Yu-Gi-Oh! 7 Trials to Glory: World Championship Tournament 2005

You know, I must admit that this is my first Yu-Gi-Oh game. Oh sure, I've watched the cartoon with my kids and I have a general idea of what the game is about. Players each have a deck of cards that contain monsters and magic unto which you battle other players and their decks. Magic is thrown into the mix in order to strengthen your monsters and/or weaken your opponents monsters. Now with that statement, I'm sure I'll get all sorts of emails from Yu-Gi-Oh experts chastising me for my description of the game. So with that I'm sorry. But... I feel that being a first time player to everything Yu-Gi-Oh, I am more open minded to what the game is about.

Now, for a game aimed at younger kids, and having played a video game or two before, I was surprised at how difficult this game was right out of the box. It almost was like I needed to be intimately familiar with the series and took for granted that I had not. Not to beat a dead horse, but the game simply provides no information on how to pick a dueling deck, and that is literally the first thing you must do. And not only that, but you must start dealing with booster packs which improve on your starting deck. From there you roam the land finding other duelists to do battle with, collecting more powerful cards as you go. Not to brag, but the game claims to feature 1000 cards, 800 classic cards and 200 that are specific to this game. Now I don't know allot about these games, but 1000 seems pretty impressive. So I asked my neighbor, a nine year old boy and he showed me his collection of cards in a fairly big binder. 240 cards total, his collection looked pretty impressive, so I gotta figure 1000 cards is awesome.

But with all these cards and roaming and dueling it basically boils down to strategy. Yes, this is a strategy game more then anything else, and quite frankly, I apparently didn't have much of a strategy. Battles are done on a table that allows the turned cards ample viewing for you pleasure and is completed when one of the duelists inflicts 8000 points of damage on another. The cards are fairly bright and look pretty good. Magic sprites and other effects came across visually appealing, they put some budget in the graphics.

What they didn't do however, was put some money into the plot. The game wants to be, and tries to be, an RPG. It simply is not. There is no real story powering you along and the idea that you are to travel the land picking fights with other duelists is quite uninspired. Now, with that being said, the game is the a Championship Edition and can also be viewed as a game that only Yu-Gi-Oh experts should even tackle. Almost like a gift to those gamers who have invested time and money into the other incarnations of the game. And it is because of this, you could arguably say that this one is for the hardcore players of the series. If this sounds like something you would like to try, then my advice would be to play a couple of the other games in the series first and only then will you be worthy of playing this title.

Gameplay: 6.8
It's more complicated then it has to be and the game assumes you are already an expert on Yu-Gi-Oh. Problem is, if you are not, then you will struggle to keep your head above water. If you are though, you'll hit the ground running.

Graphics: 7.7
One of the game's strongest points is its nifty depiction of the creatures that are contained in the cards. Bright sprites are prevalent and the top down view as you roam the world has lots to look at.

Sound: 6.1
I'm playing all my GBA games on my Nintendo DS so the sound is coming out in stereo. There is a full compliment of background music provided for the game and the sound effects seem to be overdone on some of the more remedial actions. Eh, I could take it or leave it.

Difficulty: Hard
Yes, I know a ten year old expert will ice this game in nothing flat. But the duels do get quite difficult as the game gets on and the whole "sink or swim" concept at the beginning of the game could turn off some players. So again, play some of the earlier versions to get you ready, and then only when you feel like a champion, should you try this Championship edition.

Multiplayer: 6.8
You can hook up two of these bad boys and go against other gamers who struggle with the game. And in some cases, this will provide the most entertainment since this game started off as a successful card game against other players. Only now you save hundreds of dollars by not buying a ton of cards. And instead, you can spend a ton of time trying to find all the best cards contained in the game.

Concept: 5.0
Pokemon got it right, and in my opinion, is a far better game. Card games can be fun, but this one could have used allot more story.

Overall: 7.0
I wanted to play this game so I would have another title to play with my young son. There is no way, he could play this. I could hardly play it without pulling out my hair from the game's lack of a tutorial, non plot and heavy strategies. I almost would have preferred if they had actually put some RPG elements into the game like they led you to believe. Only the die hard gamers who have played this series will enjoy this one. But in the end, that's what this title is for, the die hard gamers who know what they are doing.