Yu-Gi-Oh! 5d Wheelie Breakers

Rating Everyone Genre racing Publisher Konami External Links

I have a long history of loving cart style racing games, and await the joyous day when Chocobo Racing will once again return to the gaming world. With that in mind, I must admit that a Yu-Gi-Oh based racing game gave me quite a bit of pause. How would you combine the long thought processes of a Trading Card Game with the instant reaction time required in a racing game? Still, this is Konami were talking about, and it wouldn’t be the first time they have surprised me with one of their titles, so it was time to take a look at 5d Wheelie Breakers, and see if there was a new king of cart games hidden in our midst. 

5d Wheelie Breakers offers players 3 basic modes of play: Story, Grand Prix, and Matchup. Story Mode allows players to create both a character and a custom motorcycle who can enter the world of Wheelie Breakers through the use of a virtual track. Instead of playing the characters from the television series, players take control of a male fan who dreams of following in the footsteps of the television series main character. Overall, while story mode allows players a glimpse into the Yu-Gi-Oh! 5d universe, the drab dialogue and repetitive plots will quickly have players skipping through the storylines just to get to the tracks. Unfortunately players can’t skip this mode all together, as Story Mode is the only real way to upgrade both your decks and motorcycle.

Grand Prix mode is pretty basic, requiring players to compete in a series of tracks against 7 other computer controlled racers. Winning a specific prix will unlock the next prix, allowing players to gain access to more tracks to compete in. Similar in concept, Matchup Mode allows up to 4 players and 4 computer racers to battle it out on player selected tracks. However, as mentioned above, failure to play the Story Mode will quickly result in a constant losing streak no matter the player.

Game play is broken down into two sections; Concept and Control. Conceptually, the game revolves around the player upgrading their motorcycle and their playing decks in order to compete against other racers. Completing Story Mode unlocks new cards that can be purchased by the player, and cards can be used both to design custom decks and to enhance the player’s vehicles performance. Due to the graphic restrictions while racing, information on your cards can only be viewed while you are in your upgrading menu, but we’ll talk about that more in a bit.

Controls are, well to be perfectly honest, the controls are terrible. Players can use either the standard Wii mote, or the Wii controller, but neither option will provide you with any difference in experience. Simply put, it’s impossible for players to gain any precession control over their racers without highly expensive upgrades. Starting players will constantly find themselves crashing into walls, suddenly racing in the wrong direction, or simply unable to defend against opposing racers. Additionally, the only way to attack players behind you is to drive backwards along the track, which can make the racing part all the harder. 

All of the graphics in Wheelie Breakers are done in 3d using a 2d anime-shader. As is usual for most games, the anime-shader tends to cause the game to look more childish and unrefined as opposed to creating some semblance to the television series. Another major complication in the graphics is the inability to read the cards that you are drawing during the race without the use of a 60+ inch television. Furthermore, summoning any monster from your deck will activate an unchangeable camera view that blinds the players from being able to see the track, which results in countless loses. The music doesn’t help either, as the soundtrack is annoyingly repetitive and the constant unimaginative announcements quickly required an application of the mute button in order to concentrate on the game.

Bottom Line: While fans of the series might be able to muddle through this game for a while, anyone else will be hard pressed to play this game for longer than an hour. With its subpar graphics, generic story, and unresponsive controls, 5d Wheelie Breakers fails to bring Konami’s A-game to the racing genre. Oh well, there’s always the next Castlevania.