1990 · Platformer · Puzzle

Knight Move

Nintendo exclusive

A puzzle game from Tetris creator Alexey Pajitnov! Featuring of a series of tiles with a single chess Knight, moved by the player. Knock out all the tiles within the time limit using the Knight, only able to move in a L shape.

Released: 5 June 1990
Platforms: Famicom Disk System Family Computer Disk System
Genres: Platformer Puzzle Strategy
Developers: —
Publishers: Nintendo
Modes: Multiplayer Single-player
Perspective: Bird view / Isometric
Themes: Action
Country: Japan
Languages: Japanese
Composers: Hirokazu Tanaka

About

Knight Move (ナイト・ムーブ) is a puzzle-platform game designed by Tetris creator Alexey Pajitnov and developed by JV Dialog. Based on the knight's tour sequence in chess, the game has the player take control of a single knight piece that constantly moves in its characteristic L-shaped pattern on a tiled board. The objective of each round is to collect hearts on the board while avoiding holes that are left when the knight lands each tile a set number of times.

JV Dialog, a joint American-Soviet consortium founded in 1987, purchased Knight Move from Pajitnov that same year. The game was published by Nintendo for the Famicom Disk System exclusively in Japan in 1990. It never saw another release, though a sequel titled Knight Moves was published for Microsoft Windows in 1995.

Keywords

chess
abstract
licensed game
chessboard
fan translation - english

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Based around the L-shaped movement of the knight piece in the game of chess, Knight Move is a

puzzle-platformer where the player controls a knight on a board consisting of four tiles by eight tiles. The knight is constantly jumping in an L-shaped pattern and the player must continually choose one of several legal moves using a cursor showing any possible landing spots as it briefly hovers in the air. During each round, a single heart is present somewhere on the board at any given time. The player's main objective in Knight Move is to clear rounds by directing the knight to land on hearts to advance to the next round and reach the highest score possible.

Development

Knight Move was designed by Alexey Pajitnov, best known for creating the puzzle game Tetris. Pajitnov stated that he made Knight Move shortly after Tetris in 1986 or 1987 and that it was his own version of the classic knight's tour chessboard sequence. "It's not a chess game,” he described. "I just exploited the chessboard and the knight's movement pattern.

It's a wonderful thing." Pajitnov sold the rights to the game to Joint Venture (JV) Dialog in 1987. Founded that same year in Russia, JV Dialog was an early startup established between the United States and the Soviet Union in the waning days of the Cold War and would become a consortium of more than 100 companies including software development.

Reception

Knight Move received a total score of 26 out of 40 from four reviewers in Famicom Tsūshin. The writers praised its gameplay as simple yet deep and addictive, standing on its own merit when set apart from its creator's previous work Tetris. NF Magazine editor Lucas M. Thomas summarized the game as "frantic and fun," lamenting its exclusivity to Japan.