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Yugioh was an absolutely huge craze in the beginning of the last decade. The TV show
was blowing up, the cards were flying off the shelves, and the video games were in plenty
of systems. Now, the real sign that you have a worldwide sensation on your hands is when
you can not only sell a ton of merchandise based on the series, but merchandise based
on a few episode spin-off of the series that has very little to do with the original game.
This is the video game that was released to replicate the odd dice game that was featured
in a few episodes of the show. This is Dungeon Dice Monsters for the Game Boy Advance.
Dungeon Dice Monsters features a similar style to some of the other games in the Yugioh series.
There really isn’t any story; instead, you type in your name and immediately begin building
up your dice and playing in games. There’s several tournaments to choose from as you
continue, or you can just do a free battle if you don’t feel like taking it too seriously.
In addition, a Link Battle mode and a Trade Mode are available for people that have friends
to play with. Gameplay in Dungeon Dice Monsters is fairly
different from Yugioh, even though it’s set in the same universe. Like the name states,
you’ll be using dice to summon your monsters in this game, with each monster bringing a
few blocks of ground along with it. Some of the dice that you roll will summon these creatures,
while others will give you movement points, attack points, and several other things that
you can utilize. What does feel kind of similar to Yugioh, however, is the combat system.
You’ll still be picking enemies to attack, and you’ll still be checking attack and
defense stats to determine if it’s a good idea to fight. Each side is defending a Dungeon
Master that must be defeated in order to win with three hits ending the match, and these
monsters are your key to victory. Now, unlike Yugioh, Dungeon Dice Monsters
moves at an very, very slow pace. It took me more than thirty minutes to get to the
end of one game, with a good portion of that time just setting up, without any actual combat.
I do understand why Konami made it this way, as it gives a much different experience from
the card game, but it could turn off people that really liked the quick pace that the
card game tends to have. Making it to the end of a match and winning does feel quite
satisfying, though. Watching that last heart vanish as you destroy the Dungeon Master is
pretty awesome. Dungeon Dice Monsters also features a shop
that lets you pick different dice from Yugi’s Grandfather. It’s necessary, and the game
would feel incomplete without it, but it’s nice that the presentation is fairly good
for the shop, as well as all of the menus. Visually, Dungeon Dice Monsters is very impressive
for a GBA game. There’s awesome action sequences during combat, and a pretty high quality photo
during the opening credits. In addition, the look of the board makes it really easy to
see where everything is. Dungeon Dice Monsters may not be as much fun
as games like Yugioh or Pokemon, but the game isn’t going after the same groups of people.
If you’re expecting the slow pace of this game, then you might have some fun with it.