Studio - Atari/Mistic Software
Age - E for Everybody
Genre - Dueling
Cards? - Yeah.
Company - Wizards of the Coast

Once again we return for another bout of video games that are based on collectible card games...
And once again we focus on the Duel Masters series, the second of a three review series.
The third will be based on the most recent GBA game out for the series, but when I'll review it is another matter though... I guess I'll review it when I can get ahold of it, but for now we have this so let's get into it.

Once again, the basics of the game.
You hold a deck of 40 cards (similar to decks in Yu-Gi-Oh) and they are split into five "elements" or "civilizations" as they‘re called in the game.
The "civilizations" are Fire, Water, Nature, Light and Darkness. Yes, it seems that they've merged Earth and Wind into one "civilization" (Nature).

The object of the dueling is to break the "Shields" of your opponent (which are cards)... which seems to be something stolen from the Poke'mon rulebook only in reverse in that instead of taking the cards you set aside as prizes, you use them as defense.

Anyway as each card "Shield" is destroyed it goes right into that player's hand, which is kind of a double edged sword because you could be placing a powerful "shield trigger" card into his/her hand by accident which might turn the tide against you.

And what are you playing for? Besides cards I mean (you win three cards as prizes with each victory).
You are playing for "reputation" points, which (as they build) give you a higher and higher dueling rank and more power and reputation. This is now even more important in this GBA version than it was in the PS2 version as you'll soon see.

Cards? There'll be cards, of course (and five real cards you get in this game for buying it)! You have lots of cards... not as much as Yu-Gi-Oh has (this games sports 180 cards from the original series and first Booster series) but they're growing so you'll see more soon enough.

As for how you'll get cards in THIS game? This time out it's all from winning.
Each time you win a match you'll get a "Booster pack" with 5 cards in it to further your collection.
There's a shop in this game, like the PS2 game, but it's not as efficient as it was in the PS2 version.
In the PS2 version you sold cards you weren't using to buy Booster Packs for more cards (or won cards, 3 per win, as you dueled).

This shop, in the GBA game, is trading only, and you have absolutely NO control over trades! You chose "trade" and then you'll see what the offer is, and what they want back. No choices, no selections, nothing. It's all "take it or leave it", and you might have to leave it IF you don't have the cards necessary to trade!
There is another option but you have to "bet" cards and then duel to win the card your bettin' for (which could backfire if you lose).

Once again there are a lot of things to do with the cards, and lots and lots of rules that could keep us here forever and ever to talk about. And once again I don't need to talk about the full gameplay since you can learn that from either buying and playing this game (there‘s a nice tutorial section for beginning the game, and advanced rules to learn as well).

Yes, there IS a 2-Player mode, but you‘ll need your trusty GBA link cable in order to use this mode.
So, then, once again since I don't need to go over the full monty on gameplay (and I won't go into the membership thing) we'll focus on story and review.

Duel Masters
This story is even more simple than the one for the PS2.
Not that I'm complainin' much here, mind you. At least you don't have to sit through mediocre voice acting this time out.

Today is your birthday, and your celebrating it in your tiny village.
Briefly on that. The set up of villages and cities in this game.
Your village, let alone everything in this world, reminds me of the old Game Boy Color Poke'mon games. Anyway your village is one of four villages in this "valley" you live

in.
Each village contains a Duel Masters trading store, and an arena where "tournaments" are held.
The game also has three huge cities, which has more buildings (but most of them are locked with only a few you can enter), and it's own trading store and arena.
Otherwise each and every village/city are the same. You'll met about a dozen or so people in each (not all of whom will duel with you however), and you'll be able to enter so many buildings in each, all decorated in one of a few "styles" (with furniture arranged differently here and there to try and make everything look different though it's just the same handful of rooms over and over again).

Anyway it‘s your birthday and you just got an ultra rare card from your parents (it seems everyone lives, eats, and breathes the game so it‘s the ideal gift for any occasion) and you couldn‘t be happier!
You also got gifts from your friends, cards of course, so it seems to be the ideal gift for any occasion.

