Yu-Gi-Oh: World Championship 2008 (DS) Review

Posted by Vincent Chiucchi on 01.04.2008

Vitals

Genre	Card Battle
System	DS
Release Date	12/04/2007

If this is the official software of the 2008 World Tournament, it's going to be a very lousy tournament.

I'm a fan of Yu-Gi-Oh. I play the CCG, I watch the anime, and occasionally I'll get a new Yu-Gi-Oh game. The last game I bought, Ultimate Masters/World Championship 2006, was a great game. So I figured the 2008 version would be just like that with the added cards from the new sets. Aside from a couple glitches and no story mode in the 2006 version, there wasn't much that Konami really needed to do to massively improve the game.

Yet somehow, when it comes to Yu-Gi-Oh World Championship 2008, they've completely screwed it up.



Let's get this out of the way first: Graphics are standard and it's cool how the monsters are in 3D when you summon them. The sound is okay and it's cool how it changes when you're losing or winning, but it's nothing special.

The gameplay is basically the same as the Yu-Gi-Oh card game in real life, and if you don't know how to play that, there's a tutorial in the game to show you how. The game itself is split between two modes: Duel World and World Championship. World Championship plays exactly like the 2006 version, only you unlock opponents by going through Duel World and you can challenge other people who have the game in online battles. Duel World is a roaming environment sort of game where you find spirits (monsters) to duel, and sometimes you have to solve some duel puzzles (as in winning based on a given situation). Once you beat everyone enough times, you unlock new opponents and go on to different worlds. In duels you earn duel points based on how well and what you did (such as “Battle damage only” or “No Special Summons”), and you use these points to buy booster packs or individual cards using the password system, plus other features that pop up while you're roaming Duel World. You basically keep dueling until you get everything. That's all there is to the game and to be honest that's all it really needed. But somehow, Konami finds a way to take a working formula and modify it to the point where it just plain sucks.

For some reason, Konami decided to completely screw over the password system. See, the real life Yu-Gi-Oh cards all have numbers at the bottom of them, and you can use those passwords to get the cards in the game. Since a lot of sites will have the numbers of the cards posted already, you don't necessarily need to buy the actual cards in order to get the best cards. However, you still need to pay Duel Points once you input the password. In the 2006 version, you paid a certain amount depending on how good of a card it was or how important it was for other card effects. In the 2008 version, however, Konami decided that you can't use the password system to get the card unless you already have the card in the game.

That's right: In order to get the card in the game using a password, YOU ALREADY HAVE TO HAVE THE CARD! So basically, you're collection of Yu-Gi-Oh cards and the list of numbers you find online isn't going to mean anything for a very long time. This has got to be the biggest screw up in a Yu-Gi-Oh game I can remember. Even in the old days it was better when you can only input a password for a card once. But now, the current system is even worse then that. So basically, you're going to need to save up a LOT of duel points in order to get the cards you want in the game.

The limitation of the password system probably wouldn't be that big of a deal had they given you a good deck to work with from the start, so that way you wouldn't have to rely on it like a crutch. In the 2006 version, you started the game by picking out a structure deck (decks with a lot of the important cards for a themed deck, works way better then a starter deck) to start with. In the 2008 version, you get a starter deck that has absolutely no theme or strategy to it. It's like they picked out a list of random cards, threw it together and called it a deck. I've seen new people or people that don't play the game for so long come up with better decks then the one this game gives you at the start. This game lets you store up to 120 different decks, but odds are you're only going to have 1 or 2 decks for a very long time, because they're the only decks that can actually win duels.

As for getting new cards through booster packs, they decide to screw that up as well. It went from having the same packs from real life in the 2006 version to random packs with different names, and you have only a slight idea what cards are in them. So basically, unless you have a good memory, you won't really remember what cards came from what pack, and over half the time you wind up getting more crap cards that doesn't help your crappy deck. Meanwhile, the CPU opponents you're facing are getting tougher because their decks actually have a theme and strategy, while you're still trying to just throw in whatever card you have that doesn't suck compared to the rest. This quickly becomes an exercise in tedious frustration, and quite frankly I shouldn't have to play for so damn long just to actually start having fun in the game.

I haven't gotten far enough in this game to try out the tag duels, but I don't think it would matter much. Odds are your AI partner is likely going to be an idiot or you're going to be no help because of your crappy deck. Either way, even if the tag duels were fun, it doesn't make up for the fact that you need to unlock this feature by winning a lot (usually beating every opponent you come across FIVE TIMES!), and with the horrible card buying system, it feels like you get such little payoff for such hard work.

I already know that the haters are going to pass this one up, but the problem is so will likely a lot of non-haters. A lot of fans have probably already bought this game, but for the fans or newbies that haven't: I'd say be very cautious. Unless you don't mind playing countless hours on end just to finally get a worthy deck or trying to emulate the decks you use in real life, it just isn't worth it. A broken password system and a screwed up booster pack system is what ultimately kills the enjoyment you would usually find in playing Yu-Gi-Oh. Oh well, there's also 2009.

Graphics	7.5	The monsters summoned are shown in 3D, which is cool. The rest is regular 2D affair.
Gameplay	4.0	You will be dueling the same people over and over because it's hard to get the cards you really need.
Sound	6.0	It is cool how the music changes during the duel, but it's nothing special.
Lasting Appeal	3.5	You really need to be a fan of the card game in order to have the patience to trod along.
Fun Factor	4.5	If you are new to the Yu-Gi-Oh CCG, this is not the game for you.
Overall	5.0   [ Not So Good ]