Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship Tournament 2004

"A sequel that's even worse..."

When World Wide Edition came out, I thought it was a unique new add on to the Yu-Gi-Oh series. It had Tournaments, Target Goals, and many new cards. This game is basically the same, but it's less fun. It has the same duelists, but without tournaments or anything other than basic dueling it can get old very fast. With that being said, let me start this review.

Graphics : 8/10
This is probably one of the best things in this game. The virtual card graphics look just like the ones in real life! The dueling field that you play on is blue, but when you play field cards it will change to something new. The characters that you choose also look just like they do in the show. For those of you that haven't played this game yet, the graphics look nearly identical to World Wide Edition. But I don't really think that's a bad thing. There really isn't much else to make better in a Yu-Gi-Oh game.

Sound : 4/10
I personally am not a fan of the sound. The music that plays while you duel is the same song over and over again. It can get on your nerves fast. The only thing that raised this up to a 4 is that it makes a sound when you attack and when you summon. This sound isn't really bad, but it makes the same sound for every monster regardless of their type. This can also get annoying after time. I usually play with the sound off, but that's probably just me...

Story : 0/10
This game has no story of any kind. All you do is duel the same people over and over again hoping to get new cards. World Wide Edition at least had a partial story line, but I guess Konami decided to take it out for this one. Because of the lack of story, I was somewhat disappointed when I bought this. Of course, I never really expected much of a story anyway. This is a card game after all...

Gameplay : 6/10
The gameplay is actually very fun! Well, at least it is at first. The one thing that may greatly disappoint you is that there is no way to use card passwords. You can't use your real life deck until you are able to obtain the cards for yourself. It does give you a goal and a challenge, though. You duel using the Expert rules that are in the real card game. This game has one thing that is different from the other games- You can make three seperate decks! This is something that I am very happy about! You have over 1000 cards, some that have never been used in a Yu-Gi-Oh game before, but they also took some of the older cards out. The duelists are the same ones that have been used in the other games, such as Yugi, his friends, and many of the characters on the show. They all duel with their normal deck themes, such as Mako using a Sea deck and Weevil using an Insect deck. The only thing that brings this down to a 6 is that there is nothing else to do in this game but duel. No tournaments, story, or anything else to keep you entertained. There's just solid dueling.

Replayability : 9/10
This game has a lot of replayability! You can duel the computer over and over again until you get bored. You can also try to unlock every character and every card! This can take many hours to accomplish. You also have the ability to play your friends too as long as they have another game cartridge. You can also try to improve your three decks and your dueling strategies. Card games like this can really never be beaten. There is always something to do.

Overall : 5.4/10
This game isn't really anything new. It is the same as the previous installments, and possibly even worse. I wouldn't really suggest buying this game unless you are a die-hard Yu-gi-Oh fan, or if you want a game with a lot of replayability. I think it's a shame that Yu-Gi-Oh games are actually getting worse than better. Konami needs to get with the program.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 02/22/04