This is not a review...it's an op-ed piece.

User Rating: 8.3 | Yu-Gi-Oh GX: Spirit Summoner DS
By poohbear12 | Review Date:
Why, oh why do I get sucked in every time? First, it was on the GBA....the various incarnations of the spikey-haired protagonist, in game after game, when you didn't have the luxery of a tutorial, and the instruction manual might as well have still been written in Japanese. You learned by losing duel after duel. You were humbled, humiliated...but kept coming back for more. The thing was/is, underneath the brazen cartoony graphics and frustratingly obscure rules (which underwent several revisions in earlier games...I remember when a water-card could destroy a fire card, regardless of the atk/def differential), rested one of the most intellectually challenging and ultimately satisfying games for a handheld this side of Advance Wars. Those of us who took the time to play this so-called "kids game" came to realize that this was far more than a kid's game. This was a versatile head-bending card game that continued to make you feel like your deck could be a wee bit better if you just changed a card or two....that your strategy still had room to improve....an impressive feat in this day and age of run-and-gun, "if it involves more than two buttons to push in a particular order I need a walkthrough" mentality that many game designers assume we gamers predominantly have.

So I keep buying the Yu Gi Oh franchise, every single time a new one comes out....yes, it's uncool, yes the franchise has quite a lousy reputation among the gamer community....but there must be enough of us secretly playing under the covers to warrant the franchise continuing, especially after the horrific board game incarnation that I traded in within HOURS of buying.

Yes, this is a a re-tread of Nightmare Troubadour, with very little new to offer. But the entire point of the series is that the duelling itself is so damned addictive that a storyline or world map just serves to get in the way. The folks at Konami sequentially burned away all of the detritus that we've complained about, leaving about as pure a game as you can have. Yes, there is still a bit of a story....but that's secondary to building the perfect fighting deck. Duel after duel after duel.....70 (!) hours in and I still haven't finished. Other than Mario Kart, you won't find another game with that kind of value for your hard earned money.

I don't know why I'm even writing this....you've probably decided to buy it or not without reading a single review, and mine won't sway any opinions. Many people pick up the game and give up after a half hour, claiming it's boring or complicated or whatever. You may be that person, you may not. If you only like platformers or beat em ups, you'll hate this. If you like puzzle games, you might like it. Heck, I didn't even like the series at first. But, if you take the time, 10 hours minimum, to learn the basics, you might get hooked. Chess with cards.
But again, the game isn't for everyone, and at the prices they are asking (still among the most expensive of DS games), it might be better to find someone with a copy to borrow before you buy. Like I said, I'm probably not changing any minds with this editorial. I guess I just wanted to take a little time to defend the series and show it for what it is: a remarkably successful franchise that has continued despite the largely negative reaction from at least part of the gaming market. I wonder how long any other anime-based series of game would have survived with the same amount of negative press?

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