"For Yu-Gi-Oh fans only, and even then it's not the greatest"

PROS: Great variety of cards; easy-to-learn controls; 3D engine increases detail

CONS: Hard-to-learn game if you don't know Yu-Gi-Oh; not an accurate simulation of the real TCG; mediocre AI; no voiceovers; repetitive music

Let me tell you this: Yes, I know Yu-Gi-Oh. I go to a tournament every week.

Let me tell you this, too: If you don't know Yu-Gi-Oh, then stay as far away from this game as possible.

Let me tell you this, three: If you do know Yu-Gi-Oh, then buy this game... if you really want to.

Everything Yu-Gi-Oh seems to have a stupid name these days. Whether it's some of the card sets (like Pharonic Guardian… come on) or the games, some of these names just plain suck. Yu-Gi-Oh: Nightmare Troubadour is one of those names that sucks. But does the game?

Well, there are two types of people reading this review. The majority of people that are actually know Yu-Gi-Oh. They watch the show (even though it sucks nowadays) and play the real card game. There are likely some of you that don't know much about Yu-Gi-Oh and are wanting to learn. Let me get to you guys first.
If you don't know Yu-Gi-Oh, then don't play this game. There's a lot of in-depth tutorials here that do a pretty accurate job of teaching, but several of the instances are so far-fetched that you'd never actually see them in an actual duel. Trust me on this: I've been dueling for more than two years and I've never seen things like this before. These tutorials do a decent job, but they can be extremely tedious to get through. Also, there's so much to take in at once that you'll have no idea what you're doing, even if you're facing Tea (who's as easy as pie to beat). You'll spend a lot of time on these tutorials before you actually go out and duel someone. These tutorials will make you suffer and you'll have to go back to them if you don't know what you're doing. Basically, this game is more of a chore for anyone who doesn't know Yu-Gi-Oh. If you want to learn Yu-Gi-Oh, the best way to do so is to go to your local tournament and have the veterans give you some pointers. I've done that several times for newcomers.

For those of you that do know Yu-Gi-Oh, then this game is the best one you can buy. Although there really aren't many good ones. This game includes almost every card- even the crappy ones that no one in their right mind (except Tea) would run- between the Legend of Blue Eyes booster and The Lost Millennium. There are also a few cards from Cybernetic Revolution, but unfortunately, they neglected to put anything Cyber Dragon in the game, which completely sucks. Nowadays, you'll see a lot of Cyber Dragon in any local tournament or regional.
Basically, this game doesn't accurately depict a tournament. You have deckbuilding amateurs like Tea (pronounced Tay-ah) who will put an Oscillo Hero in their deck (which has no effect and a mediocre attack) as well as Mokey Mokeys and Skull Servants without anything to back them up . No amateur at my tournament has ever put cards in their deck that are THAT pathetic, although I've seen several useless cards from them. Tea sucks at deckbuilding, and she's very easy to beat. Most of the other duelists here, all of which are from the original Yu-Gi-Oh show, aren't very hard, either. Just a small handful will give you problems. They do have the same decks that they used on the show, however. Mai Valentine (yes, that's her name) has the Harpie Attack deck, Yami Yugi has a deck built around the Dark Magician, Kaiba has his Blue Eyes and XYZ, all of the rare hunters have cards you'll rarely see in tournaments, Weevil likes his bugs, and Rex Raptor has his dragons and dinosaurs.

Now, the storyline here is all too familiar from the show. This is basically Kaiba's Battle City Tournament, with some of the rules changed. You, an anonymous duelist (come on, Konami! I wanted to play as Joey!!!!), go around town, beating the crap out of anyone you find. At night, rare hunters will attack you at any given moment, and if you lose, they'll steal a card from you. I've never lost to one of these thugs because they're so pathetically bad that they never got the chance to take a rare card off me. Also, the finals aren't very difficult to win at either, although some of the duelists put up a good fight. Basically, this isn't the real Yu-Gi-Oh TCG. The decks are pathetic and would lose all four rounds at my local tournament, and the AI is mediocre, too. They'll switch all their monsters to attack mode at times when you have three face downs. One of which is a Mirror Force. Ouch. These duelists don't have the strategic minds that several of my opponents in real life do. They'll just play to win as soon as they can, instead of using the best overall strategy for victory. The AI doesn't vary all that much between duelists, and the ‘level' of each duelist is based on how good their deck is.

Also, this game seems to stretch the rules a bit. There is a Forbidden List here, and eventually, the game will allow you to use 1 illegal card in your deck. This is simply added to let you use the Egyptian God Cards, which say “This card cannot be used in a duel” on their effect box (or something like that). Using the God Cards is cool, but it's way too hard to get them out because your opponents play quite aggressively, making it hard to have more than three monsters out at once. That's unless we're talking about Tea or Mokuba, for that matter.

When you start out, your deck is as pathetic as Mokuba's. You have monsters that I've never seen in anybody's deck before, and plenty of cards that you can't use. It's hard to get the card you want- you need 1000 duelist points (which are received by winning duels and using techniques during them) and the set's card list to get one after you've already won the tournament. This means that you'll have to sift through 5-card packs (which cost 150 duelist points) until you get the card that you want, which blows. Since these packs are completely strange (they're not what I'm used to), you have no idea what cards are in a specific pack until you get a card list after you have collected 80% of the cards in a set. Knowing what pack the card you're looking for is in is somewhat painful if you need it for your deck. And when you get the card, you have to navigate through the deckbuilding menus to put it in there, which isn't as simple as it could be.

The controls here are good. You have the option of whether or not you use the DS stylus, making using the A button and the D-pad a good alternative. These controls are easy to learn no matter which one you're using. The graphics here are also good. Finally, the cards are more detailed and they actually show the monsters displayed on the top screen, although they are somewhat blurry, there were so many different creatures to add in here. The sound, unfortunately, is a letdown. There aren't any voiceovers and sound effects are few here. The same slash happens every time a monster is destroyed, and there are just some beeps and buzzes when you detect somebody on your duel disk. Also, there are only a couple different music tracks, so they get old pretty fast. There are four for the outdoor scanning area, and four for the actual duels. You'll hear one a lot.

Also, there is wireless capability here. You can duel with someone else, but why duel them on the DS when you can face their real deck?

This game is loaded with cards, but not loaded with everything it could've been. This doesn't feel like Yu-Gi-Oh really does. This is just a way for the execs at Konami to get even richer. I'm going to give this game two different ratings here:
For people that don't know Yu-Gi-Oh: 3/10
For people that do know Yu-Gi-Oh: 6/10

I'm posting it as a 6 out of 10 because only Yu-Gi-Oh people would actually care about this game's existence in the first place. Sure, this is the best one yet, but the Yu-Gi-Oh games never really were that good in the first place. Stick to the tournaments. If you have to play this game, go rent it somewhere. Buy it only if you must. This game will entertain you for a while, but once you beat it, you'll stop playing it.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 07/27/06