with the Force" when they are defeated.
• No-Sell: The Emperor's force lightning falls victim to this in all his defeat animations; some are more believable than others.
• Off with His Head!: A few of the battle animations have this.
  • When Luke captures a Tusken Raider, Luke cuts the Raider's head off with his lightsaber. The body then subsequently gets pulled into a spontaneously appearing Sarlacc pit.
  • If Boba Fett captures C-3PO, he backhands 3-PO in the face, causing his head to come unscrewed.
• Opening Scroll: The game starts with one, in typical Star Wars fashion.
• Playing with Fire: Some of Boba Fett's winning animations have him use his jet pack as a flamethrower.
• Psychic-Assisted Suicide:
  • When Yoda captures a Stormtrooper, he uses a Jedi Mind Trick to force the Stormtrooper to shoot themselves in the face, blowing their head clean off.
  • Subverted when the Stormtrooper captures Yoda— the latter attempts to use the same trick, only for their helmet to No-Sell the blaster shot. The Stormtrooper then tosses the blaster to the floor, causing it to misfire and hit Yoda.
    Yoda: Backwards your gun is, yes?
• Reduced to Dust: Befalls a Tusken Raider who is electrocuted by R2-D2 and Chewbacca both by Boba Fett's flamethrower and the Emperor's force lightning.
• Ring Out:
  • Chewbacca defeats the Emperor by throwing him off the board.
  • Yoda also uses the Force to throw the Tusken Raider out of the board as well.
  • Darth Vader tries to defeat Yoda this way by using the Force to push him off the board. However, Yoda teleports back on the board right as Vader turns around, prompting him to turn back and slash him with his lightsaber.
• Shock and Awe:
  • The Emperor uses Force Lightning in all of the battle animations featuring him.
  • If R2-D2 captures a Tusken Raider, he takes hold of the Raider's weapon and electrocutes it, absolutely frying them.
• Standard Female Grab Area: Princess Leia, in one of her defeated cutscenes, simply stops all resistance when her opponent grabs her by her upper arms◊. She is then somehow either killed or knocked unconscious (it isn't clear).
• Trampled Underfoot: The AT-ST walker does this to C-3PO when it captures him, walking over the droid until he becomes completely flattened.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Downplayed. Luke beheads a Tusken Raider, whilst he gives a Stormtrooper a comparatively tame slash to the torso.
• Your Size May Vary: To fit to scale with the other characters, the AT-ST walkers are drastically shrunk down to being the same size as the other characters.