
	Platform GameBoy Advance Genre Strategy Publisher Atari Developer Mistic ESRB E (Everyone) Released Q4 2004

- Solid gameplay - Strategic - Fans of the series will love it - Card playing fans will also love it

- Not for everyone - For younger audience - Having to switch the screen for card descriptions is aggravating

Review: Pikmin 2 (GC) Review: Bomberman Max 2 - Red Advance (GBA) Review: The Lost Vikings (GBA)
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Duel Masters: Kaijudo Showdown

Score: 7.8 / 10

Duel Masters: Kaijudo Showdown is a game based on the children’s anime of the same name. It is also the sequel to Duel Masters: Sempai Legends. (I am not familiar with the anime at all besides knowing that it existed before playing the game, so don’t expect me to mention how faithful the game is to the series.)

Players must choose any card from their deck and place it in the “mana pool’ which enables players to cast spells or summon monsters. Spells are cast right away while monsters get “summoning sickness” which prevents any use of them for a whole turn. There are also five different classes for cards: Darkness, Light, Nature,

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- GameBoy Advance Game Reviews
- Strategy Game Reviews
- Games Published by Atari

Fire and Water. To summon a monster, players must sacrifice one of their card classes. It’s pretty simple and kids should be able to pick up the concept quickly. What’s annoying is memorizing the card descriptions. If you want a description for a card, you have to wait for the screen to fade and another screen to pop up with the description. Some people may not have a problem with this, but I lack patience and

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I’m sure there are many other people who would also get frustrated with this.

This game was definitely inspired by Magic: the Gathering and from what I remember of Magic, Duel Masters doesn’t play much differently at all. I could be wrong since I haven’t played Magic in a very long time so I’m not going to get all technical of saying how original Duel Masters really is.

Visually, the game isn’t that bad. Battle animations are all right and the towns look pretty good. I’m not very fond of the character designs but then again I realize that this game is targeted towards children and it’s not meant to have the mature anime like look, so I bet that the kids are very fond of Duel Masters’ character designs.

The game’s sound is the same as it appears visually. It’s not bad at all, but still isn’t that great. Sound effects aren’t the best but they do get the job done. The tunes aren’t really catchy but again they get the job done.

Would I suggest Duel Masters: Kaijudo Showdown to just anyone? No, not at all, but fans of card games and fanboys of the anime would have a blast with this one.

- J’Tonello
(April 14, 2005)