Yu-gi-oh! The Sacred Cards Review

by Emerald Patriot (Matt Krott)

Let me start this off by saying that I loved Yu-gi-oh WWE for the Game Boy Advance. I thought the sequel would be even better, but I was in for a rude awakening when I bought this at Toys R Us.

Where is Konami going with this Yu-gi-oh game? The only new feature is walking around to get to someone to challenge, but in reality it reminds me of Dark Duel Stories (going downhill, I guess) fir the Game Boy Color.

Gameplay – Like I said, the fact that you can walk around like a real human and it really makes you a new character. That’s the positive. The negative? Let’s see, where do I start?

1) Like I said, this game reminds me of DDS. A lot of people did not like DDS because of the fact that it is so different from the real card game. This game is too.

2) Graphics are okay, but I’ve seen much better in the other Yu-gi-oh games.

3) Effect monsters such as Man-Eater Bug lose their effects! That’s the only reason that many if the weaker cards were used, and that’s really a downside.

4) Fusions suck in this game, 90% of the fusions from the card game don’t work here. If you’ve played DDS or Forbidden Memories you’d know this.

5) Rituals are terrible, many cards like Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon and Cosmo Queen have been made rituals.

6) Remember the type match-ups from Dark Duel Stories? They’re back. Sometimes this turns into a pro, but it sucks as your mighty B. Skull Dragon gets beat by a lousy Mystical Elf.

7) No graveyard recursion whatsoever.

8) Minimum of five cards in your hand at a time, Pot of Greed is nothing now.

9) 40 card minimum per deck, not necessarily as bad as the others though. This actually teaches something to people with 100-card decks.

Let’s see—one good thing and nine bad things, what does this tell you?

Storyline – Simple Battle City plot, only you are now a friend of Yugi and Joey.

Graphics – If there is one thing that has been smoothed out since DDS, it would have to be the graphics. Kudos in this category, but that’s it. Look at the screenshots Pojo has in the News article and believe.

Sound – In the Japanese game they had the characters actually talking (with voice and everything). American version doesn’t. The music is not new if you’ve played the other Yu-gi-oh games, so bring out the CD player and bring on the tunes.

Above all this, the game could be completed in like a week, and once you beat it, you start completely over with a new game again. My question for Konami is why they needed to do this.

My Recommendation: Rent it first. Some people like this style of Yu-gi-oh dueling, others like me think it sucks. I say either get Eternal Duelist Soul or Worldwide Edition if you really want a Yu-gi-oh GBA game.

OK, if you want to send me wads of hate mail go ahead, but this is my opinion.

Email Address: shadow_fox8@IGNmail.com

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