"It's time to duel!"

If games were judged based simply by the case they come in, then I never would have even touched Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship 2007. Hell, even the name sounds ridiculous. Quite honestly, would you ever even see yourself playing a game based around a mediocre card game and a tarnished anime series? Sure, Yu-Gi-Oh! had its time in the light, but nowadays you probably just keep all of your old cards in a cardboard box to collect dust in your closet. So, since the fad is over and every single gaming instinct you have is telling you that this game is going to be nothing but complete crap, why should you even bother? Well, you'll be surprised to learn that while Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship 2007 isn't a great game by any means, it still manages to be good and still manages to be fun.

I'll start off with the title's biggest flaw and that is that it really doesn't have a career mode. This takes away a giant chunk of what could have made the game propel itself into must-have status, and I can't for the life of me figure out why we are treated to a “Free Duel” mode that simply makes you duel painfully over-powered opponents over and over again. There is no fun in that and as a result, the game doesn't really come packaged with a true sense of accomplishment.

On the bright side though, World Championship 2007 has some challenges that feel a lot like events from the Super Smash Bros. games or achievements that you can earn on 360 titles. These little challenges add special stipulations to matches that make the duels more interesting. Under challenge mode, there is also a trivia quiz you can take in order to brush up on your knowledge of the game, so die-hard Yu-Gi-Oh! fanatics should like this.

While I absolutely loved the challenges and they were a total blast, the game goes down a hill a little bit more with its horrendous deck construction. The menus here are so muddled and confusing that even with the use of a tutorial and a more than basic knowledge of how the game is played you will be basically tapping the screen randomly and hoping for the best.

Moving on, I'd like to point out that the game doesn't seem to always follow the rules sometimes, and this may become confusing for veteran Yu-Gi-Oh! players.

You'll need cards in order to construct your deck, and there are plenty of cards to choose from. All of the franchise's mainstays are present including Exodia, Red-Eyes Black Dragon, Blue-Eyes White Dragon, Dark Magician, and all of the rest. You buy packs of cards in little booster pack form, not knowing exactly what cards you're going to get, and the game keeps track of how many more cards you need from a certain series of cards so you know when to stop purchasing the booster packs. Collecting all of the cards is a task nearly as daunting as collecting all of the Pokemon in the Pokemon games, but I'm sure there's someone out there up to the challenge.

The only way you'll be able to purchase these booster packs is by earning Duelist Points. You earn these points simply by completing duels and challenges. Another thing you can spend your Duelist Points on is the character customization. I found it a little silly though that you have to pay to change the appearance of your character after the initial customization, but whatever floats the developer's boat I guess.

Via a touch-screen interface, the game actually controls quite nicely. Duels move along at a quick pace instead of the sluggish duels you are treated to elsewhere. The game will let you know all of the type of moves you can do, and you will be told when one of your trap or magic cards can be used in a situation. You can skip the phases of the duels to suit your needs, but it is kind of annoying that in order to see the effects of certain cards, you have to tap on a magnifying glass at the bottom left of the screen.

Multiplayer is available for multi-card play only, which is very disappointing and is going to be a definite turn off for many gamers out there. What redeems World Championship 2007 a little bit is that you can take the game online, and there is surprisingly no lag or anything like that dampening your experience. People still play World Championship 2007 apparently because even though this game is over a year old, the online is still pretty active.

I mentioned earlier in this review that there is no real career mode, and as a result, there is no plot in this game at all. While I guess it was made simply for gamer's to try out their dueling abilities, it would have greatly helped the game if the developers had actually put some work into developing a main mode of gameplay as well as a plot to at least think about. I'd rather have a terrible story than have no plot at all.

Things are hard to read sometimes and there are some inconveniences when things pop up on the screen in the middle of a duel and you have to work around them in order to get the information you need. The menus are terrible, and everything feels a little disorganized. It's pretty neat to see the monsters in full 3D, but without any real attack animations, the monsters sort of lose their potential. Character animations are extremely limited and there's absolutely no reason for it; we all know that the Nintendo DS can do much better with 2D animation, and we've SEEN it do better. Dawn of Sorrow, anyone?

Regardless of the graphical qualities of the game, the audio is okay. The battle music is a bunch of random rock music spliced together and the rest of the soundtrack is practically nonexistent. Thankfully, there are no attempts at voice acting because I'm sure they would have messed it up really bad.

Without a solid career mode, World Championship 2007 is banking on its challenge mode, the card collecting, and the multiplayer functions. While all of these are good, some of the replayability is killed because the multiplayer is multi-card only, and chances are if you want to play with someone it'll have to be over Wi-Fi. Granted, collecting all of the cards will literally take you months, but the question is, are there enough gamers persistent enough to want to take on this feat? I guess there is also some free downloadable content if the die-hards are interested, but I doubt any DLC will be able to renew interest into the title by anyone else.

Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship 2007 is one of those games that take you by surprise. You pick it up not expecting to like it at all and are totally taken aback when it manages to actually provide you with a little fun. However, this game is brought down due to its lack of any kind of career mode and it's horridly confusing deck construction. I mean, seriously, did the developers get drunk one night and just randomly mesh it together? It's ridiculous. Also, it would have been cooler if the monsters actually had attack animations. Yu-Gi-Oh! may be past its prime, but I think you still might be able to have a little fun with it yet.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 11/06/08

Game Release: Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship 2007 (US, 03/20/07)