| Duel Monsters 5 and 6 / Eternal Duelist Soul |
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Duel Monsters 5 and 6 / Eternal Duelist Soul Platform: Game Boy Advance Review by: JD on 9/30/06 This is it, the first of many GBA Yuugiou games. In Japan, however, things went a bit differently than here in the States. You see, Konami released Duel Monsters 5: Expert 1 on July 5th. That was the first GBA Yuugiou, and the first ever Yuugiou game on a console to actually follow the rules of the TCG, thus the "Expert" title. It was soon followed with Duel Monsters 6: Expert 2 since the original was such a hit. When the two games were brought over by American developers, both versions were basically merged together. Let me explain. Konami of America knew the games were going to be a bonafide hit in the United States, so instead of releasing both versions, they figured, why not take the best of both worlds and merge the games together? That is exactly what they did. As you can see from the screenshots, elements of DM5 were slapped on the DM6 engine. The result was a merger of the two games, poorly done at that. There are times when you can just tell something is out of place, and you'd be right on the money.
As you can see, some things from DM5 and DM6 were kept, and some were unceremoniously plopped. For example, the character selection screen was ripped right out of DM5, but the battle interface was all DM6. Unfortunately, things like the old battle layout for DM5 (cooler IMO than the DM6 layout), and the cool manga cutscenes were cut out of DM5. The battling interface seen in picture 4 of DM6 would later be seen by English audiences in Worldwide Edition: Stairway to the Destined Duel As for actual gameplay, both versions ran smoothly and really gave a first taste of actual real dueling. The AI in the game sucks royally, but that is to be expected when developers are first getting used to new hardware. Pick up DM5 if you can track it down- it is the cooler of the two versions, hands down. Why they chose the DM6 engine for EDS is beyond me. -J.D. Discuss this comparison at the Message Boards!
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