Reviewed: June 29, 2003
Reviewed by: Loki
Publisher
Konami
Developer
Konami
Released: April 15, 2003
Genre: Card/Strategy
Players: 2
ESRB: Everyone
10
8
7
10
8.8
Supported Features:
Yu-Gi-Oh! World Wide Edition: Stairway to the Destined Duel (type that three times fast) is Konami’s sequel to their 2002 release of The Eternal Duelist. For the uninitiated, Yu-Gi-Oh! is a strategy card game along the lines of Magic the Gathering. It’s based on an actual card game with real cards, but much like those other games, it’s easy enough to digitized the cards and create an electronic version.
For those that played The Eternal Duelist this might not be the sequel you were hoping for, but rather an expansion with a few minor improvements in the gameplay. Added are more than 150 new cards bringing your electronic deck to a staggering 1000+ cards. The interface has been greatly enhanced and the pacing is slightly faster to cater to the nature of handheld gaming.
Gameplay is simple. Players create a custom deck of monsters, magic, and traps then challenge players with their own decks. You play your monster cards then enhance those with magical attacks or defensive spells. You keep playing your cards against each other until somebody loses all their hit points.
The pacing of Stairway to the Destined Duel is noticeably improved and the challenges go by faster than last year’s game. The game still uses a calendar system where each action you take clicks another day off the virtual calendar. Some events only take place on certain days so you need to keep an eye out for upcoming events.
The campaign mode from The Eternal Duelist has been replaced with a new challenge interface that lets you challenge anyone within the game world. As simple as the game sounds, there is a bit of a learning curve and Konami once again fails to offer any type of tutorial. If you already have some experience with this genre then you won’t have any problems, but newbies will be struggling for the first few games.
There’s a surprising amount of strategy involved in playing Yu-Gi-Oh! The sheer possibilities of all the cards and creating the perfect deck can become quite overwhelming and it will take plenty of trial and error before you learn to mix and match the proper amount of monsters, spells, and traps.
This latest electronic version of the card game features more than 1000 digitized cards from actual Yu-Gi-Oh! cards. The 12 new booster packs basically get you caught up with the latest packs you can buy in stores if you play this game “for real”.
Packs of cards are locked and you open them by winning battles, thus granting you more cards for future battles. In a brilliant cross-promotion, if you own the real cards you can enter the passwords on those to unlock them within the game. If you have a GBA link cable you can not only challenge other players (two copies of game required) but you can also trade cards just like in real life.
The graphics are surprisingly good. The cards have all been digitized right into the GBA so those look as good as the real thing, but all of the rest of the game including the overall interface, anime characters, maps, etc. all look really good.
I had to go back and play The Eternal Duelist just to be sure but the music in this latest version is the same from last year’s edition, or if not it’s so close I couldn’t tell them apart. There is a definite lack of variety that wears thin all too soon, especially considering the long hours that you will be playing this game.
I wouldn’t even begin to put a time value on this game. With more than 1000 cards built into the game plus the ability to unlock your own cards from real decks or exchange cards with friends on their GBA’s, the possibilities and the gameplay are endless. If you enjoy these types of card games then it doesn’t get any better than this for content and value.
In the time it takes you to say “Yu-Gi-Oh! World Wide Edition: Stairway to the Destined Duel” you could have gone out and purchased this game. I’m assuming that if you are reading this review then you have some interest in either Yu-Gi-Oh! or strategy card games, in which case I can recommend this title without reservation. It’s not exactly a sequel, but more of a standalone expansion pack with improved gameplay. Get it!
