“If you know how to play Magic: The Gathering, you should be able to play Yu-Gi-Oh”. That was some sound advice given by a friend of mine prior to my purchase of Yu-Gi-Oh: World Championship 2007 for the Nintendo DS. MTG veterans do have an easier time jumping into the game but my advice to anyone who hasn’t played the game before, is: “Go through the tutorials!”
The gameplay mechanics differ abit from that of MTG. For starters, there are no land cards to worry about (you won’t get mana screwed in this game) and this game handles attack and defense points a little different, which results in combat resolving faster. The rest of the card types are basically similar, borrowing MTG terms, you have creature cards, spells, enhancements, etc etc. The only thing that I haven’t got to grips yet is this fusion thing.
The game does offer solid card play in form of matches against the AI. Other than that, you can take your game online and challenge friends via Nintendo’s WFC service. Other features included in World Championship 2007 are the ability to customize your avatar (from the looks to the phrases that appear on screen at different phases of a turn), get new cards and my personal favourite, deck building. As mentioned earlier, the tutorials section, despite looking a little brief, will definately have you up and playing your first match.
Presentation wise, the game does look cool and the dueling area is nicely done, with some 3D touches on the creatures (or was the term monsters used instead) on the said area. A note to absolute newbies, card details are shown by selecting a card located on the dueling area or in your hand and then pressing the left or right trigger.
It looks like Yu-Gi-Oh will be competing with Animal Crossing for my limited amount of game time and I must add it is doing a bang-up job. The game is on a 1 to 2 weeks waiting list on Play-Asia, and if you want it now, you are better off getting it from your favourite brick and mortar store. This game also comes along with three playable cards (real ones mind you), proof that special edition games are not the only one with nice freebies.
