Yu-Gi-Oh! Reshef of Destruction for Game Boy Adv Reviews & Ratings by IGN

Konami's getting lazy. Or, at the very least, it doesn't care about newbies. It's been clear before, but it's pretty blatant in the latestYu-Gi-Oh release that the company doesn't care to cater to anyone who hasn't already familiarized themselves with the card game. The message that I get from Konami when I pop Yu-Gi-Oh: Reshef of Destruction into my system: if you haven't spent a gazillion yen on thousands of physical cards and spent hours watching the cartoon, you're not worthy enough to enjoy the game. But hey, if you're already a Yu-Gi-Oh fan, it's not a terrible game, just another recycling of a GBA title released last year -- all that new besides a storyline based on the anime.

Features

• More than 800 cards
• Cartridge save (one slot)
• Link cable support for two player battles and trades
• Includes three limited-edition cards

Reshef is a continuation of last year's fast-paced RPG design that streamlines the card game even further than before, turning it into a quick-moving series of battles in an RPG setting. It's a complete reuse of Yu-Gi-Oh: The Sacred Cards' adventure design, straying from the past few Yu-Gi-Oh games that simply offered the card game in a virtual form. The engine, locations, card designs from last year's game have been recycled for this new game, with new elements thrown on top to make the experience at least feel unique.

Reshef adds what was missing in The Sacred Cards: an actual, compelling storyline that puts players into the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime universe. The problem is, the story assumes you already know every nuance of the characters in the series -- so if you haven't already familiarized yourself with, say, Yugi's split personality or whatever it is, you're going to have a hard time following the game's cryptic storyline. I guess this just follows Konami's trend of keeping newbies in the dark by not offering any sort of tutorial for the card game. Reshef of Destruction is the worst culprit of the Yu-Gi-Oh batch, simply throwing players into battle without even an inkling of what they're getting into. This is terrible design, guys, and it needs to stop -- even casual card gamers need a refresher course, especially if they're going to jump from one Yu-Gi-Oh GBA series to another.

Last year's The Sacred Cards was actually a little too easy. The difficulty against opponents has definitely been bumped up a few notches, even though the card game still retains its simplified rules structure. Simply put, if you want the accurate Yu-Gi-Oh card game experience, steer away from this game since some rules have been omitted to streamline the pacing of the battles. But at least the sequel adds a bit more functionality to last year's design, including a tighter card organizer, and, more noticeably, the multiplayer support for card trading and human-against-human battling.

©2004, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved