"DDM provides absolutely no challenge whatsoever"

Yu-gi-oh. What can I say? Some like to call it the ''new wave of Pokemon.'' Others like to call it ''crap.'' And of course, there are those few who worship it and play it to no end. I would like to emphasize that I am none of the above, and I carry an objective view of Dungeon Dice Monsters and its faults. I've played most of the US Yu-gi-oh titles, including Forbidden Memories and the Eternal Duelist Soul. This sidestory or sidequest (of some sorts) to Yu-gi-oh is poorly executed and presented in this GBA game.

Gameplay: Does not live up to its potential

The learning curve to this game is NOT as hard as everyone seems to suggest. It's very simple--instead of cards, you have dice. Just like star levels in the card game, there's levels in DDM. If you match two dice of the same level, you get to ''dimension'' a new monster. If you roll some kind of crest, you get that respective crestput into your ''dice pool.'' An attack crest allows you to attack, a movement crest allows you to move, etc. This is pretty much common sense. The most innovative part of the game is that you create the gameboard by linking dimensioned dice together in order to reach the other player's Dice Master. Then, you can attack your opponent directly. Takes 20-30 minutes for any intelligent person to learn, tops.

Now, that sounds all nice and cool, but the tragic flaw of this game turns the game into a boring session of mindlessly pushing A. This tragic flaw is the computer AI. Unless you battle with friends often, this game provides absolutely no challenge whatsoever.

Let me elaborate. The computer's monsters rarely attack you. The computer constantly tries to summon level 3-4 monsters (low percentage of success). The computer hardly even moves its monsters. The only smart thing the AI does is dimension the dice in semi-strategic positions, which will eventually stop you from dimensioning your dice.

Graphics and Music: Mediocre

These two elements are not as nearly important as gameplay, and appropriately, Konami paid even less attention to it. I honestly do not mind the second rate animations and the boring music, but they do get repetitive after a while. But like I said, in a Yu-gi-oh game, graphics and music simply aren't very important.

Replay Value: None or.. a lot

Unless you enjoy beating the computer over and over with no challenge, this game will entertain you to no end. There's a huge amount of dice for you to collect and a large collection of duelists to fight.

But don't get me wrong. The Yu-gi-oh series isn't completely bad. I do enjoy playing EDS because of its (generally) non-idiotic AI. To any newcomer of Yu-gi-oh, I do NOT suggest you play DDM first, for there are better games than this.

Final rating: 2/10

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 02/23/03, Updated 02/23/03