Archon: The Light and the Dark

The Good
One of the best things I like about this game is that I have roughly 1,000,000,000 percent more chance beating Gary Kasparov at it than at regular chess. As in chess, each side has a variety of game pieces with different movement restrictions. Unlike chess, you don't automatically take away your opponent's game pieces by moving into them. In Archon, moving your piece into your opponent's piece initiates a combat screen where only one piece can emerge victorious (though not necessarily unscathed). Spots on the game board also have different properties. For example, white pieces are stronger when fighting in white squares. It's a brilliant way to play chess!

How about it, Gary? Each time our pieces end up in the same square, we arm wrestle for it? Chicken?

Each of the game pieces not only have different movement restrictions, but also have different speed and attack abilities during combat resolution. Think of it as playing the 80s version of Street Fighter, with the main difference being that each match you win or lose has strategic consequences in a bigger campaign.

Archon is best played against a human player. You and your friend will spend hours laughing and trying to poke the stuffings out of each other's powerful game pieces with worthless pieces like the Knight or the Barbarian. Yes, it is possible to kill the Wizard with the Barbarian. Go ahead and feel proud if you manage to do it against a human player.

The Bad
The AI is incredibly stupid, and why isn't Chun-Li in this one?!

The Bottom Line
This is a great fighting game with a strategic twist. I haven't seen anything quite like it in the last 15 years or so. IMHO, Capcom should steal the format from EA and replace the game pieces with characters from the Street Fighter and X-Men series. Now that would be cool!