Appletell reviews Diamond Checkers for iPhone, iPod touch

Category: Games
Developer: Aesthology, Inc.
Requirements: iPhone 2.1 software
Compatibility: iPhone and iPod Touch
File Size: 0.5MB
Version Reviewed: 1.5.2
Price: $1.99
Age Rating: 4+

I’ve long been a fan of Chinese checkers. I think this is mainly because I’m quite good at it. Not so much with regular checkers or that chess game that’s so popular with the Russians and musical theater, but yeah; Chinese checkers. This is why I was excited to learn about Aesthology’s Diamond Checkers for the iPhone, and why I was pretty disappointed after playing it.

First, the good. It’s Chinese checkers. If you’ve never played the game, imagine checkers played not on a square board, but on a six pointed star. This means you can have up to five opponents in one game. Your goal isn’t to jump their pieces to remove them from the board, but to jump their pieces so you can get all of yours to the triangle opposite yours. You can jump many pieces as possible in one play, provided you don’t have to cross two empty spaces to make a jump. So, in order to get to your goal first, you have to set up/find long jumping lanes while preventing your opponent from doing the same. A good combo of offense and defense will win the game, but when you’ve got four to six people playing, the center area becomes so crowded that it’s almost impossible to plan ahead. Therefore, Chinese checkers becomes more about observation and discovery than about strategy. Maybe that’s why I’m good at it.

Diamond Checkers allows you to play by yourself against the computer, against up to five other human opponents, and against any combination thereof. If playing by yourself, I recommend trying it against a single computer opponent first, then switching to play against five computer opponents so you can see how drastically the game changes.

Unfortunately, when playing against the computer, you’re not going to get much competition. I have yet to lose to it, no matter how many opponents I’ve set up. The computer AI misses obvious jumps, and seems to have no strategy for defense. If you’re new to the game, this is probably a good thing (as is the hint feature which will help you find legal moves). If you’re halfway decent at Chinese checkers, however, you’re going to need to find human opponents. Diamond Checkers does allows for WiFi network gaming, but requires a network that supports Bonjour/Zeroconf. Therefore, I wasn’t able to test network play.

The interface could also use a little work. Although the game zooms in to allow for easier selection and placement of your pieces, it still often misread what I was trying to do. It would sometimes take multiple taps to select a piece, and when I’d try to move it, the game would put the piece back in its original spot. I have no problem typing on my iPhone, so I’m not sure why I was so “off” when playing this game. Oh, and good design choice; a map of the entire board is displayed in the upper right corner when the game is zoomed in on a specific area. Therefore, you won’t have to scroll around too much to plan your jumps.

I’m also not thrilled with the game’s graphics. The “board” is simply a blue gradient with Mac OS X-like buttons placed in the indents. It’s shiny, but uninspired. Shouldn’t there be multiple board styles: wood, marble, etc.? Wouldn’t it be cooler if the pieces had some sort of texture to them so they looked like marbles instead of website buttons? And is there no audio at all? Seriously? As it stands, with no design variations, Diamond Checkers feels like a free version of a paid app.

There’s a decent game in here, I just think it’s a few versions away from getting out. The game itself is fun, and the ability to play up to five computer/human opponents is pretty cool. But unless you’re really into Chinese checkers and just can’t find anyone to play against in an actual board game, there’s not much in Diamond Checkers to invite you back for many contests.

Appletell Rating:

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