Purrchess Android chess game

Is that a cat themed chess game for Android? Why yes, yes it is. If you are a chess fan and you happen to be a cat person as well, your time has come. The cats in Purrchess are out of the beta and on to the battlefield and they are a-d-o-r-a-b-l-e.

It’s a chess game isn’t it?

It sure is, but instead of the old boring checkered board, you can play in themed environments of five primary colors. There are even multiple cat breeds (not that I know any) and tiny little costumes that you can dress them in.

Players that participated in the open beta will receive a special skin. But, for a limited time, even if you missed the beta test.

You can test your skills against the AI, or jump right in and face someone online. Just make sure you actually have the time to finish the match. Leaving a mid-game is impolite.

The Criticism

To be perfectly clear, this isn’t a full review of Purrchess. Those have (Quick Look) in the title, however I did try the game. I didn’t win any match, but I did try it out. The not-so-good thing is that pretty much everything is locked from the start, except for one skin and one table. You do get coins from time to time and as a daily rewards. If that feels too grindy, you can buy the, in form of an in-app purchase. Coins are the key to unlocking everything.

Although the game crashed a few times under Bluestacks 5.0, it ran just fine on my Galaxy S20, so it might be a compatibility problem.

Should you try it?

You should. And I am saying this as a person who doesn’t play chess too often. The game is pretty new and the developers are promising to add more stuff as it matures (and I did take that into account here). Purrchess in its current form is promising, but more content is a must! Also Google Play is a platform that also offers accounts, cloud saves and much more compared to Facebook. Why it isn’t implemented (yet?) is beyond me.

by Martin Janov