this game is a deckbuilder but importantly not actually a roguelike! ! it is an actual videogame and respects the time you put into it!

checkmage functions a lot more like the gba pokemon tcg game, or those camelot mario tennis rpgs, where there is a persistent overworld with stuff to do and characters that you check up on and can rematch with new variations, so the game is a lot bigger than it looks at first. theres a lot of detail and care put into the map environments, and they change over time, so its very lived in and feels nice to return to instead of just being ‘levels’ to progress through. it does a good job of not being just a ‘one more run’ time-filler, for one thing its not run based (infinite is a side mode you can find later, though), there is a space you occupy and a conclusion to actually reach. this has much more time and energy towards being a complete concept and an actual videogame in a genre and space where that isn’t normally expected anymore

the actual chess itself has a crazy amount of simulation going on. because the chess piece variations now have things like keywords and enter the battlefield effects, and collecting small amounts of new pieces and abilities over time appealed to the mtg brain i had back in high school. genuinely, the number of effects and rules that compounds is like an immersive sim in the amount of strategies you can make. there are a number of pretty cheesy things you can do with stacking effects, but you can also rely on stable cards and foundational skills to win. i am not sure how a chess engine was built that actually plays around it, but it does and generally the game is better at itself than i am. the number of ways those effects stack and the amount of non-standard pieces and rules sometimes feels a lot more like a tactics rpg game to play, but of course if you get too caught up in that mentality you end up getting tricked into falling for en passant and get humbled for daring to forget it is still chess rules

i do think checkmage goes above and beyond what you normally see in the ‘board game but quirky’ genre which has been recently reduced to games that build such a minimal framework around the game itself because they just try to be background noise in a twitch stream. its something you can actually play and live in for a bit and put away feeling like you actually went somewhere with it rather than just inserted your time into

Fairy Chess Shenanigans.

Checkmage is oozing with charm both on and off the chessboard. I cant remember the last time a game had me so excited to hunt for secrets or thrilled to try some new nonsense chess combo. How about a sniper chess piece that can hit across the board and teleport back? How about a deck that lets you pull apart the board and fly across the gaps? The joy of discovering a new way to take on a challenging opponent is hard to overstate.

This game is fantastic. If you like chess, deckbuilders, puzzles, or the whimsy of breaking rules, you will love Checkmage.

I've been excited for this game for quite a while, and it does not disappoint in the slightest. The cast of characters I've met so far are already so charming and funny, with their own mechanics to learn and cards to win. It's exactly what I wanted it to be when I watched the trailers and played the demo. Also Rowan is peak