Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's Stardust Accelerator World Championship 2009

By: Phil DeSantis

Thursday June 11, 2009

Sometimes playing a great video game makes me feel young again. That new experience of opening the packaging and seeing something really unique and interesting, something unexpected. Maybe after I put the game in, something even stranger pops up and you can be surprised by cool elements that were unexpected by a first glance at the box. When a Yu-Gi-Oh title appears, I feel the exact opposite. Konami delivered a mouthful with the next game in the series, Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's Stardust Accelerator World Championship 2009 for Nintendo DS.

That's not to hate on the franchise, collectible card games, or shows that are a 23-minute plug for a product. The ship for all things Japanese sailed a long time ago in my world; I never made a point to get a ticket. So when a game arrives covered in dragons, men with purple hair, impossible quasi-futuristic machines, and “dueling cards,” I just wonder what type of world my kids will grow up in. 

That's not to say that the latest installment from the good folks at Konami is a bad or even a mediocre title in Stardust Accelerator. For the fan-boys, this may be the best Yu-Gi-Oh game available right now for any system. The battles, the layout, and the story are all true to form and work excellent on DS. Previously I reviewed Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship 2007 and this title certainly builds on the previous work in many ways. The game is more free-roaming. You design your Duelist and take that character around different environments. The game features 2887 Yu-Gi-Oh cards going up to the Crimson Crisis series. On a side note, the game is missing over 700 cards from a previous series, but hopefully none will notice with almost 3000 others to collect. 

Problems with Stardust Accelerator are the same that every card/video game faces; it's a video game with it's engine being a card game. If you are not a fan of Yu-Gi-Oh or have any familiarity with CCG games, this will be a rude awaking. There is very little in the way of a tutorial; the focus on a game for fans and those already deeply entrenched in the Yu-Gi-Oh universe. The first 20 seconds of the game will have you locked in a card duel with no on-screen help. So sink or swim, you're off to a day at the races. 

The game plays well if you know what you're doing. Traps, defensive play, and huge monsters abound the game and certainly those with experience will know exactly how to counter certain cards and build a great deck. Those with a limited knowledge of the game will want to either consult a strategy guide or make some friends that have a better understanding for building a winning deck. Making sure to balance your monsters with traps and other defensive cards turns into a science shortly into this game. 

Plot wise, who can tell if these insane stories make any sense. Traversing between Satellite (a slum town) and New Domino City, birthmarks proclaiming some type of destiny, battling for card upgrades, and building some type of engine for your Speed Duels might seem like a normal day in the world of Yu-Gi-Oh. The plot is secondary the idea of every Japanese franchise since Pokemon; catch them all, collect them all, have lots of stuff. Because it's cards that you're using (and there are a ton), it's hard for the casual gamer to just jump in and tell what's good and what's not. Diving strategy from the incomprehensible banter from one character to the next makes it all the more confusing and leaves you wondering what exactly is expected of you. 

If you do have groups of friends that can't get enough of the Yu-Gi-Oh universe, these are a number of satisfying features built into Stardust Accelerator that will keep you coming back for more. The local and Wi-Fi play is fast and efficient. The goal is to get you matched up with other characters and playing the card game quickly and with as little trouble as possible. In addition to playing the game you can also trade cards and find upgrades that should keep die-hard fans involved with the game till the 2010 version comes out next year. For those still locked in the dark ages, the game comes with three special edition cards to add to your deck to maximize the bang for your buck. 

Stardust Accelerator does exactly what's expected of it. The game expands on the franchise and gives the fans another new experience for the DS. It's not much to look at, but neither are hundreds of packs of cards and thousands of dollars in foil collectible decks. The game will certainly not convert any new duelers into the fray, but if cards that turn into giant monsters is your game this may be the title for you.