One day Konami made a card game that had potential to become as popular as football. Then that same person slapped on a corny story that was based on the card game and made the card game based on the story. (I'm confused too.) Then they made a game for the gameboy advance that directly recreated the actual card game, with excellent AI and most of the cheesiness taken out. It was called Eternal duelist soul. Then they made another one with more cards and an improved interface, called Stairway to the destined duel. Then Konami apparently fired all their good programmers and created World championship 2004.

The good AI was gone. Your opponent would summon a huge monster, power it up to haides and back, and then sacrifice it to play a weaker monster. Then your opponent would wait until he had used up his summon for his turn and play 'Dark Hole', wich destroyed all monsters on the field WHEN YOU DIDN'T HAVE ANY TO DESTROY ANYWAY, MEANING YOUR OPPONENT JUST SLAUGHTERED HIMSELF BY KILLING HIS OWN MONSTERS AND LEAVING HIMSELF OPEN TO ATTACK ON YOUR TURN.

Most people who have played this series complain about the game being slow. In this game you have an excuse because the game play is stuck in slo-mo, wich nobody wanted to play in in either of the earlier games. What made Konami think that people wanted to use up ten minutes taking three turns? The phase change messages are annoying, slow, AND YOU CAN'T MAKE THEM STOP!

Then you can't take passwords off your real life cards and use them in the game and it's almost impossible to get good cards. Worse yet, the cards you start out with would be pleased to be called 'pathetic', because that's much more credit than they deserve.

I have to mention that you can also trade and play against anybody else that has this game. The only problem is: Nobody else has it. The reason for that being that nobody wants it. The reason for nobody wanting it is hopefully obvious by now.

You can't play hardly anybody unless you've played hundreds and hundreds of hour long duels, wich after a few games, you won't want to do. I seriously suggest that if you are reading this review, you hit the back button on your browser and search for 'Stairway to the Destined Duel'. Trust me on this, if anything.

I love this game. All my favorite cards(Except one or two) are here, plus a bunch of fun new ones. This game is challenging but fun whether you're starting out the game or are an expert. New characters are hard to unlock, but that just adds to the fun. I for one like this game. I wish I didn't have to sell mine, but I need the money. Peace out.

I agree with those of you who think it's crap.

I mean, for computers to cheat(ie. knowing your cards even if they are face down) already exist in previous games like Eternal Duelist Soul & Worldwide Edition. This is just a more advance form of Eternal Duelist Soul. I like the format of Worldwide Edition better, at least you get an identity (it'd be better if you can put you name into it, like GBC ones), calendar, and passwords!

Three decks idea aren't bad, but a waste of time and increase confusion. It also decrease card volume (60 compared to 64 in previous games, I think). Also, where are the Egyptian God Cards?!?! Who wants it to be exactly like the card game anyway? Might as well buy THE card game itself. They should allow use of God Cards except in LINK battles to add more fun to it! That's the short-fall of the previous two, but they haven't fixed that. Like I said, this is just a modified version (perhaps for the worse) of Eternal Duelist Soul!

The only good thing about Sacred Cards is that you can use the God Cards, but the graphic sucks!!! The game-play is different too, they sacrificed card details and effects for stupid little characters and a lame story-line. You should emphasise on the cards, not the story-line or little funny characters, which you can't even change the face of if you don't like it (no names either!) I don't know what those people in Konami are thinking! They probably don't play the games themselves, and don't know what we faithful fans really want!!!

I don't think I've ever been more disappointed in a game. This game is basically a bare bones version of the Eternal Duelist's Soul. The graphics have been slightly changed for the game board, and some cheesy music added. If you played that early game, you will be quite familiar with this.

The problem is, you don't even get the features included in that previous game. Want to speed up the game? Not a chance in options or holding down keys. Looking for a calendar with upcoming events? Nope. Characters talking to you? Nope. It probably took Konami longer to remove code from the Eternal Duelists Soul than it did to add any.

What's added? New cards? Hmm... A lot of low to midrange (600 to 1500 ATK), along with a couple decent ones. Nothing stunning. Why bother to invent a new card with ATK/DEF in the 800s? New AI? I can't detect it. Maybe they should have spent some time fixing the old AI since the computer characters still do stupid things like summon a good monster, then use Dark Hole or Torrential Tribute to kill it. They will still use a better card as tribute for a worse one. If you use Imperial Order or Royal Decree, they will still play spells and traps even though they won't work.

It is frustrating because this is a bandaid of a few graphics stuck on a gutted version of an older game. Shame on Konami for exploiting the market like this. Don't give them your money.

Well, This game is pretty cool. It's sort of like that old school card game Magic The Gathering, from back in the day. The game is modeled after a tv show, popular with small boys. I'm 17, however, and i very much enjoy the game. I do, however, have a few annoyances with this game.
1. Your opponent "cheats". Clearly they know what cards do (the defense points of your monsters), even when they're supposedly hidden to them... which is very aggrivating.
2. It's very confusing, and time consuming to unlock the new characters. It's almost impossilbe to unlock the characters without looking at some sort of online walkthrough, unless you're willing to spend literally months of messing around, (You have to find certain rare cards, beat duelests specific amounts of times, and configure your deck in special ways to unlock the new characters).
3. I think Joey's time Wizard is always succesful (if you haven't played the game yet, or are familiar with the game, ignore that).
4. You don't get an identity. I don't know, there's something satisfying about opponents trash taking you "hey andrew, i'm gonna beat you". And at the end "Andrew is the best dueler in the world" etc. You don't get a name. They could've had you be yugi or something... ah well
5. All the duels are the same, I can't... say... challenge the rare hunters to a duel for our rarest card. that would've pleased me to no end.
6. The levels all look the same, (the color is different, woohoo...). In the ps2 kindom of hearts yugioh, each level was very unique. Some sort of variety would have made it less monotonous (yeah, i know it doesn't follow yugioh rules, but in yugioh, you don't play 15 straight duels in one sitting)

The game is, however, loads of fun. Here are some of my favorite points of the game:
1. You can have 3 decks, very handy. You can make specialized decks. I have a normal deck, exodia deck, and a MAKE YOU DISCARD ALL YOUR CARDS REALL QUICK deck. It's kinda fun to mess around with your decks, and you don't have to worry about messing up your real deck.
2. I get to see all my favorite yugioh characters... they're all there yugi, joey, pegasus... etc. And you get to **** the **** out of tea and tritsam =).
3. I really like the booster pack idea. For every duel you win, you get a booster pack of cards, just like us magic card (or yugioh card, i suppose) players in real life. You hope for the rares, just like in real life, it's great.
4. The sound is pretty bad ass.
5. The game is really long, a good value for the money.

I'd really recomend buying this game, even if you don't know what the f... yugioh is. I'd only started watching the show after i got the games. If you've ever played any of the old (or new) card games, (magic the gather, spellfire, star treck tcg, star wars tcg, pokemon, etc.) you'll feel right at home.

This Game is hard to play. The AI are cheater. And You can't find some character unless you remove some cards from your deck.
Like for example Joey, you can't play Jinzo. If you have Jinzo in your deck, Joey won't come out. For Mai Valentine, u can't have Harpie's Feather Duster. And Ishizu Ishtar you have to drop
all of your magic and trap cards. And now I don't even know how
to modify my deck to get pass Shadi. They said there are over 25 but Shadi is only #23. Who is 24 and 25.

Now for someone who has played this game before I do have to say that yes I am disappointed in the lack of a password system (the same as I have noticed with "The Dawn of Destiny" for the X-Box), but I like the idea of earning everything the old-fashioned way at times. Also for anyone who is irritated by the slow speed of the duels, there is a trick re-introduced from "Eternal Duelist Soul": as you select your opponent hold down the "L" button and do not let go until the Duel starts. The speed will increase by at least three times. This helps the duels go by much quicker. Again, this is an excellent game and "the" software to own if you plan on attending the World Championship 2004 in Los Angeles for the "King of Video Games" championship.

