{"id":1741939,"date":"2026-11-08T01:52:30","date_gmt":"2026-11-08T01:52:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/z5m4auiz2ZaiBobYYnEFoW"},"modified":"2026-11-08T01:52:30","modified_gmt":"2026-11-08T01:52:30","slug":"chess-is-immediately-more-fun-if-you-jettison-most-of-the-rules-and-replace-them-with-weapons-grade-game-boy-advance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/chess-is-immediately-more-fun-if-you-jettison-most-of-the-rules-and-replace-them-with-weapons-grade-game-boy-advance\/","title":{"rendered":"Chess is immediately more fun if you jettison most of the rules and replace them with weapons-grade Game Boy Advance"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I have never been particularly good at The Game of Kings, but I do love when an indie developer turns their talents to turning chess into something more funky<\/em>. Shotgun King<\/a> stole my heart a few years ago, and now Rulehouse<\/a> is looking to offer its own spin on the classic.<\/p>\n

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Weird Weekend<\/div>\n
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Weird Weekend<\/a> is our regular Saturday column where we celebrate PC gaming oddities: peculiar games, strange bits of trivia, forgotten history. Pop back every weekend to find out what Jeremy, Josh, Ted, and Rick have become obsessed with this time, whether it’s the canon height of Thief’s Garrett<\/a> or that time someone in the Vatican pirated Football Manager<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

In a generous demo covering the first act of the game, Rulehouse presents a Wario Ware spin on things\u2060\u2014in multiple ways. Each level introduces at least one new mechanic or modifier you have to keep track of, starting with the basic “pawns only, first one to the other side of the board wins,” and ramping up to a simulated prison break where guards are firing on your pieces, and you have to get your king\u2060\u2014here the game’s protagonist in a prison jumpsuit\u2060\u2014to the exit.<\/p>\n

The escalation in complexity had me genuinely scratching my head, stumped at how to proceed at a few points. Rulehouse eschews trad chess pieces as much as possible, only introducing bishops and kings by the very end of the demo\u2060\u2014and stubbornly insisting on calling knights “cows” along the way.<\/p>\n

Instead, you get stuff like “ice pawns” that shatter on taking an opponent’s piece, or “poison pawns” that bring down the opponent’s piece with them when they’re captured. I’m also quite fond of the upside-down pawns that move on a diagonal, and capture pieces directly in front of them. <\/p>\n

Not every new piece is represented on each subsequent level, but it feels like Rulehouse is building a library of modifiers and complications to draw from in the final game, like how the enemy variety in a classic-style FPS campaign ramps up as you go on. It impressed me that Rulehouse could tease such novel puzzles out of one of the most studied and “solved” games to ever exist, and if it can sustain this pace of surprise and delight across a full game, I think it will prove a worthwhile puzzler.<\/p>\n

Take me back<\/h2>\n
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