Yu-Gi-Oh! Worldwide Edition: Stairway to the Destined Duel

"A great game for fans of the card game."

Finally, a duel monsters game that does justice to the real card game. Unlike many of the other games in the Yugioh series, this one adheres strictly to the official Upperdeck rules. This is great for real life duelists, as well as people who want to learn how to play the game. Being able to play on your own, instead of always having to find an opponent, can help you figure out some of the cheap little tricks that can help you win the game. This game is also a great way to test out your card combos before you go out and get the real cards. This saves you the trouble of spending a huge deal of money on a card that might not suit your needs.

Now let me go into more detail.

GamePlay- 9/10
This game almost flawlessly follows the flow of a real duel, and I love it for that. One of the things I like about it is how you have to enter your battle phase before you can start attacking. This prevents the use of magic cards during the wrong time, but still allows for trap and quick play cards. The only thing that keeps this from a perfect 10 is the annoying messages that pop-up. If you have a certain kind of magic or trap set and you try to attack for example, it may ask you up to 3 times if you want to activate the card. The problem is that after getting used to saying no, from time to time I end up saying no when I do want to activate one. I know it's due to my impatience, but I bet others will go through the same thing.

Story- 7/10
Well, it's as much of a story as a card game can have. You get to meet and duel some of your favorite characters from the show. There are a couple of special duels, which I will try not to spoil.

Graphics- 8/10
Again, it's the best you can expect from a card game. The characters are drawn really well and the small amount of animation (their mouths moving when they talk) is pretty good. The cards look the same as their real life counter parts, with more vibrant colors. The city map looks a little odd, but that's not too important.

Interface- 9/10
When making you deck, you can clearly see what you are choosing, the picture and the name. You don't have to spend hours or even minutes looking for the card you want. While outside of battle, you can sort the cards by name, atk points, def points, type, attribute, and star level. You can also limit your search to normal/ effect/ fusion/ ritual monsters, magic, or trap cards. This makes editing you deck a breeze.

Programming Quality/ Glitches- 6/10
I know programming is a hard job, but it is a programmer's responsibility to make a quality product. This game has quite a few glitches, which are annoying more than anything. Some of the glitches are random, but some happen after a certain thing. These glitches don't occur often enough to pose a problem. The worst of them causes your game to freeze, which at most is going to force you to restart one duel... not that bad.

Multiplayer- 9/10
It's true to the actual game. It saves you the trouble of having to carry around your cards. The only thing I don't like is when it's not your turn. You get to sit there just looking at the field until your opponent does something (like attack or destroy one of your cards). I think it should at least tell or show you what you're opponent is doing (looking through his/her deck, choosing a card etc.)

Overall- 8/10
The game does have its faults, but they don't take away from the overall experience.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/19/03, Updated 05/19/03