This games is a large improvment from the latest games. It restored the rightful effects and returns the control. The only thing is the wanted to make the pace go down. I personally am glad that they removed the password machine because it helps your deck building skills skyrocket and makes the games worth your time. Also it improved the AI of the duelists so it takes longer to beat, not 2 hours like Sacred Cards. Plus allows 3 decks so you can change for your opponents deck.

This game is great having all the latest cards, yeah, but sadly with the loss of the password system, the game seriously lacks. They should've allowed us to create our decks, like the decks we own by adding the pass feature so we could put in what cards we have to make our deck.

Otherwise, this game is too hard to understand in the deck building area and a little too hard to get the cards you want. If I were you, I'd buy Worldwide Edition: Stairway to the destined duel and get used to having only up to the LON boosters.

The game may have taken a slower pace then most Yu-Gi-Oh Games but it's worth it for Slate Warrior. In my opinion, the no password thing sucks but that what will make the game harder to put together a powerful deck(s). But, that makes this game even more worth the money.

This game was definately the best Konami could have done, I don't see why on Earth they had to take away the password option. If they had just left the it near to WWE: SDD then this game would be so much better. It doesn't even have a story line. One more thing! they could have given us better starting cards.

Oh the promos are good too,

Slate Warrior
Kinetic Soldier
Fairy King Truesdale

This game was anticipated as being the best Yugioh games ever, however it should have been better. Why Konami would slow down the play is besides me, but the speed can speed up by holding down the L button, but that getas annoying after awhile. Probably the biggest disappointment is the lack of the password function. This game was meant to prepare duelists for upcoming tournaments, but how prepared can you be if you can't use your deck. Though these two major flaws drag down gameplay, I do tip my hat off to the more advanced A.I. It's makes the duels more difficult then WWE, plus the computer decks were contructed with much more thought than those in WWE. All things considered; the pros, the cons, and the promos, this game is well worth the money.

This game could have, and SHOULD have, been so much better. The ability to maintain 3 separate decks is a welcome addition, as are the great number of new cards.
However, the lack of a password system and the incredibly slow pace of the duels make this game almost unbearable. I thought World Wide Edition was a much more enjoyable game.

I went out and bought this game the day that it came out returned it the day after! Konami made this game a joke! What with no way to input cards with passwords, REALLY S L O W game play (the only way to speed it up is to hold down L and R at the same time) and useless cards to start out with, This is the worst game they have ever made!!!!! I'm going back to Worldwide as it is the best!

2004 is a great dueling simulator, but that is all it is. There is no story as in Worldwide Edition (thought that title's story was weak, but at least there was some reason to be dueling). When I first started playing, I was disappointed that it played slower than the previous title (though not nearly as slow as Eternal Duelist Soul. There is a trick to speeding the game up to blazing speed. Just hold the L button down while you select an opponent. Then the duel just flies!

The addition of being able to have 3 different decks is a great addition, but the lack of the password feature is disappointing. I am sure this was left out to even the playing field in the real-life tournaments Konomi is planning for the summer. The editing interface at first seems worse that previous titles, but when you get the hang of it, it actually features more functionality. Nice.

This game is great if you only want to duel. That is enough for me and many CCG fans. But casual buyers beware. No tutorial and no story may back this title less appealing and difficult to learn.

I thought The Game Was Ok The Thing that upset me about the game was the inability to put the codes for the cards you have in real life to the game.The cool aspect ofthe game is that here will be tounaments on the game which means there will be more of who is a better statigest than who can buy better cards.The movement in the game was a little to slow for my taste.Also the Als are in my opion are to easy i normaly dont want a opponet who is to strong bt there were espicaly weak.Still i realy enjoyed the game

Let me just say that I am as big a YuGiOh fan as there is. I play and collect the actual TCG and have all the GBA games. While I will say it is nice to have access to alot of the newer cards in this version, there is NO PASSWORD system. You have to rely on the computer to "give" cards randomly. I have maybe 20+ round played at this point and already have multiples of useless cards. That is not any fun if you can already play the game, and have played with a well built deck. To make it worse the game is painfully S L O W, with no way what so ever to speed it up. The only reason a single game would last 10 minutes is because the computer feels it neccessary to show every card played, for at least 5 seconds, before it proceeds (which may not seem like much but, it feels like an eternity when you got several moves in your head) and shows every phase very S L O W Y. If you take this game at face value, it's still fun because it's a new Yu Gi Oh and the 3 cards that come with it could actually be useful. Although the double of whammy of below elemetary pace and NO custom password system (which makes even less sense, because of 3 possible decks to build) kills what could of been without a doubt the best one yet. I was really disappointed.

