King Bullseye: The Chess Strike is a fixed arcade shooter where you have to defend your king against an onslaught of other chess pieces. Each enemy moves in a pattern mirroring their chess counterparts. There’s no real goal and not much content; instead, you are simply trying to beat your high score.
Gameplay
Shooting mechanics work like a typical fixed shooter; you click on the enemies to kill them. The inclusion of headshots adds some tactics, but it’s still a straightforward game. Chaining shots together without missing improves your score, so accuracy is important but taking time to make sure you land every shot can lead to an early loss. It’s a balancing act between wildly shooting everything and carefully aiming for headshots. Even as someone that doesn’t usually enjoy arcade games like this, it was tense and enjoyable once I got past the slow beginning.
The enemy design, while copied from chess, is well done. It’s a creative use of chess pieces and adds some variety. Each piece moves how they do in chess: knights move in L-shaped patterns, rooks move in straight lines, pawns move one step at a time, etc. Even though the game is played in real-time, enemies move on a turn-based system, although harder enemies can move multiple times each turn. The difficulty is well balanced and offers up enough challenge to keep you interested, but not enough to discourage you.
Presentation
Graphically, it looks like an average arcade game—nothing exceptional, but also nothing bad. The chess aesthetic is there but doesn’t add anything to the game. The soundtrack is equally generic, but it’s well-executed. It fits the exciting and fast-paced gameplay.
Verdict
Overall, there isn’t much to say about King Bullseye. It’s a typical arcade game with some fun twists but nothing revolutionary. What you see in the trailer is what you get, so don’t go into it expecting much depth. It’s a leaderboard climbing arcade shooter; if that appeals to you, it’ll be right up your alley. Otherwise, you can safely skip it without missing out on much.