Too bad someone has just snuck into your house at night and stole said card right out from under you!
Now you have to go to the next town to employ the services of a detective to get your card back... only to be told you‘ll need to enter tournaments to get your card back.
Uh, why did I employ the services of a detective if all he's going to do is make me do all the dirty work?

Apparently you‘ll be expected to duel your way from village to village, and city to city, winning matches
(random matches along the road with random duelist and matches in the villages/cities) to earn enough reputation to meet the quota to enter each village/city tournament.
Why? Apparently once you beat all the village tournaments you find out the thief has been using your cards to enter the major tournaments and if you beat the big tournament in the capital city you'll be able to confront said thief and win your card back.

Well, as you can see, that‘s why reputation is so much more important in this game than the PS2 version!
In order to enter each tournament (of which 2, 3 and finally 5 matches are held) you‘ll need to have a certain "level" on your reputation meter (which is sort of like your experience meter) to enter each.
From a level of 1 you‘ll build it up all the way to Level 25 (which is necessary for the final tournament).
You'll keep building reputation, of course, and gain levels past that... but once you win your card back there's no need for that unless you want to score brownie points with other Duel Masters players you might want to link your GBA up to and duel with. The game is just about over once you get the card back.

Along the way you'll meet up with a "gypsy woman" (which is probably the crook pulling a Team Rocket style lame disguise attack) who'll prove troublesome, but there are practically no "twists" in this game.
Straightforward you win all the tournaments, duel the thief, and win your card back. Easy, right?
Boring too. Random "duels" on the road seem more like the random battles with wild Poke'mon in any Poke'mon game, and these "duels" are just as "interesting" as those battles. At least you score some reputation points and build levels with each win so it's a good thing (I suppose).
Otherwise there's no twists and turns to give you some variety in the game, and that's dull.

Well, apparently the game creators thought you might get to the end of the game (in Normal mode) and put in a little extra incentive to play the "Normal" mode version of the game.
Normal mode? Yes, there is two modes here but you might as well not bother with Easy mode.
It's supposed to be for "training" but if you played the PS2 version (which I did) then there's no need for a refresher course since the game is the same on either platform.
Anyway you're just cheating yourself if you play Easy mode since you can't experience everything you can in Normal mode, and Normal mode is not hard enough to even justify not playing it right off the bat.

Oh, what's the "incentive"? Once you beat the game you can

go home and duel in the arena in your hometown (which you couldn't at the beginning of the game (in Normal mode)) and once you do that the ending credits will roll.

After that you can travel from town to town seeking out "Men in black" (characters of both male or female gender who are wearing black and have new decks with new cards to duel against) and duel them to win new cards for your collection.

You can also visit a ship docked near your hometown (the Flying Tapioca) and duel the master duelist on the ship, but with only three levels and nine "duelists" (dressed like sailors) the challenge is rather short and unfulfilling.

The point of this game, however, is to duel. Duel, duel, duel your heart out. Duel.
The story? It sucks, no two ways about it. But then again you're here for the dueling more than the "Story" anyway, so why resist the real reason you're here for?
After you beat the game you'll unlock the "Duel Room" where you can duel anyone from the game, at any level, or even set the computer to duel with itself on any difficulty if you are just interested in watching a duel or trying out strategies without having to do the dueling (set it up and let the computer duel for you).

I figure this is also where you do your 2-player dueling and trading, though that is something I haven't been able to do yet despite the fact I got this over a week ago for review. Knowing there are Duel Masters fans out there is one thing, finding them and dueling them is quite another thing. As of this review (as I closed it up) I have not found a single person to duel against, and that's just no good.

The story is not much. As I said above? It sucks. There isn't much for anyone in this game to say, and most certainly nothing worth listening to from the people you met who do not want to duel with you.
I wish the story was more involved, or had more twists that kept the interest level up past the interest in beating all the tournaments. Anyway just remind yourself you are here for the dueling, nothing more.

The game is abit more of a challenge than the PS2 version, because while I blew through that game I had a harder time getting my groove on in this game. And it's just as good playing wise. The graphics are, yes, as you expect but that doesn't mean it's not a good game (which it is).

