"The TCG fanatics will love this game."

Introduction - Yu-Gi-Oh! Stairway To The Destined Duel: World Wide Edition is probably one of the best YGO games that is out right now! This relatively new game boasts all-new cards, and has the exact same rules (Just about, anyways) as the TCG! Anyone who likes the card game should try this out.

Gameplay - The controls in this game are pretty good, they don't ''Lag'' like other games might do. If you screw up and press something twice, you may screw up and even LOSE the duel because of it. The actual in-game play is nice, but there's one annoying thing everyone complains about: The Game asking if you want to chain something. Now, while this IS annoying, keep in mind THE COMPUTER *MUST* ASK YOU THIS, IF IT DIDN'T, YOU MIGHT WANT TO CHAIN SOMETHING, BUT NOT GET THE CHANCE TO. And it's true...actually, when the enemy sets magic/trap cards or draws in the draw phase, or even ends a phase they should ask you that. And the only real cards that are annoying with ''Chain Messages'' like that are ''Mystical Space Typhoon'', ''Imperial Order'', and maybe ''Call of The Haunted'' or ''Bell of Destruction''. Everything else you'll just use anyway. Basically, all you do in this game is duel. There is almost no alternatives, except for talking to Passenger's, who say THE MOST USELESS CRAP EVER. Granted, some say helpful tips (To all n00bs: Decks with 60+ cards don't win, basically, is what one of them says), but overall most just say useless things that you don't care about. By going farther into the game, and dueling people, you'll unlock new, harder opponents. However, every AI in this game is...low. The enemy does some of the most bizzarre/stupid moves ever. For example, I am dueling someone who has 800 Life Points left. They play the ''Premature Burial'' magic card, which costs them 800 LP. They lose. There are Duel Tournaments every so often (Every Saturday), and other little goodies to get more Duel Points. The more Duel Points you have, the more Booster Packs you can unlock. When you win against someone, you get a booster pack full of cards to help/upgrade your deck. Later on, you'll be able to compete in special tournaments, where, if you win, you'll be able to turn off the limited list, and use 3 of any cards you want in your deck! Getting certain cards can be a pain (I.E, Cyber Harpie), and some cards aren't even in the game (The Flute of Summoning Dragon), but that's helped by the password function, which lets you get any card in the game by using the 8-number password that's on the bottom-left corner of YGO TCG cards.

Story - You are a duelist in Kaiba Seto's Battle City competition. Battle City (A.K.A Domino Town) is where the best duelists in the world have gathered to test their skills against each other in duels. In the anime, Kaiba's main goal with Battle City was to obtain the Egyptian God Cards, but in this game...he just seems to want to have a tournament for fun. Later on in the game, the Ghouls, a group of card thieves, appear to steal people's rare cards. You'll have to randomly find the ghouls and beat them in a duel in order to find out who their leader is, and stop the Ghouls for good. Oddly, there is no end to this game, as it's neverending (Even after you stop the Ghouls, they still randomly appear sometimes O.o), but you do get to meet a wide array of characters along the way, making this an enjoyable experience.

Graphics/Sound - The graphics in this game are very good for GBA ones. There are no sprites, but the cards pictures look great, and the characters look just like they do in the anime. As for the sound, there are some very weird, sometimes bad tunes, however, I did like a few people's duel theme music, but most were just the same overall, and bland. Listen to better music when playing this game. ^_^

Play Time/Replayability - Seeing how this game never ends, the play time is infinite...however, to get everything (50,000 Duel Points and every card + Every opponent, among other things) will probably require around 20+ hours of gameplay. There are so many deck themes you could make, the replayability is virtually endless.

Final Recommendation - If you just plain don't like YGO, you won't want this game. People who haven't played the TCG should probably RENT this game first to see if they like it, people who've actually played the TCG should consider buying this (As there are 2 very powerful cards you get with the game, and 1 other card which is best used as trading material).

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/21/03, Updated 07/21/03