Reviewed: October 25, 2006
Reviewed by: Jeff Gedgaud
Publisher
Konami
Developer
Konami JPN
Released: September 18, 2006
Genre: Strategy
Players: 1-4
5
6
4
5
5.0
Supported Features:
Screenshots (Click Image for Gallery)
Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Tag Force 2 brings Konami's version of the popular card game, Yu-Gi-Oh! back to your PSP with the small addition of a storyline. If you’re into Yu-Gi-Oh! GX then Tag Force 2 is for you - actually you better have played the card battle game before because the instructions are pretty sparse for this handheld game.
Yu-Gi-Oh! is a pretty decent card battle game but not one for the quick pick and play style of gaming. The card games can get in depth but the story line that they have used seems to a be a try at getting some new type of gameplay.
If you have never played Yu-Gi-Oh! the game is a complex card battle where you have cards with different characters and abilities that you use to try and defeat another player. The game originally came out as a card battle and trading card game where kids would trade the baseball card sized Yu-Gi-Oh! cards trying to make the perfect battle groups.
Many sets of these have sold like hot cakes in their time but now the craze has branched to the video gaming genres with plenty of emphasis on battling and none on collecting. Each card you use is a character or monster to fight with or an ability, spell, or action. Players take turns fighting by attacking, defending and drawing new cards according to several sets of rules depending on the game type you are playing.
In the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Tag Force 2 game you will be playing by the rules of Yu-Gi-Oh! but having to wander the halls of a Yu-Gi-Oh! dueling school to find your opponents. There are also some helpful characters wandering around that will give you useful information, like how to play the game, but most of it is either common sense, very late in coming or useful to some extent but not much.
The main emphasis here seems to be finding the opponents in an ever-deepening maze of corridors and rooms that make up the dueling school. You simply wander around with a story line that makes no sense to the duels and find more opponents that you can battle against. If you have never played Yu-Gi-Oh! before this game would not be for you, it is just too complex and without some better tutorials that are available from a distinct point or menu you would be lost.
The actual card battles can be fun but have so many rules and twists and turns in the play that it would take hours to learn and has for me. I have played another game of this on the PC and it took several hours to just get the gameplay and mechanics of the basic game down. This is playing the same game without any helpful reference except sitting in front of a computer as my extra help.
The storyline is pretty incidental to the duels and not really necessary at all other than to trade cards with others. The help you get is very unstructured and I found it easier to research the Internet for the answers to my questions than follow some misguided student who tells you in slightly broken English a clue or hint for playing.
The battles with the duels can be interesting but it really boils down to a rock, paper, scissors game with all kinds of rules. The cards you collect, win or buy from points won in battles mean a lot but there is always that random factor of a rock, paper, scissors game against the other opponent that can even the odds against better opponents.
If I am not making much sense in this review it is not my fault, the game does not make much sense unless you understand it very well and know how to play. Yu-Gi-Oh! is a complex card game and the PSP game Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Tag Force 2 is simply a way to play the game against some AI opponents or using the AD-Hoc connection with a few others over the Wi-Fi.
The graphics are pretty basic Anime with the typical Japanese cartoon characters and either a top down view when roaming the halls of the dueling school or the battle duels with the board and cards. The graphics hold up well enough but the game is pretty basic and there is not much to the graphics.
The characters and even the rooms you go through are very basically colored and have no shading or detail. The cards actually look better than the story mode when you use them or look at them to read the features. The characters have little to no animation as they roam around and talk with you so there is not much to say about the graphics other than they work.
As one other reviewer said if you accidentally turn off the sound you won’t miss much of anything. The music and theme sounds are very basic with no voice at all and there was nothing remarkable about any of the sound in the whole game.
If you are a Yu-Gi-Oh! fan there is some value and replay here but you have to dig to get to any of it if you are a novice. If you have never played Yu-Gi-Oh! before get ready for the Internet search of your life. I spent more time on the Internet searching terms and phrases; the game does not make it easy even when trying to give you some useful tidbit of information.
Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Tag Force 2 has some great ways to get into battles and does a great job handling those battles for you by keeping everything neat and organized. You just have to concentrate on your battles and the myriad of rules, side decks and chains you can use in the game.
There is a great deal here for the enthusiast of Yu-Gi-Oh! especially with the downloadable content, using UMD’s to get special cards and trading with friends but it all takes effort to get into. The game is not easy to play and does have a lot of rules but there is something here if you like the complexity of the battles.
Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Tag Force 2 is a complex game for the Yu-Gi-Oh! battles and an interesting way to go around and collect and trade the cards you need. But the storyline is pretty incidental to the game and how you play.
The story and gameplay in the dueling school gives you a way to trade and find duels but the help, tutorials and tips that you need if you’re a novice or new player is almost impossible to surmount. Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Tag Force 2 is a game for the seasoned Yu-Gi-Oh! player and not for the faint of heart.