HOWEVER the game is short. You might as well skip this one and jump right to the second one since that one boasts more options, extras and even a tutorial to teach you how to play the REAL Duel Masters card game in tournament settings... of course finding a Duel Masters Tournament in real life won't be a cakewalk, but at least you'll have the training for it if you ever find one.

Other things that fall short on this game, for one, is the whole Trading aspect which just isn't as good as the PS2 version. Having the option to sell unused cards for new Boosters is far better than this hit or miss trading thing in the GBA version, which is just a pain and I never use it. Too much of a hassle.

Also you can't get the full potential of this game until you start dueling with real people over that link cable. Once you start doing that you'll get some real usage out of this game. Otherwise this game can drag abit until you're arming yourself with some real opponents to test your mettle against.

So what do we have here when it‘s all said and done?
This game isn't here for it's "personality" (sorta like the dueling version of Crimson Tears for the PS2), it's here because the gameplay is solid and right on... except for Crimson Tears which is here for an entirely less wholesome reason but... nuff said.
Like before, once you get dealt a bad deal of the cards then it might as well be all over but with the better and more balanced challenge in this game you might yet be able to overcome such a "bad deal".

It has

all the same potential as the PS2 version, and maybe abit more with 180 cards to play with and the customizable Duel Room setting so you can challenge any opponent to hone your skills.

If you like CCGs (Collectible Card Games) then you might be a fan of this, and there is enough of a game here to at least warrant checking it out to get you started on the road to Duel Master player-dom.
But it's short, and there is little incentive to continue with this version past the dueling mode (especially since the best part of the game requires you to find another duelist (real) to duel with).
In that case you might as well jump to game #2 (which I'll review soon) if you don't think you want to throw down cash on both versions (even for the rare cards in each).

If you want a game with abit more meat to the bones then you might want to check elsewhere.
I haven't reviewed the Yu-Gi-Oh GBA games yet, but I heard a few of them have more depth than this, just I haven't seen any of those yet so I can't say. But if you think you can get into this game, and you've survived playing the PS2 version, then there might yet be a reason to check this game (or it's sequel) out.

Next time we see a Duel Masters game being reviewed by msyelf it'll be the more recent GBA game (of which I mentioned several times above), which has even more stuff including more cards and a supposed teaching module that teaches you how to play the real flesh and blood version of the game at Duel Masters dueling tournaments. Of course seeing is believing, so I won't believe it until I've seen it.
Okay. Nuff said'! Let's break this down.

Duel Masters Game Boy Advance Breakdown the 1st
What's Hot? - Once again we have the dueling as the hottest thing in this game. The rest? It's a take it or leave it proposition but so far all I can say is that the gameplay itself is hotter than the supposed RPG element it's wrapped up in.

What's Not? - The whole idea of you having to chase this guy down and duel him for your card back seems rather off, especially since the cops show up just as you beat him in a duel, and run him off to be locked down before you can say "Booyah!"

That and the entire "world" the game is set in (which is more of an unrealistic Poke'mon style mini world than the world of the actual Duel Masters series) is kind of bland and uninteresting.
True, while this game's card game has quite abit of their redeeming quality, once again the world it's set in does not hold as much promise as the game itself.
Having an actual story happen during your dueling would have been nice, bu didn't happen.
The plot is once again generic and weak. The people that inhabit this world is not very interesting, but then again this time out they're just here to help you move along in your "career".
The meat and potatoes of the game is the dueling, and that‘s it.

Moments to Remember?
Dueling. Dueling. Dueling. Dueling.
Need I say more? Dueling.

What to Ignore?
Ignore the need to have higher expectations for the world the game is set in, because you'll be disappointed that way if you do that.
You're just here for the game. Yes, you might have played another game where the world was as interesting as the CCG game you're playing in said game, but this isn't one of those worlds. Ignore it.

Overal1?
The game is solid, and if you are a fan of CCG or the Duel Masters CCG in particular then you might find merit to go and get this game. The rare cards seem to be good incentive for one thing.
HOWEVER the game is short, there isn't much to do past the game, and with a better game out there now you might as well get the sequel (in the blue holofoil box) than this one if you want more from your Duel Masters GBA game. Still, if you want those cards and a place to get your feet wet in this game then this is a good place to start things off with.