Good News ! Your early opponents aren�t going to be the pushovers they were in Sacred Cards. They�re not at all afraid to set traps, summon level 5&up monsters, and hit you with Dark Hole and Raigeki. The Trusdale character in particular is going to try to stall your attacks with a blizzard of traps while he plays deck speed cards like Pot of Greed in an attempt to spring an Exodia on you. Tea Gardner, on the other hand, is out to maintain her Life Points. Once while playing her with one of the starting decks the game supplied me, she equipped one of my warriors with a Kisetai, had a Marie the Fallen One in the Graveyard, and an active Solemn Wishes in her Spell Card Zone. As a result, she was walking up her LP by over 1000 per turn. And she had a 2200 defender on the field so I couldn�t attack my way out of it. Just as I was thinking of waving the white flag (yes, you can surrender in this game) when Tea�s LP crossed the 20,000 mark, she brought a St. Joan to the field and equipped it with both Mage Power and United We Stand, bringing the ATK to 6900 (ouch !). So what-the-hey, I took my finger off the surrender button, sat back, and let St. Joan have her way with me.

Not to say that these computer opponents are infallible, though. They will often summon good defenders to the field in ATK position, where they can be picked off easily. And just when they�ve put you into a sweat by dropping a 2000+ onto the field that you�re going to have to rely on something from your deck to beat, sometimes the very next turn they�ll summon a low level 5 to replace it (something the Yugi from �Power of Chaos � Yugi the Destiny� for the PC would never do !)

One of the strong points of Sacred Cards was the environment. The music, the graphics, the sites around Battle City, and the storyline all added up to what was a charming little package. World Championship Tournament 2004 doesn�t stand out in that regard (but we�re ultimately here for good duels, right ?). The music is nothing but glorified elevator music and I think many of you will find it atrocious. The graphics are a little better, they sort of make you feel like you�ve stepped in to Vegas to do some slots. I was dismayed to find that you can only see the backs of the cards that are in your hand and will have to toggle back and forth to identify them. But this is somewhat forgivable because they had to make everything smaller in their attempt to be as faithful as possible to the TCG and have all regions (field spell zone and so forth) of the field brought into view.

There are over 1100 different cards available in the game and you start out with just shy of 120. After each victory you get to unwrap a pack containing 5 cards and, yes, most of these will be doubles. For best results, try toggling to the left and right to unwrap packs with differently-styled paper on them. Sometimes you can receive 4 or 5 brand new cards this way.

Bottom line: While �Power of Chaos � Yugi the Destiny� remains the best dueling experience I�ve had yet (even though it�s hampered by the limited cards and opponents it has available), I�m confident that when I�ve earned the right to play the more advanced characters this new game has, that I�ll find World Championship Tournament 2004 to be a worthy and stimulating challenge.

It is my kids favorite game and he has had it since it got out!

in this game you get slate warrior, kinetic soldier, and fairy king trusdale

Here's the Promo Cards

WC4-001
Fairy King Truesdale
Water/Plant/6/2200/1500
If this card is in face up defense mode, increase the attack and defense strengths of all of your Plant Sub-Type Monsters on the field by 500.
Promo

WC4-002
Kinetic Soldier
Earth/Machine/3/1350/1800
If this Monster is in Battle with a Warrior Sub-Type Monster,
increase this Monster's attack and defense strengths by 2000 for the Damage Step.
Promo

WC4-003
Slate Warrior
Air/Fiend/4/1900/400
Flip: Increase this Monster's attack and defense strengths by
500. Decrease the attack and defense strength of a Monster that destroys this one during Battle by 500.
Promo

Slate Warrior will be a real Tournament worthy card. Don't trade it away for something dumb. Its value will rise.

