Product Description

[Ages 6 - 12] Learn the classic game with the LEGO King. With LEGO Chess, you're never too young to enjoy the timeless game of strategy. Popular characters from the LEGO SYSTEMTM Western and Pirates themes make chess easy and fun to learn and play. The friendly King will explain the rules and turn you from a beginner into a Grand Master. Then go on to take part in exciting adventures, in which your skill at chess will determine the outcome! Use the interactive tutorial to get to know the pieces, learn the moves and discover the rules of the game. Adjust the computer's intelligence to make it challenging for players of all abilities.  Real-time 3-D technology lets your favorite LEGO characters come to life. Capture your opponent's pieces and enjoy dozens of unique cartoon animations. Do battle on special chess sets starring Western or Pirate Minifigures, or play with a traditional chess set built from LEGO bricks. View the amazing 3-D action from an infinite number of angles. Challenge your friends to a game, in person or over a network. Includes a tutorial section, written by a professional chess teacher. Set the scene with a choice of seven different backgrounds. Square off against the pirate captain. The LEGO King makes learning to play easy. It's a Western showdown! Caribbean's most precious treasure - you or the pirates?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1356 in Software
• Brand: Lego Media
• ESRB Rating: Early Childhood
• Platforms: Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows 2000, Windows XP
• Format: CD
• Dimensions: .31 pounds

Customer Reviews

Great game but get the patch
This game is great if you know how to get it loaded. My son and daughter who are 6 and 10 love it. It's entertaining and teaches chess. I'm writing this to save someone else a headache when loadingI have windows xp and when I first tried to load it it wouldn't work. I needed to restart the computer. Then you need to download two patches available from the software company selectsoft that makes this. You may also need to open the game from the configuration menu rather than from start. Also at the configuration menu you can change the resolution to speed up your mouse. From the start meunu you can click on properties for lego chess and choose different compatabilities for different window programs like 2000 or '98. You may need these if it doesn't run properly. Lego.com/interactive also gives trouble shooting tips. All is worth the effort because it's a super fun game for kids!

Fun but lots of crash bugs
My son loves this game but multiple times per session he is asking "daddy why is the computer frozen?". There is a patch online to make it work with Vista and another patch for crash bugs but after installing both the product is still VERY unstable. I expect a lot more from LEGO.

There are cut scenes with guns, but no killing, if that is a concern.

Too Much Action, Too Little Talk
I got this program to run just fine, unlike other reviewers on similar listings of this product. My problems with it are that it's too juvenile in its approach to be a useful teaching tool. The major flaw is that after every capture, there's a cute Lego video which is sure to delight the 7 - 10 year old who likes cartoons. However, if you have a 7 - 10 year old who really wants to learn chess (and like me, you don't play well enough to teach strategy), then the videos become a real hindrance, particularly when the computer opponent captures a piece. As soon as his piece starts to move, the video pops up and you can't see which of your pieces has been taken. Adding to the frustration is the fact that there is no move history to which to refer to find out what just happened! Nor is there a captured pieces list that shows your relative remaining strength.

There is a whole bunch of tutorials and exercises, but you can't refer to those without resigning your current game, so it's very hard for a beginner to get help in any particular situation without losing!

All in all, it's an amusing little video game, but not a great resource for learning how to play chess.

[...].