Play Chess Academy (Asia) (Unl) (Famicom) Online

Chess Academy is one of those weird NES deep cuts—it’s actually Chinese chess (Xiangqi) dressed up like a card game. At first glance, the board looks familiar, but then you notice pieces move in totally different ways. The cannon? It jumps over other pieces to capture. The general? Stuck in a tiny palace. Took me a few matches to stop mixing up the horse and elephant moves.

There’s a tutorial mode that walks you through the basics, which helps since Xiangqi has its own quirks. The "Exercise" mode throws preset scenarios at you—like trying to corner the opponent’s general with just a few pieces. It’s brutal but satisfying when you finally pull off the right sequence. Match mode is where you actually play full games, and the AI doesn’t hold back. I still lose half the time.

Not gonna lie, the card game terminology ("Three of a Kind," etc.) feels tacked on, like they weren’t sure how to market a straight-up Xiangqi sim. But once you ignore that, it’s a solid way to learn a classic game most NES players never touched. Just don’t expect flashy graphics—this is pure, grid-based strategy.