Yu-Gi-Oh! Dark Duel Stories

"Make sure to play all the way through!"

Yu-Gi-Oh! Dark Duel Stories is a trading card game, based on the current craze, in which players try to beat a series of opponents and have every single card in existence, as well as having the deck that best suits them. Fans of the show and card game will be the most likely to try this out, and people new to the series would make an ok choice starting out here.

Gameplay 7/10 - The Yu-Gi-Oh! craze always changes the game's rules. They are different in the TV show, in the real-life trading card game, and they are also different here. The most notable change here is the addition of the elemental system which lets monsters, regardless of type or attribute, destroy other monsters instantaneously. This can be advantageous or disadvantageous: Case 1(disadvantage)-> Your weak Kuribo(Shadow), beats my 3000ATK Blue Eyes(Light), Case 2(advantage)-> My 1600ATK Blue Winged Crown(Wind) beats your 3000DEF Labyrinth Wall(Earth) This is one of the most annoying features that has been implemented in this version of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Game, fortunately, repeated play will reveal that this will probably be only minor annoyance and card battles won't be turned around in one round because of it. Another change from the other games is that you can only lay one trap at a time, and attempting to place another will destroy the other one. This is ok, since traps are not as big in this game as the others. Ritual cards are ridiculously annoying to get out since they require the ritual card, a specific monster on the field, and 2 other monsters to sacrifice just to get a monster out. This may sound not worth it, but the monster's attribute will be devine, which means no other element can destroy it. There is a card limit of 40 which seriously restricts how much you can put into your deck, but you will have a greater chance of drawing the necessary cards to win each duel. Flip effects have disappeared from the game leaving one to use the ''SPCL'' command which must be activated when the card is in the ''HID'' position, which is usually immediately after the card is placed, or else it will be attacked and you cannot use the special. This makes specials risky to use. There is also a deck capacity feature(9999 max!) which restricts you (at first) from putting a bunch of powerhouse cards in your deck right at the beginning, as well as a duelist level(only 255 max) that complements this too. Seeing as you gain only 5 deck capacity points after each computer duel, you will be playing for a LONG time if you want to put cards in your deck without fear of exceeding the capacity. The Duelist Level maximum will not take as long to raise though. Fusions are much easier and more convenient to play, since you do not need polymerization to make one. You simply overlap the card onto another card and hope that it makes a new monster. Obviously then you need to know which cards fuse into better ones. Another significant feature, is that you can input the 8 digit password from your real life cards' bottom left corner, and get those cards in the game! (only once though per card but it still good) This feature will tremendously help you if you are a collector of the cards. Another neat feature is the ability to create your own cards from the parts you get at the end of each duel. This helps you out a lot also. You have to duel 5 times with each duelist to progress to the next tier of duelists. There are 4 normal tiers and 5 added duelists at the end, which you have to guess the passwords for 4 of them. A bunch of features, evidently, have changed from the TV show and the trading card game.

Story 0/10 - Unless you know of the characters' backgrounds from the TV show, there is no real story in Dark Duel Stories(ironically) All you really do is fight other duelists for cards. There are, however, familiar characters like Mai and Yugi(no Pegasus :o !) and some which haven't been introduced yet like, Ishizu and Esp Roba.

Graphics 9/10 - For a gameboy game the graphics are pretty good. The cards are detailed, as well as the character's faces and their backgrounds. They even let the characters blink and move their mouths while speaking. Getting an Exodia win nets a nice screenshot, but may startle you since you never know when you will draw the last piece of Exodia. The card construction parts are also detailed for making such a large number of them. In battle however, the graphics may turn you off at first, since you have small rectangular brown blocks that represent your cards, and cards you cannot play or use temporarily are pixelized blocks of white and brown. The card graphics are seen as you place your cursor over the card as well as when one card attempts to attack another. Otherwise, the graphics aren't bad.

Sound 7/10 - The sound is standard gameboy fare. The music is too upbeat to be classified as duel music. The music remains the same within each tier of duelists and changes as you progress. Some music is annoying(Yami Yugi) and some music fits the mood (Yami Bakura) and some music is pretty great(check out the Egyptian feel, and trillwork of Shadi's music) There are sound effects that you anticipate after fighting the duelists with the cards, such as the dreaded swords of revealing light, change of heart, and raigeki cards. Nothing else particularly stands out, since the sound is about average.

Control 10/10 - The control is simple to use. ''A'' is usually the ''accept'' button, and ''B'' is basically the ''cancel'' button. ''B'' brings up a menu in battle which must be used to end your turn, discard or check out a card with more detail. ''Start'' helps you sort your cards in the Chest screen. ''Select'' is the killer at the title screen, as it will will select new game, leading you one step closer to accidentally erasing your data and starting a new game. Unless you want to do so for some bizarre reason. The control is pretty solid and nothing changes out of the blue at any point in the game.

Replayability 10/10 - Once you finish the game you still have a long way to go since you will want to build up your duelist level, and deck capacity to the max. There are also the 4 hidden duelists which get a bit trickier, and you will want to obtain every single card for your collection.

To Buy Or To Rent? - Rent it first. If you can beat it and still don't like it a lot, then don't buy it, and vice-versa. If you like mastering games then buy this. If you hate card games, with predictable AI, as well as cheating AI then don't buy it. If you like to face cheating AI, and beat them at their own game then buy it.

Overall 7/10 - Make sure to play the game ALL the way through so that you will get used to it and definitely like it or not.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 10/27/02, Updated 10/27/02