Something I’ve always found interesting was the concept of the best Yu-Gi-Oh! game. There are countless video game adaptations of the trading card game but more than just which of these games is the best there is the question of which of these games is the best adaptation of Takahashi’s Yu-Gi-Oh! manga. I was introduced to this query by TheJWittz’s Youtube video where he proposes that this old, ugly board game called Yu-Gi-Oh! Millenium is the best Yu-Gi-Oh! game because of its dedication not just to duel monsters but to a variety of games. Takahashi’s manga began as a celebration of gaming as a whole, where a variety of games were played before shifting to a focus on duel monsters later on. Even after this shift the franchise still made sure to celebrate gaming as a whole, such as in episode 15 of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX where the Duel Academy students have to play Tennis and the transferable skills between Tennis and dueling are highlighted. TheJWittz’s video is great but I’ve always found it somewhat unsatisfying. I completely agree that the best Yu-Gi-Oh! game should celebrate more than just duel monsters but the trading card game should still be the most important game. That’s how it is in Takahashi’s manga after all. This Millenium board game doesn’t have traditional duel monsters so I find it a weak consideration for the best Yu-Gi-Oh! game. Surely there had to be another Yu-Gi-Oh! game that captured the spirit of Yu-Gi-Oh! that wasn’t so low budget and showcased duel monsters, the most important Yu-Gi-Oh! game. I have found a much stronger candidate for the title.
The Tag Force series for the PSP has been celebrated as some of the best Yu-Gi-Oh! games for years. This series managed 7 entries, the final of which released in 2015, 4 years after the PSP’s successor the PS Vita was released! They all have their own strengths and weaknesses but I consider the third entry to not only be the best in the Tag Force series but the best Yu-Gi-Oh! game ever made.
Almost every Yu-Gi-Oh! game makes some attempt at celebrating games beyond just the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game through how Rock, Paper, Scissors is used to determine the turn order before a duel. Tag Force 3 maintains this and goes a step further by introducing a slew of minigames. Two-player snake, Yu-Gi-Oh! Blackjack and Dodgeball with Rugby and bowling balls are just some of the minigames you can enjoy. The game frames these as “Special classes” which does a lot to make the player feel like they’re a student at Duel Academy, just like in the anime where they take Tennis classes. Whilst other Yu-Gi-Oh! games like Duel Academy on the GBA lets you take exams and rise through the dorm ranks I would still call this the best Yu-Gi-Oh! game, in large part due to the freedom it gives you to choose your Duel Academy academic interest. You will probably gravitate towards some of the games more than others so you get to take a major in dueling and a minor in Blackjack.
This game has great synergy with the anime. Not just in doing an excellent job of making you feel like you’re in that world but in how it introduced Season 4 to a whole new audience. The english dub for Yu-Gi-Oh! GX skipped over its final season to jump onto the exciting new 5Ds series, resulting in a lot of kids who only saw the show through its english dub never watching or even hearing about the final season. Surprisingly despite this game being based on the final season it was still localised. Getting to see Jaden’s cool redesign alone would’ve enticed me to watch season 4 but this game also does a great job of capturing the more melancholic tone of the final season. As soon as you turn the game on the title screen theme creates a grand scale with its triumphant trumpets clashing against sombre violins. This reflects the change in tone between the opening themes for the anime as the seasons went on. Then you duel Jaden and his dialogue has gone from a friendly “It doesn’t matter who wins or loses as long as we give it everything we have!” to an aggressive “I have to do what I think is right. I can’t let you hurt any more people…”. His animations are also a lot more subdued and reserved than before, specifically when he draws a card he doesn’t swing his whole arm across the screen like he did out of excitement in the previous games.
The Gladiator format of the trading card game is one of it’s less popular retro formats despite how beloved the GX anime is. Despite that this game’s difficulty is balanced well enough to allow you to create and use a wide variety of decks as opposed to the few that are considered meta in this format. This game is absolutely the best way to play Gladiator format in video game form, since the ban list is practically identical to that format. To help illustrate this I wanted to show off the decks I created and used for my most recent playthrough.
I re-figured the Starter deck you’re given into an Earth themed beatdown deck
I then went onto create a Lightsworn deck which is one of the most competitively viable in the Gladiator format
The only of the class minigames to use dueling works great with Burn decks. This is great as it encourages you to use the most different deck type in the game, as you would be encouraged to try in a duel school
Whilst the banlist is almost identical to Gladiator format this game does include some cards from the later 5Ds formats which allows for fun and unique strategies like using Icarus Attack on a Harpie beatdown deck
For my final deck of this playthrough I wanted to try a Geartown deck since this deck would be nerfed in later formats where you lose the ability of destroying your own field spell by setting another field spell
Overall Tag Force 3 is a wonderful game in terms of capturing the tone of the GX anime, the spirit of Takahashi’s original Yu-Gi-Oh! manga and being a great way to relieve an overlooked format of the trading card game!
References:
Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Tag Force 3 (PSP, 2008)
Yu-Gi-Oh! (Takahashi, 1996-2004)
The “BEST” Yu-Gi-Oh Game (TheJWittz, 2020)
Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Episode 15 (2005)
Why Yu Gi Oh Tag Force Will Always Be THE BEST Yu Gi Oh Game? (Pleitos Review, 2023)
Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Duel Academy (GBA, 2006)
Leave a Reply