Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden Memories

"Well done card game based on an anime"

Story
You start the game as Yumi Yugi or something like that. You're a prince in Egypt and you play a card game. I can't go any further with the plot without putting spoilers but it has a really good story for a card game and it fits the anime. I give story a 8/10


Control
It only took me a few minutes to figure out what each button does. The control is simple and and easy to learn. I give control a 10/10


Voice Acting, Sound Effects and Music
There isn't any voice acting. Not too big of a deal since this game was made in 1996 but voices would have been nice. I don't even think there is sound effects but that isn't a big deal since it's a card game. The music is good and always fits the setting. Too bad the theme song isn't in the game cause the theme song is pretty cool. I give voice acting, sound effects and music a 7/10

Game play
I never played the Yu-Gi-Oh! card game before so I had to learn to play. Thats one problem with the game, there is nothing that teaches you how to play. If your new to the card game, you will have to guess how to play till you figure it out. I'll give a quick run down of how the game plays. You and the other person each have 40 cards, you get five at the start and you ALWAYS go first. Each player gets 8000 life points. Each player MUST use one card every turn. You can only use one but you can combine cards to make combos and new monsters. Now, if it's your first turn you can't do nothing but lay down your card and set it's stance, either attack or defense. Now you need to look at the numbers on your card before choosing. If your card has a high attack and it's higher than the other players monster than you should attack that monster BUT if you attack is lower than his you don't want to attack because it will hurt you. Once the other player has no monsters you can attack his board IF you have a monster on your side that hasn't attacked yet. You also have to watch out for trap cards and spell cards cause they can destroy ANY card you have. Getting the perfect deck takes a lot of time and a lot of free duels cause you won't get any good cards just fighting the normal guys during campaign cause you only fight them once but you can fight them again in free duel mode. You also win Star Chips depending on how well you played. You use Star Chips to buy new cards with the password feature. You get passwords from the real cards and then you use your Star Chips to pay for them. So, if you play the real card game you can get a good deck early on if you have enough Star Chips cause some cards cost a lot. The game is pretty long but it does seem the computer cheats sometimes cause they can do some killer combos right when you're about to win that destroy your plans. With over 700 cards it will take a very long time to get them all. I give gameplay a 10/10


Replay Value
The game takes a long time if you want the perfect deck and some guys are a real pain to beat. No real secrets except trying to learn the best fusions which can also take a lot of time. There is even a two player mode and you can trade cards with friends which adds a lot to the replay value. I give replay value a 8/10


Final Score
I give Yu-Gi-Oh!: Forbidden Memories a 9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/10/07

Game Release: Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden Memories (US, 03/20/02)