Duel Masters: Sempai Legends GBA

It was supposed to be a happy birthday for young Tom. All his friends and parents gave him Duel Masters cards for his birthday. But late at night, a burglar broke into the house and stole a super-powerful card from Tom. Now Tom must duel the countryside over to get back his card, and ultimately his happiness, in Duel Masters: Sempai Legends.

Features

* Includes all 180 cards

* Enter tournaments to build reputation and card inventory

* Trade cards with or duel against a friend with a Game Boy Advance Game Link Cable and second Game Pak

Duel Masters fans are in for a heaping helping of card battling. It's basically nonstop, which is a good thing. On your journey to recover your stolen cards, you come across several people who want to duel with you in the different villages you explore. If you lose, the only thing hurt is your pride. However, winning a duel nets you both a booster pack of Duel Masters cards and experience points. When you bring up the Status menu, you can see what your reputation is, how many experience points you have and how many cards you have at your disposal.

Building a deck is easy through the Deck Management menu. You only have one deck at your disposal, but swapping out cards and keeping track of which cards you have collected is a snap. At various trade centers, you can pick up a card the trader has in exchange for some of your extra cards. In addition to trade, the trade centers also have a special option. When you select this option, you'll see several powerful cards available. You can't trade for these cards. Instead, you have to duel someone for them. When you duel for the special cards, you have to put three of your own cards up for ante. And if you lose, say goodbye to those cards. If you have a good deck and possess the skills of a master, then this is the quickest way for you to snag rare cards.

Where the game succeeds in making dueling the first priority, it is less successful translating the play of the card game from the real-life table to the small screen. The dueling interface has a steep learning curve, and although detailed instructions are available throughout the game, it takes a long time to get a handle on the order of play. The Duel Masters card game is an easy one to learn to play, but in the video game, the attack phase of the game gets convoluted. When a creature attacks, it gets tapped. Opposing creatures can, on their master's turn, attack the tapped creature. But the only indication that a creature is tapped is that its power number is turned from white to gray. That's tough to see on the Game Boy Advance screen.

Last updated on 10 December 2007