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Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship 2007 (DS)

• Developer:
• Publisher: Konami
• Genre:
• Official Website: http://www.konami.com
• Score: 2 of 5: Strictly Rental

Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship 2007 is an extremely faithful recreation of the physical Yu-Gi-Oh! card game. Whether that's a good or a bad thing depends completely upon how much the player knows about the series going into the game because Yu-Gi-Oh! is complicated, and it's easy to overwhelm new players with too much information.

Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship 2007 is a card game that you play on your DS. All the rules from the physical game are used in the DS version, and some of the real-world annoyances follow the game through its digital conversion as well. Chief among these is the manner in which players obtain new cards with which to construct custom decks. First, money has to be earned by defeating other duelists. So far so good. There's got to be some incentive to duel after all. After money is earned the player has to go to a shop and buy packs of cards from different series. This is a bit too close to real life for me. I'm playing games to have fun. It's not fun to grind for money and then waste it by purchasing a pack of cards that only contains copies of cards I already own. It adds to realism, but sometimes realism - especially when reality is annoying - is a bad thing. It's not fun to feel like I haven't accomplished anything and whether that feeling comes from real life or a video game is irrelevant.

One aspect where the DS version is hands-down better than the physical version of the game is presentation. It's one thing to lay a card on the table and attack your opponent's life points with a Blue Eyes White Dragon; it's completely another to watch that card come to life and actually attack like it does in the anime. Character models and avatar customization are also extremely well-done and add to the "I'm in an anime" feeling that the game tries to convey.

Where Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship 2007 really shines and outdoes its card-based counterpart is multiplayer. As with any physical multiplayer game geographic location and opponent selection are each a deciding factor in how much fun will be had while playing the card-based Yu-Gi-Oh! game. Konami's online-enabled DS offering, however, allows card battlers to compete with their friends locally or challenge other Yu-Gi-Oh! enthusiasts worldwide. Opponents can be chosen based on location or skill level. I'm not certain why it would be preferable to choose an opponent in the same country vice one of a comparable skill level, but the option is there for those that would use it.

Just like other Yu-Gi-Oh titles, World Championship 2007 is aimed squarely at fans of the anime and card game. New players are almost certain to be overwhelmed with the complexity of the game. A tutorial is included, but there's a lot of information to take in, and spending two hours in a tutorial isn't my idea of a good time. If Yu-Gi-Oh! is your thing then this game will be satisfying; everybody else would most likely have a better time with a simpler game in their portable.

Apr 19, 2007 | 0 comments
Justin Last