Yu-Gi-Oh! Ultimate Masters: World Championship Tournament 2006 is one of the numerous Yu-Gi-Oh games developed and published by Konami. It follows the same principal as the previous Yu-Gi-Oh games and is therefore not revolutionary, but more repetitive. Although, don't underestimate the gameplay of this game, because it has more to offer than only placing cards on the field.

When you start, you choose your avatar and all eventually choose your deck. These are the cards you can use in battle. You will be able to choose between various packages to get you started. Once you have chosen the one you like most, you will be granted access to the main screen, where you can select one of the options. The most important one are deck edit, free duel, challenge! and get cards. The other options are forbidden/ limited card lists (which shows you which cards are rare and forbidden to be set in a deck (the cards you choose to play in battle) and options. In deck edit, you can choose your cards and sort them out by placing them in either the trunk (the place where you will receive your new cards and store them), your deck, your side deck (where you put the cards you think are special and are used from time to time, but only think are worthy enough against certain opponents) and the fusion deck, which enables you to combine two monsters and summon a fusion you have stored in that section.

In 'deck edit' you will immediately notice that there are various options on the top of your screen. You can i.e. give each card a rating of maximum 5 hearts or you can sort all cards alphabetically or even only view a certain type of card. In the free duel you can battle opponents with your created deck. With knowledge on which cards are best you can outmanoeuver the opponent and destroy all his life points. Enough battles unlock new opponents, which are even stronger than the previous one. When engaging a duel, you get to choose heads or tails; call it right and you get to choose to go first or second. You begin with 8000 life points and use monster cards, magic cards, trap cards and fusion cards to obliterate your opponent. When down to zero, the participant loses the match and based on the game progress, points (DP) will be rewarded. When won, you get to keep all your points, but when lost, your points will be divided by a certain number (mostly 10).

Challenge is one of the new features in the game. You can choose between many options which have their own rules, varied from exclusively using a certain type of monsters to beating an opponent using a certain card (effect). This, to put more variety in the game, rather than just mindless destruction with cards.

Get cards is self-explanatory; this is the place where you can purchase your cards in boosters. With your earned DP in battles, you can choose which boosters you want. As you unlock more opponents, the more boosters will be available, the more rare and useful cards will be revealed. The bad thing is that you can't directly transfer them to your deck. They must be first in your trunk. But to keep you on the right track, exclamation marks have been added to the new cards which you have purchased an they stay marked until you have battled.
You can also insert a password, so you can get the card of your desire. Any card which has been listed in the game can be received through this password system.

Battling with cards isn't as easy as it sounds. There are many cards in this game, which you can use in your deck and you can only place a maximum amount of cards in your deck. So you have to choose carefully which to and not to add. In the beginning it will be hard to win with your current deck, but as you win, you can purchase cards, which allow you to upgrade your deck and remove the bad cards. Create the ultimate deck and you will be unbeatable. Also, the deck comes with luck, draw the right cards and you're in. Strategy and luck is of the importance.

The graphics aren't astonishing. Cards look like cards, the monsters look very small, but you can view them, by clicking on them. Which magnifies the card viewing the description and all other information which can be useful. You can definitely see that this card game depends mostly on its gameplay.

This game is only for those who like card games or who are familiar with the Yu-Gi-Oh series. As an outsider, there is a slim chance that you'll like this game. It doesn't have much to offer, but it delivers.