"Troubadour actually means poet, but Nightmare poet sounds stupid..."

So, these are cards and they're magic or something, right? But they're not like playing cards. Can you do magic tricks with them? Sorry. Can you do ILLUSIONS with them? Oh, right. They're magic because they contain mythical beasts that have to fight other mythical beasts.

It's another Yu-Gi-Oh! game. Hoozah. But for once, the gameplay isn't hidden behind the confines of a Fort Knox-style game system. Konami has finally acknowledged that that at least three people in the world have never played Yu-Gi-Oh before and might need to know the actual rules before they play. What a stroke of genius.

Right from the off, a little beardy man who owns a 'card' shop tells you everything you need to know about this strange, card-battling business. I kept asking for the 'strong stuff', but he just wanted to tell me more about cards. I reckon it was under the counter though <.<
As well as being told the rules through a list that closely resembles the size of the Bible, you can also learn the game by engaging in puzzle situations. Here you may have to win in a set number of moves or fulfil some other desire of the beardy man. (If you catch my drift ~_^) The Puzzle mode is actually a great help and makes the game mor accessible, rather than just being thrown straight into a tournament.

The dual screen presentation also works better while playing because you can see your cards and the menu at once, rather than swapping between screens all the time. That's not to say this game is brilliant though. The single player game is distinctly boring and the plot is virtually non-existent. But then, don't expect Yu-Gi-Oh games to be written by Shakespeare.

It's always easy to moan about Yu-Gi-Oh games because the gameplay is extremely tedious compared to other stuff, but there are enough people, normally those who like to paint lead miniatures of orcs, that like to play Yu-Gi-Oh. This version isn't too bad for once, it introduces newbies to the style of play.

Now for the graphics/sound. Better than I expected, actually. The graphics are better than the GBA versions, but the monsters aren't 3D, which is a bit of a letdown.

The sound is okay. Lots of whooshing and bashing, but the music is pretty standard.

Value? If you like Yu-Gi-Oh this will keep on giving, and it's okay for the terrified newbies.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/10/05