Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: Duel Academy

"Welcome to one of the most boring games you will ever see!"

You shouldn't instantly get me wrong. I used to be a huge fan of some old games based in the main series which were released a couple years ago, and despite this new game being based on a new series (it seems like it, as I don't see Yugi or the rest of the guys anywhere) that can't be seen as an excuse to create this kind of product.

When first seeing the small animation which is always shown before the main menu you could think that the graphics were simply amazing in this game, but you will later notice that they are not even slightly improved from what you could see in previous versions of the games based in the first series.

The same goes for the sound, which apart from being totally unimportant for the game continues being just plain boring. Like myself, most players will probably just hear it for a couple minutes and then turn it off, in order to try forgetting such horrible sounds.

Now, people could tell me "Hey, but not only of looks and sounds lives a game". Sure, I agree, but personally I felt like there wasn't anything interesting in this game besides the number of cards you have available for use to create your deck. They are now more than 1100 of those, granting the player almost endless possibilities to his decks. Obviously this also adds up to the replay value, as most players may want to get all the cards, but are you willing to play for weeks in order to get a single card which can, for example, only be randomly acquired in booster packages!

Those can be only bought with DP (Duel Points, in case someone is wondering), which are acquired by winning duels against other folks. In this game, you get a PDA which allows you to, among many other things, set duels with someone you previously met and is willing to give you their e-mail. By doing so, you can set up to 3 duels per day, one at morning, another at noon and finally one at night. You can set them for any available date in the future, provided you don't have anything to do in that day.

In case you may have stuff to do, those tasks usually range from getting the money your parents (at least I think they are the ones...) send you up to small tests, which have some theory and practice sections.
The theory one is generally REALLY hard, with your character (who you even get to name at the beginning of the game) having to face multiple choice questions that will demand you to know exactly each card is used for (quite hard, I doubt you know the more than 1000 cards 1 by 1 !), while the practice one will ask you to do something in a duel, stuff like "use as many spells as possible" or "kill the more monsters you can". Unless you are a skilled player and an hardcore Yu-gi-oh fan, you will have an hard time perform these (otherwise interesting...) tasks, making your title (which is quite important in the game, as it controls which people will talk to you and which ones won't) unfortunately decrease each time you face one of them. Translation to plain English, people who aren't Yu-gi-oh hardcore fans will NEVER be able to complete the game.

I just said that you can schedule duels for every day, but on weekends you are also free to roam around the map, where you can visit any places you want and confront the people in there (if your title is good enough for that) for a duel. Seems interesting? It isn't. Generally, you will just have to try checking all possible locations to see the one you like the most and then go for it, repeat 2 other times for that same day. Repeat again for the Sunday, all of which becomes really boring after a while.

However, a special mention should be done to the duels, which seem to have become a lot harder since the last Yu-gi-oh game for this console. Your opponents now actually seem to use a quality of combinations only seen in the actual anime, making it a more enjoyable (and difficult) experience for the player?

Story? I was almost forgetting to talk about it, but it is kinda disappointing. You are a student of a dueling academy who has to start from the lower ranks, and your target is to try turning him into the top student of that school, with a title which only the best one can have "Duel King". Surely not the most unusual plot, as most of the series nowadays seem to follow a plot that resembles this one.

So, you may ask: who should get this game? Only hardcore Yu-gi-oh fans should go for it, everyone else would probably be better away from this. The replay value is so huge that it may upset most players, and most of the gameplay is simply boring.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 01/19/06