Yu-Gi-Oh! Capsule Monster Coliseum E3 2004 Hands-On Impressions

Though Konami has been publishing Yu-Gi-Oh! games at a steady pace for some time now, it's been well over a year since this anime-inspired franchise has appeared on the PlayStation 2. This will be alleviated later this year when Yu-Gi-Oh! Capsule Monster Coliseum arrives in the US.

Much like 2003's The Duelists of the Roses, Capsule Monster Coliseum will have you placing a group of monsters, which are drawn from the actual Yu-Gi-Oh! collectible card game, on a sizable gaming grid, with the goal of killing off your opponent's player piece, and you'll battle with his or her monster pieces along the way. Each monster piece has its own stats, which affect how many spaces it can move in a turn as well as its area of attack, the latter of which seemed to vary in interesting patterns. The combat in the demo we played simply required that we get our piece within attack range of an opponent's piece, and then their attack and defense stats would determine which piece would take damage.

We did notice a few enhancements over The Duelists of the Roses, the most prominent of which was in the game's presentation. The board where we did battle was much bigger and more detailed, featuring nice environmental effects that made the game look more like a tactical strategy game and less like a cut-and-dried board game. Though the monster pieces themselves were represented on the board as carved-stone statues, we were treated to well-rendered versions of the monsters duking it out whenever we went into combat. Throughout the demo, animated busts of the duelists would pop up onscreen and shout various barbs at each other. The entire presentation seemed to have far more detail than just about any Yu-Gi-Oh! game that we have played, on any platform.

Our time with Capsule Monster Coliseum gave us a feel for a game that could provide a nice change of pace from the usual card-battling action found in most Yu-Gi-Oh! games, paired with production that most Yu-Gi-Oh! games haven't been treated to. Fans can rest assured that we'll have more coverage on this game in the future.