Yu-Gi-Oh! Dark Duel Stories

"It's Time To Duel!"

Ah, I just love that quote. Oh, sorry. Anyway, Yu-Gi-Oh! Dark Duel Stories is another Gameboy Color game released in the United States. There is tons of other Yu-Gi-Oh! Games in Japan, but just now are they getting imported to the US. Dark Duel Stories made an excellent import and is a very addicting game to play the on the Gameboy Color. It really could have been improved in a couple of areas, but overall, it's a fun game.

Story 0/10
Well, there IS no story. You'll probably expect to play as Yugi, the main hero of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Television series...well...no. You are yourself, or someone else. That’s why you name your character. You battle Yugi, but your not Yugi...yup...about it.

Graphics 8/10
Lacking...there is really no animation in this game, it's just pictures. The monster cards all look pretty cool, as well as the characters are all right. Not much to say here...

Game Play 9/10
The game play is just like dueling on the TV show, or the card game. You put down a monster card, along with a magic/trap, and wait for your opponent...if your opponent uses a card stronger than you, your monster dies, and you loose Life Points, unless you have a clever trap, you can reverse these effects, even if your opponent has better cards. Magic & Trap cards are extremely important to win duels. When you first begin the game, your cards are really bad and you'll probably lose your first duels. Your opponents use weak cards too, but they also have cards 3X stronger than you. You must beat each duelist 5 times in each stage to proceed, and gain cards. There are 3 stages with about 5 duelists in each. After you beat everyone, you can still go back and collect all the cards.

Sounds/Music 8/10
The sounds are all right...you'll probably barely notice it.just when you interact with the cards you get sounds. Music is average too, for dueling, or just hanging around the title screen. Again, not much to comment here.

Replay Value 9/10
Replay is great in this game, once you really build up cards, you'll be eager to cream the computers, and even use a link cable to challenge your friends! It's hard work getting all the cards, so it'll keep you busy for a while.

Rent or Buy?
If you’re a huge fan of the Television Show, you'll be eager to check this game out. If you love the card game, you'll probably like this even more. If you love both, you'll be in for a treat! Either way, it deserves a buy

Closing Statement
Konami did a great job in making a US Version of the Yu-Gi-Oh! game. There are currently making tons of games for the PSX, PS2, Gameboy Color and Gameboy Advance. So it looks like a good year for Yu-Gi-Oh! folks.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/02/02, Updated 09/02/02