Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's Duel Transer Review for Nintendo Wii (Wii)

System: Wii
Dev: Konami
Pub: Konami
Release: December 7, 2010
Players: 1-2
Screen Resolution: 480p

The Story mode has a decent amount of depth to it. You get to know the characters well, even though they are largely one-dimensional. It's interesting to watch the story unfold as it informs you of your upcoming challenges. There's an online mode where you can play single matches against another Yu-Gi-Oh enthusiast. The games are muted, but they're a nice change from playing against the CPU. Humans do tend to make mistakes, and that's a variable you don't get too often in the single-player mode.

Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's Duel Transer Screenshot

Another disappointment is the lack of animation. The characters' images move left to right like they're being dragged by a magnet. Their mouths will move once or twice and spit out a few text-based sentences. It looks cheap, but then again, I believe the word anime is Japanese for crappy cartoon. The battles are a tad more exciting. There are some good sound effects to embellish the occasional visual explosion and special attack. I do realize this is a card game, and the lack of animation does in no way detract from the gameplay, but would it have killed the developers to make an effort to include some imaginative cutscenes and some exciting battle graphics?

I did really like the music, although it is generic. It's not distracting, and that's important for concentration. Nor does it sound repetitive, although it is. Fortunately the gameplay changes scenes often so you don't get sick of any particular element.

Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's Duel Transer doesn't set the bar too high for the series, but it's unlikely future games can improve the gameplay. But better production values such as voiceovers and animation should be a prerequisite for the next game, because after all this is a video game, not a card game.

By Cole Smith
Senior Staff Contributor

RATING OUT OF 5

RATING DESCRIPTION

2.2

Graphics
Graphics fit for a cell phone.

3.0

Control
Menus are easy to navigate, but there's not much else to access.

3.2

Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
Music is cool, somewhat subdued. Few voiceovers.

4.5

Play Value
Lots of card combinations. Solid Yu-Gi-Oh gameplay.

3.8

Overall Rating - Good
Not an average. See Rating legend below for a final score breakdown.

Review Rating Legend
0.1 - 1.9 = Avoid	2.5 - 2.9 = Average	3.5 - 3.9 = Good	4.5 - 4.9 = Must Buy
2.0 - 2.4 = Poor	3.0 - 3.4 = Fair	4.0 - 4.4 = Great	5.0 = The Best

Game Features:

Duel with more than 4,500 of the most up to date Yu-Gi-Oh! cards including Star Strike Blast.

Original storyline created and torn from the highly successful Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's animated series on Cartoon Network.

Introducing twenty new characters to duel and interact with in Free Duel of battle through Story Mode to be immersed in the world of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's.

Compete in single-player action or two-player mode with anyone anywhere in the World via Wi-Fi connection.

Completely original honeycomb mapping system for a linear and non-linear play path through thirteen duelist stages.

Includes three exclusive trading cards in pack: Closed Forest, Fighter Ape, and Roaring Earth.