This gem has just been released in Japan, and aside from the terrible, terrible name, the game is great! If you have a flashcart, you can just grab the Japanese copy because it includes a full english translation (and uncensored cards)!

This is another game in the series of the Yu-Gi-Oh: World Championship series. I own both 2006 and 2008, having gotten all cards on 2008 and having played a lot of 2006. And again, this game is fun, because I love the Yugioh card game. There’s so much variety, and because every release includes a whole bunch of new cards, it’s worth playing them every year.

This time, it’s not about the Yugioh GX like 08 was, but about Yugioh 5D’s, the new series. The game has a whole lot of new cards, including synchros (which were recently added to the game, it’s an entirely new game mechanic) and they even included something else.

Dueling on a motorbike. That’s right. In Yugioh 5D’s, they duel on motorbikes. It takes a while before you can finally do them (almost the end of the game), but they’re great. They solve one of the big problems in the Yugioh game: Powerful spells that can turn around the entire game. In Turbo duels, both players gain Speed counters every turn, and all spells either require a cost speed counters or simply have a requirement of having a number of them. This means that you can have very powerful spells that are not even overpowered. Remember Raigeki? In Turbo duels, it costs 12 speed counters to use them. That means you have to wait for at least 6 turns without using any other spells.

But actually, this is not what I wanted to make this blog about. Sure, the game is great, but they made some really, really terrible design decisions.

One of the problems is that your starter deck sucks, as usual. The problem this time is that it actually contains some really good cards, but it’s just a mess. There’s no strategy to be found anywhere. So while it’s possible to win with it, it will be hard.

Especially considering your opponents. Random opponents you can find on the streets in the story mode have really, really good decks compared to your starter deck. I don’t mind the challenge as a veteran, but any newcomer will hate it.

Another problem is that they introduced racing. That’s right, racing in a card game. There are times when you have to complete a lap in a certain amount of time, or escape from the cops. The racing is easy, but it’s so easy  to screw up. And if you want to improve your bike? You’ll have to pass up on getting new cards and pay for new parts.

But the worst of all? They included a stealth segment. A stealth segment where the guards have a huge line of sight and a huge radius around them that you can’t enter or you’re caught. And the worst part? It’s timed.

This part alone is so extremely frustrating that it’s unbelievable. You have to avoid guards that you cannot even see. Because their line of sight is as big as your entire screen.

Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's match commentator

The game has some really bad design decisions, but also some good ones. Ever wanted to have a yugioh match where this guy was providing comments? Hell yeah! It’s great!