Most sane people would never think about playing this game.....however they would be missing out on something great.....
The game is all strategy combat. You get to spend magic points on buying capsule monsters. There are like 6 elements that your capsule monsters can come from. Each is weak to another. Each element has over 12-15 different monsters to it. You can take any element or any number of a certain kind into battle as long as you dont go past the Magic Points limit for that battle.
At the start of a battle you hatch your monsters from their capsules. Then the fun starts. Each different kind of monster has a way in which it moves and a way in which it attacks. Its kinda like chess. Your monsters have attack powers and hit points and your goal is to kill all the monsters in the opposing side or kill his "base" which is also a piece in the battle that can be moved around. (you get to build your very own base at the beginning and it altars your monsters stats depending on their element.)
Most monsters will go down after taking one or two attacks. It depends on the element of the monsters and where they are standing on the battlefield. Each little sqaure can have an elemental property. Most of the time though its just a question of trying to manuever so that you stay out your opponents possable attack area's while trying to get close enough to put them into yours.
As your monsters kill enemy monsters and survive battles they get experience which will let them gain new skills and improve their stats. Sadly the level limit is 5 which should take awhile for you to reach. if one of your monsters gets killed you dont lose him forever but you wont be able to use him the next battle. Also when you win a battle you get to keep 2 of your enemies monsters, likewise i think if you lose he gets to take some of yours?
The game is just really fun and should be tried atleast once no matter how you feel about the cartoon or yu-gi-oh in general.