Yu-Gi-Oh! Dark Duel Stories

"An addictive game marred by its repetitiveness and dullness"

Right now, this is probably the closes rendition of the Yugioh! TCG (Trading Card Game) out in America. I said closest, but I didn't say close. This game has a few major differences, the main one is that a lot of the cards have been changed and some rules have been changed.

Graphics: 5/10

This is probably the main thing that makes this game dull. Why? Because the graphics are very, very bland. While cards have had their pictures redone and the characters look great, animation is at its lowest in this game. The only things that move on characters are the mouths and the only thing that moves in a duel is when you attack with a card. One card shakes and disappears and then the other flips over. Ok, that's not so bad right? Wrong. There are no background graphics or colors in a duel, which is 80% of the game. Your just staring at whitish-gray nothingness with some black square floating around and the occasional card picture that is shown when you highlight a card.

In a few words, the graphics are bad and bland.

Sounds: 4/10

Music: 2/5

There are like 3 or 4 freakin songs in the game, one of which you will be hearing 70% of the time. Is it good, no. Is it bad, yes. Some music is good, but it's repetitive. I guess you can't expect to much in a card battler.

SFX: 2/5

Just like the music, there are very few SFX. In my mind...I can count just about 4 or 5. I can't really say anything else, it's just bad. This and the music makes this game even duller.

Story: 2/10

I take back what I said about graphics, THIS is the major thing that makes this game so dull. I really want to give this game a chance but it just wont let me! It offers nothing but gameplay and that is even still repetitive after a while. The reasons games have other things besides just gameplay is to make experience better, and when the gameplay is marred, you can't just rely on it to save the game!

Why a 2 huh? Why?! Because there is no story! Besides the fact that some guy talks to you now and then from other peoples bodies, there is nothing. Your just some random person who is just trying to beat everyone for some reason. No character development as the characters say three things, one is for when you first duel them, the second is for every time you duel them after that, and the third is when you beat them the first five times. That's just about it. Nothing much more I can say about this part. Man, this game sure gives us reviews a lot to talk about!

Gameplay: 7/10

TCG players, don't expect the same. This game has changed some rules and the cards that have effects in the real TCG have either had their effects totally removed or changed. One of the worse things that has been changed are magic and trap cards. Magic works immediately while traps will stay in play until the end of your opponents next turn in which they are then discarded whether it has been used or not.

These rules have been changed for a reason though. It actually creates a new type of game. As slight as it seems, it is a new game. You will see new strategies and such with this game. The only bad part is that this game is terribly easy in it's first few stages and most battles seem to be whoever has the strongest monsters, but not as obvious as its brother Forbidden Memories.

Now for some non-criticizing. In this game, you duel with cards. You start out with some cards and gain more and sometimes better cards after every time you win a duel. The rules from the TCG have mostly stayed in tact. If you know the TCG rules, you will most likely be more than ready for this game. There are stages and each stage has a few duelist you must defeat 5 times each to move on to the next one. This can be bad sometimes, especially if the duelist is easy. One of the most unique things about Yugioh! games is the import system in which you can import your cards from the real life game using the password printed on the card. In this game instead of paying millions of star chips, like in Forbidden Memories, you get it for free, but there is a catch. You have a duelist level and a deck capacity. Each go up a certain amount after you win a duel. To be able to use a card your duelist level must be the same amount as the cost of the card plus you must have enough deck capacity to even hold the card. The cost of the card is how much deck space it takes up.

This game supplies some very addictive gameplay as I find myself playing it and hour at a time. Unfortunately, you will set it down after a while and quit playing it.

Control: 9/10

What can I say? It's a card battler and there isn't much besides the D-pad to highlight things and A and B to accept and go back.

Replay: 8/10

Sure, it has replay. Actually, it never ends unless you just want to go back and start collecting cards and beating people all over again. After you beat it you can just go around collecting cards making your deck even better and duel with friends (if you have any friends).

Buy or don't buy:

You get three promotional cards that come with it. The early games came with a Blue Eyes White Dragon, Dark Magician, and the head of Exodia while most boxes in stores today will come with Acid Trap Hole, Salamandra, and Seiyaryu. This is probably the main reason a collector would buy this game. Otherwise, only get this game if your bored and you want something to do when you can't duel someone, but with internet dueling at large, you may want to think twice about this game. If you want a some-what cool variant to the TCG, then give it a try.

Overall: 6/10 (5.8 rounded up)

Yes, I'm am sort of sorry for this bad score. The gameplay is fun but could have been helped by graphics and a story at least. I know the GBC cant put out too much in graphical and musical senses but they could have done better.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 07/29/02, Updated 07/29/02