Review of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Early Days Collection

Yu-Gi-Oh! celebrated its silver jubilee last year, reminding many of us just how fast time flies. In honor of its 25th anniversary, Konami has decided to keep the festivities going with a special ‘Quarter Century’ celebration of this iconic card game. A significant highlight in this ongoing celebration is the release of the Yu-Gi-Oh! The Early Days Collection. This unique anthology includes around 14 games from the early days of the card series, spanning the Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance eras.

As a longtime enthusiast of the Yu-Gi-Oh! card game, I was intrigued yet a bit apprehensive about diving into this collection. Although I hadn’t played through all these games before this review, my lingering memories painted them as a bit clunky, seemingly designed more to captivate fans of the anime rather than the card game itself. It turns out my instincts were fairly accurate, but the reality wasn’t as jarring as I feared. For many, revisiting these classic Yu-Gi-Oh! days will be driven by mere curiosity, but ardent fans of the franchise may find a peculiar charm hidden within this collection. Still, unearthing that charm might require some dedication.

First things first: yes, this collection indeed offers 14 complete Yu-Gi-Oh! games, released between 1998 and 2005. The collection spans from the first Yu-Gi-Oh! games on the original Game Boy, available only in Japan until now, to the Game Boy Advance’s World Championship series, which aimed to be a faithful battle simulator, with some extra unexpected twists along the way. While this might sound like a treasure trove of content at first glance, there are some significant caveats.

Initially, the early Game Boy games mostly offer slight updates to the card game and its evolving rules at the time. For instance, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters II: Dark Duel Stories mainly introduced new rules and cards to better balance decks. In contrast, the Western release, Dark Duel Stories (known as Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters 4 in Japan), added just one new zone exclusively for trap cards. While these games serve as fascinating historical snapshots of the game’s evolution, playing them consecutively can feel a bit redundant to many players. Watching the game design morph over time—especially in user interface and user experience—is captivating, but after just one match, I often found myself seeking out the more engaging games in the collection.

A particularly pleasant surprise for me was Duel Monsters 3. Previously unavailable outside Japan, this game follows the Monster World arc, where Yugi’s friends have been turned into monsters, trapped within a tabletop RPG controlled by antagonistic Dungeon Masters. Interestingly, this means that the usual trading cards are absent from this game. Instead, you place monsters on a grid, reminiscent of simplified turn-based strategy titles like Fire Emblem. Each monster has its own attack pattern, gaining advantages based on its field position and proximity to allies, turning every battle into a mini-puzzle. The outcome of combat depends on two D10 dice rolls, determining hit or miss outcomes, creating a unique system for random enemy encounters during boss battles. It’s refreshingly different from the other games in this collection.

On the flip side, Dungeon Dice Monsters and Destiny Board Traveler didn’t quite hit the mark for me. Both of these spin-offs adopt more boardgame-like mechanics. Dungeon Dice Monsters tries to adapt the often-overlooked spin-off game of the same name into a digital format. The premise features two players facing off on an isometric grid, placing cubes that unfold in various directions to build a path to their opponent’s dice master. While the concept is promising, the execution falters due to lack of guidance as the game provides no tutorials. With only a complicated manual to accompany your experiences, you’ll likely find yourself pulling it out repeatedly while attempting to grasp the mechanics.

This issue highlights a recurring theme of the collection’s quality-of-life features falling short, leaving players to grapple with some steep learning curves. For example, although every game’s manual is accessible, each time you delve back into the menu, the manual defaults to page one, presenting challenges, especially in complex games like Dungeon Dice Monsters. Similarly, the specific type chart featured in the early RPG titles is quite perplexing, incorporating monster types nonexistent in the original card game like ‘dreams’ or ‘shadows.’ While the games offer the ability to rewind up to a minute, they lack a fast-forward feature. This omission stands out, particularly in duel simulators on the GBA, where the CPU can be agonizingly slow to make moves.

Then there’s the issue of online capabilities—or the notable absence thereof. Only one game within the collection, Duel Monsters 4, allows for competitive dueling and card trading with others. This choice is baffling since this title was exclusively available in Japan. Oddly, every game has cheat menus for unlocking cards and bypassing duelist point limitations, which could undermine the already limited online experience, especially given that Duel Monsters 4 is split into three different versions, each aligned with Yugi, Kaiba, or Joey’s decks. While cross-version duels are technically possible, there’s little motivation to engage in them. A more inspired choice might have been to incorporate online support for more widely appreciated titles like Stairway to the Destined Duel or World Tournament 2004, as these remain favorites among veteran Yu-Gi-Oh! players. The potential for later inclusion exists, but currently, online functionality feels like an afterthought, detracting from the appeal of this collection.

The inclusion of Duel Monsters 6: Expert 2 further underscores the collection’s uneven nature. This GBA title was noted for being immensely popular in Japan during the peak of Yu-Gi-Oh!’s popularity, so its inclusion seems logical at first. However, while other games in the collection feature translations, Duel Monsters 6: Expert 2 is only available in Japanese, posing a barrier for non-Japanese-speaking players. While it might be argued that this game was effectively adapted into Stairway to the Destined Duel with adjusted rules for English-speaking audiences, its presence here as a stand-alone and untranslated title feels inexplicable. In other games, players can freely switch between language versions from the main menu, making this single-language choice stand out awkwardly.

Ultimately, this duality mirrors the nature of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Early Days Collection. It’s certainly thrilling to explore the idiosyncratic history of Yu-Gi-Oh! before it matured into the established card game it is today, with modern iterations either aligning closely with the assorted anime series or functioning purely as duel simulators. Despite the impressive volume of games, the collection lacks the detailed care and attention it deserves, often feeling like a half-baked commemorative offering. With limited quality-of-life enhancements, games that are intricately complex sans consistent manual assistance, one untranslated title, and a paltry online offering, the collection feels incomplete. The absence of additional content such as artworks, concept designs, or design documents further diminishes its appeal to true Yu-Gi-Oh! aficionados. There are definite bright spots within the games, like The Sacred Cards or 7 Trials to Glory, yet many titles offer only incremental advances or stark departures from any semblance of the original card game. While it stands as a historical archive, it paradoxically conveys little respect for the heritage it showcases.

So, who is the Yu-Gi-Oh! Early Days Collection really for? Those yearning to recapture the glory of Yu-Gi-Oh!’s past might find some joy here. The collection’s expansive list of games may look enticing at face value, but in reality, you might find the engagement level is lacking. While I occasionally revisited a few of them as quick-play experiences, by the time I reached the later GBA titles, rebuilding decks and devising new strategies for the slightly altered yet fundamentally identical card games ceased to captivate me. It would have been interesting to experience this collection with a friend, but with only one game supporting online play, it’s challenging to recommend even for the most ardent Yu-Gi-Oh! enthusiasts. Still, if you’re open to diving in with lowered expectations and discovering the more unconventional titles, there’s some fun to be had. Just be prepared to be relieved once you’ve moved beyond these early days.