Yu-Gi-Oh! Destiny Board Traveler

"A hybrid of Mario Party and Sonic Shuffle."

Introduction

Destiny Board Traveler is a hybrid of the Mario Party titles for the Nintendo 64/GameCube and Sonic Shuffle for the Sega Dreamcast. There are no mini-games or usable items (such as Mario Party 5's Capsules and Sonic Shuffle's Forcejewels), though. There are only Battle Spaces and Special Zones on the board maps, as you must summon monsters to get enough stars to win a game.

If you were expecting another Yu-Gi-Oh! game like World Wide Edition, you will be disappointed. DBT is nothing like the card game. There are only Monster Cards in this game, so you can only use monsters to defeat your opponents. The other types of cards don't exist here. In addition, you can't use the special abilities of Effect Monsters, despite the fact that the text of their cards describe them. There is a Graveyard, but you can't bring any monsters back to the field or check to see which ones currently reside here.

This is a difficult game to understand if you choose to buy it. Even after studying the Instruction Manual, you'll still need to play it a few times to learn everything. You have to be very patient to progress through the game, since there is no in-game tutorial. After selecting a character, an LM type and a map, the game begins immediately. Data is saved automatically when you unlock new characters, maps and LM types. Unlike Mario Party and Sonic Shuffle, data can't be saved at the beginning of each turn, so you must be prepared to play a game for hours in order to try and win it.

On the Character Selection screen, you can choose anime characters from pervious Yu-Gi-Oh! Games such as Yugi Muto, Joey Wheeler, Mai Valentine, Seto Kaiba, and Maximillion Pegasus. There are some characters, such as Rebecca Hawkins and Dark Magician Girl, that are exclusive to this game, but there are others like Tea Gardner, Tristan Taylor and Mako Tsunami that don't appear at all. If you like games with loads of characters in them, I advice not buying this one.

Gameplay

On the LM Type Selection screen, you can combine maps via the LM (Linkage Map) system. However, the only difference is that crystals allow you to teleport from one map to another. Selected maps are set according to the LM Type you chose on the LM Type Seection Screen. At first, you can only choose one map, Domino Park. If you can win games as certain duelists, you will unlock new maps.

Once the map is complete, the Win Conditions Screen appears and you can set the win conditions. Select the number of stars required to win the game. After you have set the win conditions, the Map Screen appears. The Map Screen is where players move their characters and where monsters are summoned. Events are triggered by characters landing in Special Zones and by the outcome of duels. When it's your turn, 1 new card is added to your hand.

Unfortunately, you will probably have no idea what cards you will draw, since the game doesn't list the cards that are in your character's duelling deck. Also, there is a lack of customisation for the characters' decks, so you're stuck with their default ones.

The gameplay involves summoning monsters to get enough stars to be declared the winner. If you can successfully use the Summon Dice to summon a monster, you will still have to battle a monster to make a space for your monster. With the exception of Special Zones, all spaces are initially covered with stray monsters. Therefore, it is impossible to summon any monster unless you destroy the stray monsters first.

When you battle a monster, the Duel Dice will decide the outcome of the duel. This is where the game can get very frustrating and annoying. 4 sides of the Dice won't affect the duel, but the other 2 sides will either reverse the position of your monster or lower your monster's ATK/DEF. If the former happens, your monster is sent back to your hand and you have just used up your turn. This wouldn't be too bad if you didn't have to wait for the other CPU players to move around the board.

Although the characters can use Super Powers, most of them are useless. For example, Seto Kaiba's Super Power can destroy all cards with 1500 ATK or more in the other character's hands, not the ones on the field. The only good Super Powers are Change of Heart and Master's Help. The former can steal your opponent's strongest monster, while the latter can summon powerful Magician-Type monsters in a duel. The game is somewhat better in multiplayer, because your friends suffer from the same problems you do so it feels even.

Story

In other Yu-Gi-Oh! Games, most notably The Sacred Cards and Reshef of Destruction, there was a storyline to further the plot. In this game, however, there is no story. Maybe Grandpa Muto has organised a tournament and asked every duelist he can think of to play his board game?

Graphics/Sound

The characters' expressions are very good in this game. If you select a character, you'll hear them say their catchphrase. When they activate their Super Powers, they'll explain what theirs does. The maps pale in comparison to the character graphics. No matter how many maps you unlock, you still move clockwise around dull boards.

Play Time/Replayability

You could play this game forever if you wanted to, since there is no beginning or ending. I doubt you will, though. Your own reward for winning games as certain duelists are maps and LM types. However, even this has flaws. Sometimes, you won't unlock a map and/or LM type due to a glitch. It took Konami nearly a year to release Destiny Board Traveler in Europe. They could have fixed it, but unfortunately they chose not to. If you thought it might be a challenge to unlock the secret characters, think again. If you check out the Codes & Secrets on GameFAQs, you'll see they'll simple to unlock, so there's another reason to progress through this game down the drain.

Final Recommendation

In conclusion, I advice that you don't buy Destiny Board Traveler. If you want a board game with dice, I suggest purchasing Dungeon Dice Monsters. That game is much better than this one. One of the Egyptian God Cards, Obelisk the Tormentor, is in this game, but that's still no excuse to buy this game. You can't use its special ability anyway. If you want to use the Egyptian God Cards in duels, I advice purchasing the average Reshef of Destruction for the Game Boy Advance or the great Nightmare Troubadour for the Nintendo DS. There are three promotional cards - Emes the Infinity, D.D. Assailant and Twinheaded Beast - free with this game, but they're useless if you don't have a real duelling deck that could take advantage of them.

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 10/17/05, Updated 03/16/09

Game Release: Yu-Gi-Oh! Destiny Board Traveler (EU, 09/16/05)