Duel Masters: Shadow of the Code

"Cheaper than building a real deck."

Duel Masters is a card game. Some call it a mixture of many other card games. The truth is... well, I don't know. I never played any other card games except Yu-gi-oh and Pokemon.

Graphics 6/10
Each monster looks different. The spell all look very similar. You can see the art of each card displayed. This is an improvement over the other Duel Masters GBA games. You won't play it for amazing graphics.

Audio Effects And Music 2/10
The battle music is decent but you will hear it again. And hear it again. And again. The pace of the music does pick up when one player is out of shields. Which is kind of good. And the sound effects aren't awful. What do you expect from a card game? An amazing Final Fantasy soundtrack?

Story 3/10
It's there. But you won't care. At all. Trust me.

Gameplay 10/10
The turkey and gravy of any card game. Without this, they immediately stink and have no value at all. This game has it in spades. Whatever a "spade" is... You each have a deck of 40 cards. These cards are either spells or creatures. Yuo have five "civilizations" to choose from. Fire, water, light, darkness, and nature. Fire decks generally are built to win the match quickly. Water and light are defensive. Darkness is slow but VERY powerful. Nature is offensive and tries to give you an advantage over your opponent early on. You and your opponent have 5 "shields" which must be destroyed in order to attack your opponent directly. After all his/her shields are gone, one direct attack win the match. There are other rules, but the game's tutorial covers those quite nicely.

Time you get out of it before boredom strikes: 40-50 hours
After you build a really great deck, it becomes boring. Unless you have a friend. Then it can be fun.

Replay value 7/10
Try using different deck types. And you should never have to select "New Game" to do that.

Final review 7/10
Probably the best handheld card game out.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/01/06