Genre: Turn-based Strategy
Developer: Ripstone
Publisher: Ripstone

Chess Ultra valiantly takes a modern-day graphics engine and applies it to the game of chess, via a fully-rendered board in the middle of full-rendered environments. There are some cool stages, one of which looks like it's in the bowels of a "Doom 2016" level! While the materials, reflection, and lighting is fine, it runs at a preposterously low resolution on Switch. Add on some absurdly aggressive anti-aliasing, and it's oftentimes difficult to even distinguish the pieces from the glare off the board.

Depending on which of the four boards the player picks, the music varies accordingly. The classical and opera music in the museum stage sounds just about right for a game of chess, but the boring light jazz lounge music in the high-rise apartment is just lame. There isn't much in the way of sound effects, but the various piece clinking and wood whooshes work well enough.

There are at least ten selectable difficulties, but it's tough to find one that's "just right"-- handing out butt-kickings on one difficulty, and getting obliterated on the next one up. Interestingly, the player's chess ranking is actually tracked and adjusted with each match, as are those of each difficulty-- as if each one is in fact a discrete opponent, versus just a menu option. Each game is recorded in chess notation, and can be played back move-by-move, or even saved into one of several available slots. Nice!

Dating back to the "Chessmaster" series and beyond, it's a tradition for video game systems to have a basic chess title-- and here it is for the Switch. Functionally, Chess Ultra ticks the boxes: different difficulty levels, selectable piece sets, and even some cool additions like series of chess logic puzzles, and several selectable piece sets. Unfortunately, the most basic box of all-- presentation-- is a bit hit and miss. That, and the game just doesn't have much character or personality. Still, it's not a terrible choice for a Switch owner craving a match or two.