There will be a REAL (yes, REAL) "Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship Tournament 2004" using this game. One world champion of the Trading Card Game...and one world champion of this video game (it uses the same turn based rules as the card game). So link up to your friends, start trading cards and building decks (up to 3).

This'll be awesome!!!!You can: Construct three separate Decks for different dueling strategies

Over 1100 cards - over 100 brand new cards to the series

Updated rules from the #1 Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME

my uncle works for konami so i have played this game. it rocks. it beats the other 3 combined. it follows the story and you duel better than the sacred cards

Review of Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship 2004
(New Persons' Guide Below Initial Review)

This Game will make Sacred Cards look like a bad joke! BUT if you enjoyed playing the god cards, well don't get your hopes up. This game will be ABSOLUTLY and TOTALY TRUE TO THE YU-GI-OH! GAME!!! I can't stress that enough. Also, since this game will resemble Yu-Gi-Oh! World Wide Edition and Eternal Duelist Soul, You'll have to eccept the "Step by Step" format, "Draw, Main, Attack, End Turn. Fortunatly, the Speed of transition between one phase to another is MUCH faster than Eternal Duelist Soul, for which for those of you who haven't played it yet ( or before) was painfully slow. It took a whole second to make any kind of action whatsoever. NOW World Wide Edition Improved the speed by a lot but still, At least in This game, you can toggle the speed >Yes!<
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NOW FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE NEW TO THE YUGIOH GAME UNIVERSE (Below)

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The Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game has struck HUGE with people all over the U.S. Japan and even China. In Japan, The first Yu-Gi-Oh! Game Released was from the first Yu-Gi-Oh! Format, manga or Japanese Comic Books. The Trading card game was called
"Magic and Wizards" and thus, only occured in ONE Yu-Gi-Oh! Comic, "Cards with Teeth" When re-named "Duel Monsters" the Konami Company quickly adopted the title and released the first Yu-Gi-Oh Video Game (Game Boy) named Duel Monsters (1) and also 12 of the Prototype Trading Cards which were the first Yu-Gi-Oh! Cards EVER MADE. They were White Colored and Included "The Cyclops" (Hitotsu-me Giant) "Ryu Kishin" and others.
After the TITANIC release of DM1 The Konami corp. Decided to begin a TV Sires named "Gamble Master", an extremly low budget short Yu-Gi-Oh! film siries which included the manga (Comic) "Cards with teeth" After a few years (1996-98) The Company finally got the funding to create a Yu-Gi-Oh! Telivsion siries based on the card game. Thus, the Yu-Gi-Oh! you see today. America Adopted Yu-Gi-Oh! in Summer 2001. and saw instant succes. The Vidio game industry has also boomed. Since the first game, there has been 8 Duel Monsters Games in Japan, and if you want to know the first game in America? "Dark Duel Stories".....

.....wow. that took a while! Hope you found that helpfull

This Game is the best GBA game ever made. Even though I've never played it, because it hasn't been released yet. I know it has to be the bestest! My best friend's dad works for Nintendo and he's played the game and says it's "uber" cool. So go out and buy it Today! Ahhh I mean when it's released.

Now, this game seems to be the best GBA game out there so far, here is a list of features...The artificial intelligence will be greatly improved then previous games to add a better more realistic feeling that your opponent is worthy. Also there is going to be over 1,000 cards in the database and you now will have the ability to create three different dueling decks. Also the graphics have greatly improved from the previous games, also with all the original characters from the original Yu-Gi-Oh TV show!!!! So I think this is going to be a real interesting game to say the least!!! Well, that's all, see ya'll!!!

I don't know about this game because it hasn't been released yet but all they other yu-gi games have been a smash hit. Weather it was Dark Duel Stories to Sacred Cards. So Konami dezerves sme credit. The GBA games has the rules pin pointed, so in a real duel you can pull the trick out of your hat. I woul'd advise anyone to pre-order this game. Lets see if Konami can come through again. REVIEW WRITEN ON 1/2/04