Yu-Gi-Oh! EARLY DAYS COLLECTION Review — It’s Time To D-D-D-D-Duel!

Yu-Gi-Oh, at its peak, was a global phenomenon, rivalling franchises such as Pokemon and Dragon Ball Z. The popular manga-turned-anime series spawned a card game, various spin-offs, and, of course, video games were spat out like candy from a gumball machine. In Yu-Gi-Oh! Early Days Collection, Konami graces us with 14 different Yu-Gi-Oh! games spanning from the original Game Boy to the Game Boy Advance. 

Here are the games included in the collection:

• Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Game Boy)
• Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters II: Dark Duel Stories (Game Boy / Color)
• Yu-Gi-Oh! Monster Capsule (Game Boy / Color)
• Yu-Gi-Oh! Dark Duel Stories (Game Boy Color)
• Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters 4: Battle of Great Duelists (Game Boy Color)
• Yu-Gi-Oh! Dungeon Dice Monsters (Game Boy Advance)
• Yu-Gi-Oh! The Eternal Duelist Soul (Game Boy Advance)
• Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters 6: Expert 2  (Game Boy Advance)
• Yu-Gi-Oh! The Sacred Cards (Game Boy Advance)
• Yu-Gi-Oh! Reshef of Destruction (Game Boy Advance)
• Yu-Gi-Oh! Worldwide Edition: Stairway to the Destined Duel (Game Boy Advance)
• Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship Tournament 2004 (Game Boy Advance)
• Yu-Gi-Oh! Destiny Board Traveler (Game Boy Advance)
• Yu-Gi-Oh! 7 Trials to Glory: World Championship Tournament 2005  (Game Boy Advance)
  
  

Fourteen games seems like a generous collection, and it is, but unfortunately, many of the games in Yu-Gi-Oh! EARLY DAYS COLLECTION have not aged well or just offer similar content. This era of gaming wasn’t as hand-holdy as games are today, and it can often feel a little too punishing at times.

There is very little in the way of new content or game design changes. These are straight-up emulated Game Boy and Gameboy Advance games. Curating the collection to a list of 6-8 games with a few improvements would have given players a more nostalgic yet contemporary experience.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Early Days Collection does come with a few quality-of-life additions, including the ability to rewind time, save anywhere, and a digital gallery that includes the original manuals from each title.

The standout titles in the collection are Yu-Gi-Oh! 7 Trials To Glory: World Championship Tournament 2005, Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship Tournament 2004, Yu-Gi-Oh! Worldwide Edition: Stairway To The Destined Duel. The Game Boy Advance games are definitely the most enjoyable and make it difficult to go back and play the Game Boy and Game Boy Color games. That said, there is definitely an absence of some iconic Yu-Gi-Oh GBA titles, such as GX Duel Academy.

I definitely had the most fun with the spin-off games, though. Only having ever played Dungeon Dice Monsters before, it was the first game I booted up and the game I kept coming back to. The Mario Party adjacent game, Yu-Gi-Oh! Destiny Board Traveler offers a new and completely engaging way to play with Duel Monsters.

I do need to give props to Konami for assisting in video game preservation. So many games have been lost to the passage of time, and it is always great seeing collections like Yu-Gi-Oh! EARLY DAYS COLLECTION be released, even if there is no additional content or quality-of-life features. Half of these games do not have time on their side, while the other half do. The games that do hit are incredibly fun, though difficult, and offer hundreds of hours between them, so even if only a few games speak to you, it is still worth it.