Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: Duel Academy

"If you liked Yugioh, you won't like it after this."

I know I'm a bit late for reviewing this game. Maybe 3 years late. But after playing it recently, I must say, what a MISTAKE.

So to start, this game gets some forgiveness on it's card pool. It's 3 years out of date, I know. But the game is still missing a lot of cards for it's time. Nightmare Troubadour released on the DS before this game had cards this game didn't have and Nightmare Troubadour is one set behind. Do the good graphics means good card pool and poor graphics means even further limited card pool?

Anyway, what is there to say about Yugioh GX Duel Academy you ask? Well, let's find out.

Graphics: I don't care / 10 (8/10?)
I really could care less what it looks like. Honestly, it looks decent for a GBA game of Yugioh GX. I can see everything I need to see. The cards look like what they should look like. The characters are not deformed so this is ok in my book.

Storyline: Again, I don't care / 10 (1/10?)
Yugioh games are not about storylines. You duel, you get new cards, etc etc. I must say this game is pretty boring though. You go through weeks and weeks of doing nothing but dueling random newbies until you can move up in dorms like in the show and play harder duelist.

There isn't much to say. Again I didn't expect really a storyline to begin with.

Gameplay: 1/10

Ok, this is where it all goes down hill.

First off, the first packs you start with in the game make it impossible to improve your deck and your starter decks are pretty bad. Your going to be playing with 1800 cruddy no effect monsters for a very long time.

That turns me off from the start. Considering there is no storyline and you have to do the same activities over and over again, it's not too fun.

The characters have no clue how to duel. No lie. I play Mystical Space Typhoon on one of their cards, they Magic Jammer it. It seems the computer rigs them to ALWAYS have Mirror Force. They Torrential Tribute your Sangan, they summon Magician of Faith in attack mode. It's just completely pathetic.

Plus the game has glitches in it. One hilarious one is how Limiter Removal returns to your hand via. Giant Trunade when it shouldn't meaning at least you can OTK the computer easily once you obtain 3 of each.

But one glitch that REALLY bothers me is how if you activate Injection Fairy Lily's effect, it doesn't work. It's effect works when it's attacked or attacks. You pay 2000 and it boost it's attack by 3000. It will not ALWAYS boost it by 3000. Sometimes I lose 4000 life points and I wonder what the hell is going on since it just dies to a regular vanilla monster with no Skill Drain on the field or anything.

I am sure there are other bad ones but I never looked too hard into it.

But yeah, this game is great at wasting time. And bores you in the process.

Sound: 3/10
Sounds are like from the anime, but 10x downgraded. No offense but some Yugioh games have decent music. They put in stratchy sounding themes that are butchered from GX. I guess it's a GBA game and all but it's still not that good even for it's time.

Replay Value: 1/10

Again, there is no way to beat the game. You just keep dueling and dueling until your the King of Games which is the highest rank possible. Isn't that awesome? Not really, nobody cares enough to play that long.

Overall: 3/10
Dark Duel Stories and Forbidden Memories were at least good games for their time. Duelist of the Roses was fun. Falsebound Kingdom....was different. This is just a terrible addition to the Yugioh library. This game didn't have to exist, it REALLY didnt.

But that's ok. Do not buy, do not download the rom, pretend it didn't exist. There is nothing that good about Yugioh GX Duel Academy since it lacks more than the first title of the entire series and has nothing to offer anyone but disappointment.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 01/23/09

Game Release: Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: Duel Academy (US, 01/10/06)