Yu-Gi-Oh GX Spirit Caller

Another installment in the Yu-Gi-Oh series for the DS is Yu-Gi-Oh GX Spirit Caller. The game follows the gameplay of its predecessors where you duel other players as you advance through the storyline. Unlike the World Championship games, you're no longer just a random duelist whose sole purpose is to to duel. Instead, you're now a student at a dueling academy and fitted into one of the houses. When you first start off, you'll be in the Slifer Red Dorms, which is reserved for those who scored lowest on the entrance exams. Those who live in the extravagant dorms of Obelisk Blue are those who scored the highest. You'll meet Syrus and Jaden Yuki when you first start off, heroes of the GX anime and live with them in the Slifer Red Dorm. You'll get to create your own avatar but, unfortunately, for all the girls playing (including me) the avatar can only be male. Normally I wouldn't complain but your choices for facial features are rather ugly when compared to the rest of the crew in the game.

The way the game is designed is much better suited for the more experienced players of Yu-Gi-Oh. There really aren't any tutorials until after you've battled a few duels on your own. Compared to the previous installments in the series, Spirit Caller has been renovated with an updated card list. It has a much smoother interface and quicker creature animations compared to Nightmare Troubador but still the gameplay itself is very hectic across the small DS screens. Everything is so small that you literally have to use the game's magnifying glass feature. You never get a chance to see what Spell or Trap cards your opponent just played. You only get to see the card's effects unless you sift through the opponent's graveyard and look up the card using the magnifying glass. So, if you're not careful, you could end up suddenly losing your Spell/Trap cards or one of your powerful monsters. In general, card effects are never quite clear when they do occur. The battle animation isn't too great either. Overall, since this is a game that focuses mainly on dueling others, you would think that they would have a better design for dueling. However, this is not the case and will only give you a headache when you duel. It's all one very hectic mess.